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

Barcelona, Spain
August 3-9, 2003


The Role of F0 Contours in Determining Foot Boundaries in Czech

Zdena Palková, Jan Volín

Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

The definition of the stress-group or foot is often derived from the lexical stress prominence. However, in Czech no regular pattern in prosodic properties bound to the stressed syllable has been proven. The more realistic approach seems to be to base the unit delimitation on the linear course of the overall sound properties throughout the unit. We investigated the role of the F0 contour in this respect. Experiments were built on both natural and synthetic speech material in which division into feet determines the meanings. Alternative boundaries, and one-foot vs. two-foot solutions within identical syllable chains were examined. Analyses of F0 tracks and extensive perceptual experiments provide information about the degree of sound - meaning influence and confirm the relevance of the F0 contour for the inner cohesion of the foot.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Palková, Zdena / Volín, Jan (2003): "The role of F0 contours in determining foot boundaries in Czech", In ICPhS-15, 1783-1786.