This study proposes that metrical constituents are inherently headless and stress is autosegmental. Chapter 2 argues that, since stress is the only diagnostic for the presence of a metrical head, the latter is redundant and must be eliminated from phonological theory. Further arguments for the inherent headlessness of feet are cited fl:om the theory of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince 1990, Crowhurst 1991b) and from the facts of Yidinʸ stress (Dixon 1977, Crowhurst 1991a, Crowhurst and Hewitt, to appear). Next, stress is shown to exhibit the following auto segmental properties: stability (Bedouin Hijazi Arabic) , morphemic stress (Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog) and the ability to float (Mayo, Tagalog). After comparing the properties of stress with those of autosegments, it is concluded that stress is an autosegment. Assuming that feet can be either disyllabic, bimoraic or iambic (Hayes 1991), the above conclusion predicts the existence of five types of binary stressed feet. These are the left- and right-stressed syllabic foot, instantiated by Warao and Mayo, respectively, the left- and right-stressed moraic foot, instantiated by Cairene Arabic and Turkish, respectively, and the iambic foot, instantiated by Hixkaryana. The asymmetric nature of the iamb is attributed to the Weight-to-Stress Principle (Prince 1990), which allows stress to be assigned directly to heavy syllables. Furthermore, this principle predict6 all and only the attested types of unbounded stress systems. Chapter 5 argues that stressless feet and unfooted stresses are instantiated in Mayo, and the theories of Halle and Vergnaud 1987a, b and Hayes 1987, 1991 are shown to be incapable of accounting for these facts. The autosegmental theory of stress advances phonological theory in three ways. First, it eliminates most of the principles and devices which up to now have been used only to describe stress, leaving only the abstract stress autosegment which is itself subject to the principles of autosegmental theory. Second, this approach attributes many of the apparent differences between stress and tone to differences in their respective domains rather than differences in their formal properties. Third, the autosegmental theory of stress facilitates the formalization of a number of stress systems with heretofore complex analyses, including Yidinʸ, Mayo, Cairene Arabic, Turkish, Khalkha Mongolian and Tagalog.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTA__O ALINE VERS_O FINAL.pdf: 780834 bytes, checksum: f746a29c17a8c8f7b63721ba52676322 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-27 / The importance of studying Latin to a better understanding of certain phonological aspects of Portuguese language goes further than just considering it as the mother language of our mother tongue . It is possible to high light the presence of Latin in our everyday usage of Portuguese through diachronic studies. Moreover, it is easier to understand many grammar rules by focusing the origin of the words analysed here. So, it is not coherent, as some people say, that Latin is a dead language , because Portuguese, as well as, Spanish, French, Italian, etc, is the survivance of vulgar Latin, which shows that the latin language is alive (REZENDE, 2003). Thus, this paper intends to present a description and an analisys of the phonological phenomenons along the Latin consonantal evolution system to Brazilian Potuguese, suported by the Autosegmental Theory, also considering traces that formed the internal structure of the consonants, and also the sonority scale in the organization syllabical items structure as determinants points to the phenomenon that occurred in the evolution of language. Through this approach it is possible not only to identify the behavior hierarchyc traces and the items of the Latin consonants system and those present in the Brazilian Portuguese, also to verify which phonological rules are in the consonantal composition of Brazilian Portuguese. From the proposed analysis, the process of palatalization proved to be the most productive in the diachrony of language, if compared to other phenomenons that contributed to the creation of the current system of consonants of Brazilian Portuguese: sound reinforcement, fricativization, degemination, palatalization and consonantization / A importância de estudar o latim para uma melhor compreensão de certos aspectos fonológicos da língua portuguesa vai além de apenas se considerar a língua latina como mãe de nossa língua materna. Através de estudos diacrônicos, é possível evidenciar a presença do latim no uso diário que fazemos do português, além de se poder compreender mais facilmente muitas regras gramaticais por meio de um olhar focado na origem das palavras que são alvo de análise. Assim, é incoerente a ideia defendida por alguns de que o latim é uma língua morta , já que o português, assim como o espanhol, o francês, o italiano, etc., é a sobrevivência do latim vulgar, o que mostra estar a língua latina mais do que viva (REZENDE, 2003). Logo, este trabalho objetiva a apresentação de uma descrição e análise dos fenômenos fonológicos ocorridos na evolução do sistema consonantal do latim ao português do Brasil (PB), tendo como suporte a Teoria Autossegmental, considerando os traços que formam a estrutura interna das consoantes e, ainda, a escala de sonoridade na organização dos constituintes silábicos como determinantes dos fenômenos que ocorreram na evolução da língua. Com essa abordagem, foi possível, além de identificar o comportamento dos traços hierarquicamente dispostos e constituintes do sistema de consoantes do latim e aqueles ainda presentes no PB, também verificar quais regras fonológicas se fizeram presentes na composição do sistema consonantal do português brasileiro. A partir da análise proposta, o processo de palatalização mostrou-se como o mais produtivo na diacronia da língua, em se comparando com os outros fenômenos que contribuíram para a constituição do atual sistema de consoantes do Português Brasileiro: sonorização, fricativização, degeminação, palatalização e consonantização

L’objectif de cette étude est d’apporter une contribution aux recherches portant sur les effets prosodiques du contact de langues à travers l’étude du système prosodique du français centrafricain, une variété de français ayant émergé suite au contact avec une langue africaine à densité tonale maximale, le sango. La République centrafricaine est un pays extrêmement multilingue. Entre 60 et 100 langues y sont parlées, outre les deux langues officielles que constituent le sango – lingua franca, et le français – langue principale de l’enseignement et de l’administration publique. Dans la capitale, Bangui, le sango est la langue parlée d’ordinaire dans la vie quotidienne, tandis que le français s’utilise essentiellement dans des contextes professionnels. Cette étude se base sur des enregistrements de parole spontanée de 12 locuteurs francophones de Bangui. Des analyses acoustiques montrent que l’intonation du français centrafricain partage des caractéristiques communes avec le sango. La majorité de mots ont des patrons tonals qui restent inchangés quel que soit leur place dans l’énoncé, et chaque syllabe porte un ton. Le système se distingue ainsi considérablement du système intonatif du français européen où la courbe mélodique est contrainte au niveau post-lexical et dépend entre autres de facteurs rythmiques, syntaxiques et pragmatiques. La conclusion principale de cette étude est que le français centrafricain se classifie d’un point de vue typologique comme une langue à tons lexicaux. Il ressort que le système prosodique du français centrafricain est plus proche de celui du sango et que de celui du français européen. Les faits mis au jour dans cette thèse montrent que la prosodie peut changer de façon fondamentale dans une situation de contact de langue. / This study is concerned with prosody and language contact. The fact that language contact induces change is well documented, but few studies focus on the prosodic effects of contact-induced change. The aim of this study is to provide a case study of the prosodic system of the contact variety Central African French, which has emerged from the contact between French and the African tone language, Sango.The Central African Republic is a multilingual country with between 60 to 100 different regional languages spoken within its borders in addition to two official languages, the lingua franca Sango and French. French has been the main language of education and of public administration since colonial times. In the capital Bangui, Sango is the most used language in everyday communication whereas French is spoken in professional contexts. This study is based on recordings of spontaneous speech of 12 French-speaking informants from Bangui. Acoustic analyses of the recordings show that the prosody of Central African French shares with Sango some fundamental characteristics: most words have fixed tonal patterns independently of their position in the sentence and every syllable carries a static tone. This system greatly differs from the system of European varieties of French, where the sentence melody is determined at the post-lexical level and depends on factors such as rhythm, syntax and pragmatics. The main conclusion of this study is that Central African French may be classified as a tone language and thus is endowed with a prosodic system that is closer to Sango than to European French. This finding suggests that intonation might change radically in contact situations ; the change is not only superficial but concerns the underlying system.