Chapter published in:
Focus Realization in Romance and Beyond
Edited by Marco García García and Melanie Uth
[Studies in Language Companion Series 201] 2018
► pp. 131–172

Chapter 5
Prosodic nuclear patterns in narrow and broad focus utterances

Pragmatic and social factors in Central Mexican Spanish

| El Colegio de México
| IIFL-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
The main goal of this chapter is to discuss some of the nuclear pitch accents in the domain of broad and narrow foci in Central Mexican Spanish (CMS). Starting with a reconsideration of previous descriptions, the aim is to offer a unified vision of some of the main findings. It is hypothesized that focus marking is a phenomenon of variable and not categorical nature. Moreover, it is shown that focus marking competes with other pragmatic goals also using prosody as a relevant cue; and that focus marking is differentiated according to certain social, identity-related and stylistic factors. In this regard, we illustrate the variation of focus marking in different datasets, as well as the role of the expressive and the communicative functions of the foci. Intonational, pragmatic and sociolinguistic factor groups have been examined via up & down logistic regression models. Moreover, we show that the different tendencies of the observed intonational structures correlate with three speech styles and with some aspects of social stratification in CMS. Finally, the discussion presents a preliminary constraint model on focus domain marking in CMS that synthesizes some of the generalizations derived from the data.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Hypotheses
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Pitch accent distribution for BF and NF in CMS
  • 5.Interaction between foci and other pragmatic and discursive values in prosodic use
  • 6.Sociolinguistic correlates of focus pitch accents
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.201.05mar
References
Aguilar Ruiz, Mary Carmen
2012 La entonación del habla infantil de la ciudad de Puebla. BA thesis, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.Google Scholar
Borràs-Comes, Joan, del Mar Vanrell, Maria & Prieto, Pilar
2014 The role of pitch range in establishing intonational contrasts. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 44(1): 1–20.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L.
2001 Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 Formal universals as emergent phenomena: The origins of structure preservation. In Linguistic Universals and Language Change, Jeff Good (ed.), 108–121. Oxford: OUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Language, Usage and Condition. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015 Language Change. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. & Hopper, Paul
(eds) 2001 Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure [Typological Studies in Language 45]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cabrera Abreu, Mercedes & Vizcaíno Ortega, Francisco
2010 Canarian Spanish intonation. In Transcription of Intonation of the Spanish Language, Pilar Prieto & Paolo Roseano (eds), 87–121. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Coetzee, Andries W.
2006 Variation as accessing ‘non-optimal’ candidates. Phonology 23: 337–385.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009a Learning lexical indexation. Phonology 26: 109–145.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009b Phonological variation and lexical frequency. In Proceedings ot the 38th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Anisa Schardl, Martin Walkow & Muhammad Abdurrahman (eds). Also in http://​roa​.rutgers​.edu​/files​.html, ROA 952.
2009c An integrated grammatical/non-grammatical model of phonological variation. In Current Issues in Linguistic Interfaces, Vol. 2, Young-Se Kang, Jong-Yurl Yoon, Hyunkyung Yoo, Sze-Wing Tang, Yong-Soon Kang, Youngjun Jang, Chul Kim, Kyoung-Ae Kim & Hye-Kyung Kang (eds), 267–294. Seoul: Hankookmunhwasa.Google Scholar
Coetzee, Andries W. & Kawahara, Shigeto
2013 Frequency biases in phonological variation. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 31(1): 47–89.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Coetzee, Andries W. & Pater, Joe
2011 The place of variation in phonological theory. In Handbook of Phonological Theory, 2nd. edn, John A. Goldsmith, Jason Riggle & Alan C. L. Yu (eds.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de-la-Mota, Carme, Martín Butragueño, Pedro & Prieto, Pilar
2010 Mexican Spanish intonation. In Transcription of Intonation of the Spanish Language, Pilar Prieto & Paolo Roseano (eds), 319–350. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
de Jong, Kenneth
1995 The supraglottal articulation of prominence in English: Linguistic stress as localized hyperarticulation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 97: 491–504.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Campos, Manuel & Colina, Sonia
2006 The interaction between faithfulness constraints and sociolinguistic variation: The acquisition of phonological variation in first language speakers. In Optimality-Theoretic Studies in Spanish Phonology [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 99], Fernando Martínez-Gil & Sonia Colina (eds), 424–446. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dik, Simon C.
1997 The Theory of Functional Grammar, 2: Complex and Derived Constructions, Kees Hengeveld (ed.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope
2008 Variation and indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12: 453–476.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 Three ways of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 87–100.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Feldhausen, Ingo & del Mar Vanrell, Maria
2014 Prosody, focus and word order in Catalan and Spanish. An Optimality Theoretic approach. In Proceedings of the 10th International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP) 5–8 May, Cologne.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
2001 Syntax: An Introduction Vol. I, rev. edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos
2002 Intonation and interpretation: Phonetics and phonology. In Speech Prosody 2002, Bernard Bel & Isabelle Marlien (eds), 47–57. Aix-en-Provence: Laboratoire Parole et Langage.Google Scholar
2004 The Phonology of Tone and Intonation. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio & Prieto, Pilar
2015 Intonational variation in Spanish: European and American varieties. In Intonational Variation in Romance, Sónia Frota & Pilar Prieto (eds.), 350–391. Oxford: OUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016 Towards an international prosodic alphabet. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology 7(1): 5, 1–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark
2002 Optimality-theoretic lexical functional grammar. In The Lexical Basis of Sentence Processing: Formal, Computational and Experimental Issues [Natural Language Processing 4], Suzanne Stevenson & Paola Merlo (eds), 59–73. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Sahyang & Avelino, Heriberto
2003 An intonational study of focus and word order variation in Mexican Spanish. In La tonía: Dimensiones fonéticas y fonológicas, Estger Herrera, Z. & Pedro Martín Butragueño (eds), 357–374. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Kostakis, Andrew
2010 Vestige theory: Sociolinguistic evidence for output-output constraints. Lingua 120: 2476–2496.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2007 Basic notions of information structure. Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure 6: 13–55.Google Scholar
Labov, William
2001 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. 2: Social Factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Martín Butragueño, Pedro
2004 Configuraciones circunflejas en la entonación del español mexicano. Revista de Filología Española 84: 347–373.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2006 Proyección sintáctico-discursiva de la entonación circunfleja mexicana. In El español en América. Diatopía, diacronía e historiografía. Homenaje a José G. Moreno de Alba en su 65 aniversario, Concepción Company Company (ed.), 35–63. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
2011 Estratificación sociolingüística de la entonación circunfleja mexicana. In Realismo en el análisis de corpus orales: primer coloquio de cambio y variación lingüística, Pedro Martín Butragueño (ed.), 93–121. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
2014a Fonología variable del español de México, Vol. I: Procesos segmentales. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
2014b Prosodia fonética de enunciados representativos e interrogativos absolutos: elementos locales y globales. Estudios de Fonética Experimental 23: 125–202.Google Scholar
2015a Hacia una prosodia basada en el uso: Actos de habla en el español mexicano. Normas 5: 97–115.Google Scholar
2015b Acercamiento a la prosodia de los actos de habla expresivos. Datos del español de México. In Variación y diversidad lingüística. Hacia una teoría convergente, Esther Hernández & Pedro Martín Butragueño (eds), 259–349. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
2016  A veces lloro mis lágrimas. Acercamiento multivariable a la prosodia de los actos de habla expresivos en el español de México. Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada 63: 59–102.Google Scholar
Forthcoming a. Historia de dos medidas: Contacto entonativo en la ciudad de México. In Contacto lingüístico, Julio Serrano & Ángeles Soler eds México Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Forthcoming b. Fonología variable del español de México, Vol. II: Prosodia enunciativa. México: El Colegio de México.
Martín Butragueño, Pedro & Lastra, Yolanda
(coords.) 2011, 2012, 2015 Corpus sociolingüístico de la ciudad de México. México: El Colegio de México, 3 Vols.Google Scholar
Martín Butragueño, Pedro, Mendoza, Érika & Orozco, Leonor
(coords.). In progress. Corpus oral del español de México.
Martín Butragueño, Pedro & Velásquez, Eva
2014 Prosodia basada en el uso. Proyecto para el estudio sociolingüístico del español de España y América. In Reunión del Proyecto Preseea, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brasil, July 14–19.Google Scholar
Martínez Celdrán, Eugenio & Fernández Planas, Ana Ma
. (coords.) 2003–2016 Atlas Multimèdia de la Prosòdia de l’Espai Romànic. http://​stel​.ub​.edu​/labfon​/amper​/cast​/index​_ampercat​.html
Mendoza, Érika
2014 La impresión de un tono. Estudio sociolingüístico de la entonación de Cuapiaxtla, Tlaxcala. PhD dissertation. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Michnowicz, Jim & Barnes, Hilary
2013 A sociolinguistic analysis of pre-nuclear peak alignment in Yucatecan Spanish. In Selected Proceedings of the 15th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Chad Howe, Sarah E. Blackwell & Margaret Lubbers Quesada (eds), 221–235. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Murrieta, Laura
2016 Análisis experimental del umbral de percepción entonativa en el español del centro de México. BA thesis. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Olivar, Stefany
2014 ¡Qué bien te ves!: Los patrones prosódicos en la ironía del español de México. BA thesis. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.Google Scholar
O’Rourke, Erin
2005 Intonation and Language Contact: A Case Study of Two Varieties of Peruvian Spanish. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.Google Scholar
Paolillo, John C.
2002 Analyzing Linguistic Variation, Statistical Models and Methods. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Pater, Joe
2009 Weighted constraints in generative linguistics. Cognitive Science 33: 999–1035.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Prieto, Pilar
2002 Efectos de coarticulación tonal en choques acentuales. In La tonía: Dimensiones fonéticas y fonológicas, Esther Herrera & Pedro Martín Butragueño (eds), 187–218. México: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Prieto, Pilar & Roseano, Paolo
2010 Transcription of Intonation of the Spanish Language. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Röhr, Christine Tanja
2013 Information status and prosody: Production and perception in German. Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure 17: 119–141.Google Scholar
Sagastuy, Paola R. & Fernández Planas, Ana Ma
2014 La prosodia del español del centro de México en el marco del proyecto AMPER. Estudios de Fonética Experimental 23: 47–93.Google Scholar
Sankoff, David, Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Smith, Eric
2012 Goldvarb Lion. A Multivariate Analysis Application. Toronto: University of Toronto: University of Toronto; Ottawa: University of Ottawa. http://​individual​.utoronto​.ca​/tagliamonte​/goldvarb​.htm
Selkirk, Elisabeth O.
2011 The syntax-phonology interface. In The Handbook of Phonological Theory, 2a., John A. Goldsmith, Jason Riggle & Alan C. L. Yu (eds), 435–484. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Serrano, Julio
2014 Procesos sociolingüísticos en el español de la ciudad de México. Estudio en tiempo real. PhD dissertation, El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A.
2012 Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael
2003 Constructing a Language: A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Vanrell, Maria del Mar, Stella, Antonio, Gili Fivela, Barbara & Prieto, Pilar
2013 Prosodic manifestations of the effort code in Catalan, Italian and Spanish contrastive focus. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43(2): 195–220.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vida Castro, Matilde
2004 Estudio sociofonológico del español hablado en la ciudad de Málaga. Condicionamientos sobre la variación de /-s/ en la distensión silábica. Alicante: Universidad de Alicante.Google Scholar
Villena Ponsoda, Andrés Juan, Antonio Moya, Juan, Ávila, Antonio & Vida, Matilde
2003 Proyecto de investigación de la formación de dialectos (FORDIAL). Estudios de Lingüística de la Universidad de Alicante 17: 607–636.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel, Labov, William & Herzog, Marvin I.
1968 Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Directions for Historical Linguistics, William Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel (eds), 95–188. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Welby, Pauline
2003 CreaFigures Script.praat [modified in 2009 by Rafèu Sichel-Bazin].Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Mendoza Vázquez, Érika , Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Bravo & Pedro Martín Butragueño
2020. The prosodic properties of narrow information focus in Central Mexican Spanish: Pitch accents, de-emphasis and phrasing. Loquens 7:1 ► pp. e069 ff. Crossref logo
Olivar Espinosa, Stefany
2020. La entonación de los enunciados aseverativos del español de contacto de hablantes bilingües de San Miguel Canoa, Puebla: una variedad del español mexicano. Anuario de Letras Lingüística y Filología 8:2 ► pp. 65 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 01 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.