Spanish intonation in declarative sentences

Abstract

The present paper attempts to describe the overall intonation pattern of Spanish declarative sentences. The global F0 movements were quantified in the F0 curves. The starting point, the peaks and final point values were obtained from the curves. Results showed that all the sentences under study could be sorted into at least three different forms. Form I showed a raising-falling movement with only one pitch accent. This generally occurred in the shortest statements. Form II showed two pitch accents, the first in the raising slope and the second in the falling. The body, between the pitch accents, remained quite stable. Form III resembled a concatenation of two type I forms. The falling slope of the first form is not as low as the final falling slope. Depending on the criterion followed for the interpretation of this dent and the intonation unit adopted for segmentation, form III will be considered as a series of two forms I or as a form II. In the latter case, the F0 movement in the body would not be relevant for the intonation pattern and could be considered the acoustic correlate of the prosodic feature boundary.