The Prosodic Word In European Portuguese

The book investigates the diagnostics for the prosodic word in European Portuguese, the prosodic organization of various sorts of morphosyntactic objects, and the definition of the prosodic word domain. The book bears on the organization of grammar and phonology, its interface with morphology and syntax, and the nature of phonological representations. Besides focusing primarily on European Portuguese, it also refers to languages such as Italian, Dutch, German, and English, among many others.

Prosodies, in the broad Firthian sense, covers phenomena that extend over stretches of segmental and featural units that must be examined with respect to their interaction with other features to fully appreciate their role in the phonetics and phonology of a given language. The papers deal with a wide range of subjects, from intonational prominence and prosodic phrasing to the acoustic properties of segments and features. Prosodies significantly broadens our knowledge of languages and dialect varieties that as yet have not been carefully investigated such as Cairene and Lebanese Arabic, Catalan including Central Catalan and the insular dialects of Majorcan, Minorcan and Alguer Catalan, Galician, Italian, various dialects of Portuguese (Standard European, Northern European, and Brazilian Portuguese), and different varieties of Argentine Spanish as well as Peninsular Spanish. However, well-known West Germanic languages, English, Dutch and German, have not been neglected. Many of the contributions are the first account of the phenomena addressed in the language(s) under consideration thus bringing new data to light. Moreover, most papers take a cross-linguistic or cross-dialectal view favouring a better understanding of language similarities and differences, as well as of language variation and change. This approach is crucial in the case of neighbouring languages/varieties and is an important contribution to the development of language typologies. And as is characteristic of the series, the research presented in Prosodies cover laboratory approaches as well as theoretical investigations.

This work is an investigation of the relation between prosodic structure, intonational structure and (some instances of) focus realisation in European Portuguese (EP). The prosodic account has been developed within the relation-based framework of prosodic hierarchy theory and the autosegmental-metrical theory of intonational phonology. The approach is both theoretical and laboratory phonology research. Based on the analysis of various types of evidence (i.e. Gandhi processes, rhythmic, intentional and boundary strength phenomena), issues such as prosodic layering and the effect of branchingness and phrase length on prosodic phrasing are discussed. Specifically, I-recursion in the form of restricted Compound Prosodic Domains is argued for. Moreover, the fact that the diverse manifestations of prosodic structure point to the same hierarchical organization of the flow of speech into Fs and Is crucially assigns to the prosodic hierarchy a pivotal place in phrasal phonlogy. Attention is paid, furthermore, to aspects of intonational structure like tonal association and alignment, the characterization of leading and trailing tones, and pitch accents structure. It is argued that the HL accents of EP are 'real' bitonal events whose features favour a hierarchical-structured analysis of pitch accent structure. With regard to focus, it is shown that in EP focus is phonologically expressed by means of stress and accents effects and crucially not by means of phrasing effects. And crucially not by means of phrasing effects. Of particular importance is the selection of a special pitch accent to convey (early or late) focus, and the implications it has or the standard positional account of prominence and the stress reversal analysis of prominence patterns. Throughout the work, the EP findings, as well as the proposals set forth, are discussed from a cross-linguistic perspective, with special reference to languages like English, Dutch, German, different varieties of Italian, and Bengali. Also relevant to a general understanding of the prosodic reflexes of focus are languages like Hungarian, Korean, Basque and Wolof.

The present volume consists of nine articles dealing with the role of the constituent 'phonological word' (or 'prosodic word') in various typologically diverse languages. These languages and their respective families subsume Indo-European (Dutch, German, English, European Portuguese), Bantu (SiSwati, KiNande), Algonquian (Cree), Siouan (Dakota), and Salishan (Lushootseed). One contribution examines the phonological word in a sign language. The theoretical issues dealt with in the book include: evidence for the phonological word (e.g. rules, phonotactics, syllabification, stress patterns), the connection between morphosyntactic and prosodic structure (e.g. alignment phenomena in Optimality Theory), and the relationship between the phonological word and other prosodic constituents (e.g. the prosodic representation of clitics).The volume will be of interest to all linguists and advanced students of linguistics working on Prosodic Phonology, phonology–morphology and phonology–syntax interface and Optimality Theory.

The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics presents a comprehensive overview of research within the Brazilian and European variants of the Portuguese language. It includes chapters focusing on the key areas of linguistic study, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, linguistic change, language variation and contact, and acquisition. Essential reference work for scholars of Portuguese linguistics and Romance languages Chapters written by an international team of research specialists highlight both the consensus and the controversies within the various subfields of Portuguese linguistics Examines Portuguese linguistics in relation to syntax, phonology, morphology, semantics/pragmatics, acquisition, and sociolinguistics Written in an accessible overview style and designed for advanced students and current scholars in the field alike Essential reference work for scholars of Portuguese linguistics and Romance languages

Portuguese emerged from vulgar Latin during the course of the third century. Influential in its development were successive invasions by Germanic peoples, Visigoths, and Moors, the latter of whom were finally evicted in the thirteenth century. As a consequence of the newly-independent kingdoms imperial achievements, Portuguese is the national language of Brazil and the official language of several African countries. Maria Helena Mateus and Ernesto dAndrade present a broad description and comparative analysis of the phonetics and phonology of European and Brazilian Portuguese. They begin by introducing the history of Portuguese and its principal varieties. Chapter 2 describes the phonetic characteristics of consonants, vowels, and glides, and Chapter 3 looks at prosodic structure. Chapters 4 and 5 present the general characteristics of Portuguese nominal and verbal systems, the former considering inflectional and the latter derivational processes. Chapter 6 examines stress, main, secondary, and echo, and Chapter 7 describes phonological processes that are not related to the morphological structure of the word, including the peculiar process of nazalization. The authors deploy current theoretical models to explain the rich variety of Portuguese phonology and interrelated aspects of morphology. This is by far the most comprehensive account of the subject to have appeared in English, and the most up-to-date in any language.

The Routledge Handbook of Portuguese Phonology provides an up-to-date description of the Portuguese phonological system, including a thorough account of the fundamental concepts, data, and previous explanations, as well as the status quaestionis, directions for future research, and further reading. Divided into five parts with contributions from leading international scholars and rising stars, the book’s 23 chapters provide a thorough account of the Portuguese sound system and a range of perspectives on Portuguese phonology. This is the most comprehensive volume on Portuguese phonology written in English, and it delves into the most pressing issues and challenges regarding a wide variety of topics, such as segmental and suprasegmental phenomena; aspects concerning the interfaces between phonology and other linguistic domains; and issues on synchronic variation, diachronic change, acquisition, and the teaching of Portuguese speech prosody to non-native learners. This in-depth resource will be invaluable for researchers and advanced students of Portuguese language and linguistics, as well as those interested in phonology and linguistics more broadly.

This handbook presents detailed accounts of current research in all aspects of language prosody, written by leading experts from different disciplines. The volume's comprehensive coverage and multidisciplinary approach will make it an invaluable resource for all researchers, students, and practitioners interested in prosody.