LSRL 38: Intonational Marking of Contrastive Focus in Madrid Spanish

Intonational Marking of Contrastive Focus in Madrid Spanish

Timothy L.Face
University of Minnesota

The present volume presents the results of an experimental study on the phonetics and phonology of the intonation patterns used to convey contrastive focus in Madrid Spanish. It contributes to recent and ongoing research on Spanish intonation by addressing an area that has been of interest to various scholars of Spanish intonation, yet has not received an adequate treatment to this point. This study is intended both for the Hispanist interested in the functions of Spanish intonation and for the theoretical phonologist working on intonation. The presentation is both data-driven, providing illustrations and discussions of the various intonation patterns that function as markers of contrastive focus, and theoretical, providing a formal phonological analysis of the intonation patterns observed. The material, following an introductory chapter and a chapter on the experimental metho-dology employed, is organized into four main chapters.

The topics of these chapters are the intonation of broad focus declaratives, the intonation on the focal word, the intonation on the non-focal words of sentences containing a focal word, and the influence of syntactic constituency on focal intonation.

A concluding chapter summarizes the material presented throughout the book, considers its larger implications, and suggests directions for future research.

Timothy L. Face is Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of several articles on Spanish intonation and other areas of Spanish phonetics and phonology.

ISBN 9783895863677. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 38. 116pp. 2002.