15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)

Barcelona, Spain
August 3-9, 2003


Structural and Rhythmic Influences on the Occurrence of the Initial Accent in French

Corine Astesano, Ellen G. Bard

University of Edinburgh, UK

Previous studies have proposed that, along with the final accent, the French phonological system includes an Initial Accent which has rhythmic functions. Descriptions of English prosody propose that an early accent marks Major Phonological Phrases. The present study investigates the structural and rhythmic functions of IA in French at various levels of phonological structure. Results on the occurrence of IA in materials that vary both in constituent length and depth indicate that IA is indeed a left boundary marker of phonological structure in French, and that both structural and rhythmic functions apply primarily at the level of the Minor Phrase.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Astesano, Corine / Bard, Ellen G. (2003): "Structural and rhythmic influences on the occurrence of the initial accent in French", In ICPhS-15, 503-506.