Towards an analysis of Turinese Italian intonation and theoretical implications for intonational phonology

Abstract

Digitized data of a northern variety of Standard Italian declarative statements', yes/no questions' and wh-questions' was collected to describe a partial grammar of intonational morphemes in the language and provide an analysis for the utterances. Two major theories of intonational phonology are outlined and tested against the data. It is shown how Pierrehumbert's autosegmental theory best captures the data presented here with respect to intonation patterns at the boundaries. Evidence for the existence of a L, and a LH tone is put forward. In particular, it is proposed that, on the one hand, when LH tones map onto prominent syllables of/Dei they are followed by a L- phrase tone in declaratives and a Hphrase tone in yes/no interrogatives; on the other hand when the LH tones map onto prominent syllables of topics they are always followed by a H- phrase tone. Finally, the unstable mapping of the LH tone onto the FO contour found here is considered against current notions of alignment.