The prosody of interrogative sentences of paulista dialect of Brazilian Portuguese: an analysis of production and perception

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the prosody, regarding production and perception of the intonational pattern, of interrogative sentences of the paulista dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in its phrasal types. Based on the results of Rosignoli (2013, 2014), our hypothesis is that the global intonational pattern, and not only the nuclear contour, of interrogative sentences is taken into account in the perceptual identification process of different phrasal types. In this research, sentences produced in controlled and semi-controlled context will be approached, considering three participants of the same age, geographic region, gender and scholar level. Those sentences will be analyzed considering its production - regarding transcription and description of tonal events associated with intonational contour and investigation of the relation between that association and prosody domains. The analysis of production data will be made using the software Praat (BOERSMA e WEENINK, 2014), based on Intonational Phonology theory (PIERREHUMBERT, 1980; PIERREHUMBER e BECKMAN, 1988; LADD, 1996, 2008; JUN, 2005, 2014; among others) and Prosodic Phonology assumptions (SELKIRK, 1984, 1986, 2000; NESPOR e VOGEL, 1986, 2007). In order to investigate perception, tests will be run using the software SuperLab 5.0 (CRUZ e FROTA, 2011), with native speakers of paulista dialect of BP, involving the presentation of stimuli adapted from the corpora. Perception data will be analyzed considering rates of correct and mistaken answers of the participants in relation to the tests applied. (AU)