Preface

Abstract

This book is about the way in which intonation conveys the communicative function of requesting in two Romance languages, Italian and Spanish, by analysing semi-spontaneous speech dialogues. It aims at providing a phonetic description of the choices of speakers that make up the intonation systems of requests.

In the varied range of methodological paradigms available for intonation description and modelling, this research follows a phonetic approach and confronts methodological issues and concrete problems when conducting research on intonation by adopting a phonetic perspective.

The analysis focuses on the speech act of request in the Neapolitan variety of Italian and in the Spanish spoken in Barcelona, taking into account the specific characteristics of the two linguistic situations.

The units of analysis correspond to conversational moves that express four kinds of requests, which play specific roles in conversation, have different textual functions and assume different pragmatic values. Therefore, the framework of a functional system of requests is the starting point of this study.

The main research question that we want to answer aims to assess if and how phonetic parameters contribute to the distinctions between the different kinds of requests.

In order to achieve this goal, we examine requests through a phonetic description of f₀ contours. We investigate and analyse two parameters: global profile, that is to say the overall trend of the curve, and terminal contour, seen as the direction of the pitch starting from the last stressed syllable of the tonal unit. Additionally, we consider each kind of request in a specific way, depending on some controversial points arising from the literature review. In certain cases, we focus on some portions of the signal (for example, on wh-elements, which are supposed to be “prominent”) and we consider the overall pitch range excursion of the curve (which, in certain conditions, is supposed to distinguish information-seeking requests from confirmation- seeking requests).

We examine and define intonation contours using a descriptive framework in which we develop a method to study the relation between the forms and functions of intonation, remaining faithful to phonetic details and successfully analysing linguistic regularities.

This book provides an empirical understanding of methodological issues related to a phonetic approach towards analysing intonation, as well as provides a contribution by describing the intonation of requests in Italian and Spanish. In both languages, each request shows a specific intonational realization, but some kinds of requests present a more stable realization than others, independently of dialogue, speakers, semantic or syntactic factors.

The first chapter of the work is dedicated to setting the goals of the research and presenting a literature review on intonational studies dealing with information and confirmation-seeking requests in Italian and Spanish. Special attention is given to methodological issues related to the different approaches towards the study of intonation, from data collection to data analysis.

In the second chapter, the speech style considered in the analysis is presented. The criteria and procedures employed to collect the data for this study are also explained.

Chapter 3 illustrates the theoretical background and methodological choices in analysing intonation: an overview is given of the processes of stylization and annotation of f₀ contours. Some critical issues are discussed, alongside examples of the kind of analysis and interpretation performed to arrive at “abstract” intonation patterns, conceived to describe and represent intonation contours, after extracting shared features of concrete phonetic forms.

In the fourth chapter, the results of the analysis of speech material are presented. Finally, in the last chapter, the results are discussed in order to find out if and how intonation, as examined through phonetic parameters, conveys distinctions in the functional system of requests.