A Phonological Model of French Intonation

Abstract

In this paper, we first describe a phonological model of French intonation with two tonally defined prosodic units: Accentual Phrase and Intonation Phrase. These prosodic units are compared with the prosodic units of other models. This model is further developed to explain the intonation pattern of focus sentences and other intonational clichés. We propose that the plateau tones after focus can be represented as phrasal tones of an Intermediate Phrase, and show that the addition of a phrasal tone can also explain other intonation patterns. Under this newly developed model, we propose a phonological model of French intonation with three tonally defined prosodic units. The Accentual Phrase (AP) is the lowest tonal unit, and its underlying tonal pattern is /LHiLH*/. The Intermediate Phrase (ip) is the next higher level, and has a phrasal tone covering syllables or words after the last H* of the phrase and before the IP boundary tone. The presence of a phrasal tone is, therefore, apparent when H* is realized in non-phrase final position. Finally, the IP is the highest tonal unit and is demarcated by a boundary tone (H% or L%). Further research is needed to further support the level of an ip.