Focus and tonal structure in Neapolitan Italian

This work investigates some acoustic and perceptual characteristics of focal and postfocal accents in questions of Neapolitan Italian. In this variety, yes/no question pitch accents are characterized by a rise-fall configuration, with a very conspicuous peak (L* + H). When intended focus is early, a postfocal accent is produced, which aligns with the last stressed syllable of the intonation phrase (!H*). Results from a perception study suggest that the postfocal !H* is not the nuclear accent of the intonation phrase. despite being final. The phonetic and phonological nature of the focal L* + H and the postfocal !H* are also investigated in production through a set of yes/no questions varying in intended focus scope and focus placement. The results of this study support the hypothesis that focal and postfocal accents are structurally different, in that postfocal accents are acoustically much reduced. Finally, we explore the temporal alignment and melodic values of the initial rise and final fall in focus constituents varying in size. The results suggest an effect of "tonal repulsion" (Silverman and Pierrehumbert, The timing of prenuclear high accents in English, in: J. Kingston, M.E. Beckman (Eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology: Between the Grammar and the Physics of Speech, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 71-106) on the temporal location of the L* + H peak as well as "seeming truncation" of the focus constituent final fall in one-word focus constituents. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.