Bengali intonational phonology

This paper proposes a phonological analysis of the Bengali intonational system, using a descriptive framework developed by Pierrehumbert (1980) and others. Our analysis bears on a number of theoretical points. We argue that the Bengali facts support a typology of intonational tones that includes onl...

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Main Authors: Hayes, B, Lahiri, A
Format: Journal article
Jezik:English
Izdano: Kluwer Academic Publishers (Springer Netherlands) 1991
Teme:
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author Hayes, B
Lahiri, A
author_facet Hayes, B
Lahiri, A
author_sort Hayes, B
collection OXFORD
description This paper proposes a phonological analysis of the Bengali intonational system, using a descriptive framework developed by Pierrehumbert (1980) and others. Our analysis bears on a number of theoretical points. We argue that the Bengali facts support a typology of intonational tones that includes only pitch accents and boundary tones, and that the docking sites for boundary tones are the phrase edges provided under the theory of the Prosodic Hierarchy (Selkirk 1980). We show that Bengali intonational contours are governed by the obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), which forbids adjacent identical tones. Underlying contours that violate the OCP are converted to permissible surface forms by a phonological rule. We also bring Bengali data to bear on a long-standing controversy concerning phrasal stress: Bengali can be shown to have a default, phonologically assigned phrasal stress pattern; thus phrasal stress assignment cannot be reduced exclusively to focus and other semantic factors.
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spelling oxford-uuid:8938f840-1f7e-4af2-9554-e2bd4712946c2022-03-26T22:22:59ZBengali intonational phonologyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8938f840-1f7e-4af2-9554-e2bd4712946cLinguisticsEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetKluwer Academic Publishers (Springer Netherlands)1991Hayes, BLahiri, AThis paper proposes a phonological analysis of the Bengali intonational system, using a descriptive framework developed by Pierrehumbert (1980) and others. Our analysis bears on a number of theoretical points. We argue that the Bengali facts support a typology of intonational tones that includes only pitch accents and boundary tones, and that the docking sites for boundary tones are the phrase edges provided under the theory of the Prosodic Hierarchy (Selkirk 1980). We show that Bengali intonational contours are governed by the obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), which forbids adjacent identical tones. Underlying contours that violate the OCP are converted to permissible surface forms by a phonological rule. We also bring Bengali data to bear on a long-standing controversy concerning phrasal stress: Bengali can be shown to have a default, phonologically assigned phrasal stress pattern; thus phrasal stress assignment cannot be reduced exclusively to focus and other semantic factors.
spellingShingle Linguistics
Hayes, B
Lahiri, A
Bengali intonational phonology
title Bengali intonational phonology
title_full Bengali intonational phonology
title_fullStr Bengali intonational phonology
title_full_unstemmed Bengali intonational phonology
title_short Bengali intonational phonology
title_sort bengali intonational phonology
topic Linguistics
work_keys_str_mv AT hayesb bengaliintonationalphonology
AT lahiria bengaliintonationalphonology