STRESS AND INTONATION IN SPANISH FOR AFFIRMATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study prosodic structure in Spanish. We present an experimental approach to the complex relationship that exists between intonation and lexical stress, and relate it to syntactic structure variations. Results indicate the preeminence of the accentual unit as minimal segment in the prosodic structuration of Spanish. This work has enabled us to elaborate prosodic prediction rules for speech syntesis, taking into account the variability of the three main acoustic parameters.