Prosodic structures in French and Mandarin

This thesis investigates links among syntax, prosody and melodic manifestations. Theories that define the prosodic structure of the spoken languages and the acoustic manifestations of this structure are reviewed. Prosodic properties of two typologically different languages, Mandarin and French (a tonal and an atonal language respectively), are scrutinized. Language-specific prosodic theories, which govern the organization of prosodic structures within these languages, are compared. Acoustic experiments are carried out to study how speakers of these two languages use rhythm and pitch to convey prosodic structure, and how listeners interpret perceptual pitch movements to recognize prosodic structures and resolve syntactic ambiguities. Emphasis is placed on melodic movements in these languages.;In the resolution of syntactic ambiguities, the prosodic and syntactic structures are congruent, and the boundaries between prosodic and syntactic components are aligned. This provides an ideal environment in which to study how acoustic cues are used to convey the intended syntactic structure of sentences which would otherwise be ambiguous. In previous experiments, rhythmic cues (pauses and pre-boundary lengthening) have been found to be effective demarcations for prosodic boundaries. Results from our acoustic experiments indicate that intonational cues are also an important factor in enabling speakers to convey prosodic boundaries to resolve syntactic ambiguities, although they are manifested differently. Following our analysis of pitch contour generation, tones (either lexical or structural) are combined at the "tone" level to form the basic pitch contour. It is then fed into a higher "intonation" Level where a global declination line is imposed upon the basic contour. We posit that pitch reset belongs to the "intonation" level, and is placed according to prosodic/syntactic structure. Theoretical analyses of our experimental results suggest that, although the division of labour between certain melodic phenomena and their linguistic functions is a language-specific property, manifestations in the melodic contours of Mandarin and French sentences are both accounted for within a bi-level pitch contour scheme. Observations on the placement of melodic events also lend support to the view that models for generation of pitch contours must make reference to morpho-syntactic structure.