Neste estudo, investigamos a hipótese de que fenômenos fonológicos que ocorrem com certos elementos morfossintáticos, como palavras compostas, nomes próprios e siglas, em português brasileiro (doravante, PB) dão evidência para a proposição do domínio prosódico denominado Grupo de Palavras Prosódicas (PWG Prosodic Word Group [Vigário, 2007, 2010]), o qual se situa na hierarquia prosódica entre a Palavra Prosódica (PWd) e o Sintagma Fonológico (PPh). Esse mesmo nível tem sido denominado grupo clítico (C) (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, 2007; Hayes, 1989) e descrito como o domínio prosódico que compreende as palavras compostas e as palavras lexicais acentuadas eventualmente acompanhadas por clíticos. Contudo, não há consenso absoluto quanto à associação de clíticos a palavras lexicais acentuadas implicar realmente a existência de um nível prosódico distinto, uma vez que esse tipo de associação pode variar: em várias línguas já foi observada a associação de clíticos a níveis superiores e inferiores ao da PWd. Cabe ainda observar que palavras compostas e palavras lexicais acentuadas acompanhadas por clíticos não são os únicos elementos morfossintáticos do PB cujo domínio prosódico em que são mapeados consiste no nível da hierarquia prosódica situado entre PWd e PPh. Para a nossa investigação, analisamos um corpus de PB no sentido de determinarmos de que forma a prosodização desses elementos em PWGs se difere ou se assemelha à prosodização de PWds e PPhs. Com esse objetivo, procuramos contrastes entre a a prosodização de elementos que, por hipótese, tenham PWG como domínio e a prosodização de elementos que tenham PPh como domínio. Ademais, procuramos, em contexto de foco contrastivo, contrastes entre o comportamento de PPhs e PWGs ramificados. Com relação à marcação de foco contrastivo em PWG, observamos que, tanto em PPhs ramificados como em palavras compostas e nomes próprios, parece não haver possibilidade de ocorrência de proeminência fonológica de foco em uma PWd diferente da PWd núcleo da focalização. Para siglas, existe essa possibilidade, ainda que o fenômeno não seja frequente. Com relação ao bloqueio de SVE pelo acento de PWG em diferentes estruturas prosódicas, não observamos comportamentos sistematicamente distintos entre PWGs e PPhs ramificados com o mesmo número de PWds em estruturas frasais análogas. Por outro lado, observamos que o acento de PWG tem influência na ocorrência de SVE mesmo quando não coincide com o acento de PPh. Portanto, de acordo com os resultados que obtivemos, o PWG se mostra relevante para a descrição prosódica do PB. / In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that phonological phenomena that occur with certain morphosyntactic elements, such as compound words, proper names and acronyms, in Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth, PB) give evidence to the proposition of the prosodic domain denominated Prosodic Word Group (PWG [Vigário, 2007, 2010]), which, within the prosodic hierarchy, is located between the Prosodic Word (PWd) and the Phonological Phrase (PPh). This same level has been called Clitic Group (C) (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, 2007; Hayes, 1989) and described as the domain which includes the compound words and the stressed lexical words eventually accompanied by clitics. However, there is not consensus as to if the association of clitics to stressed lexical words really implies the existence of a distinct prosodic level, as this kind of association can vary: in many languages the association of clitics has already been observed to levels above and below the PWd. It is also important to say that PWds and stressed lexical words accompanied by clitics are not the only morphosyntactic elements in PB whose prosodic domain in which they are mapped is the level of the prosodic hierarchy located between the PWd and the PPh. For our investigation, we analyzed a corpus of PB with the objective of determining how the prosodization of these elements in PWGs differs or resembles the prosodization of PWds and PPhs. With this objective, we have looked for contrasts between the prosodization of elements which hypothetically have the PWG as domain and the prosodization of elements which hypothetically have the PPh as domain. Moreover, we have looked for contrasts between the behavior of branching PPhs and PWGs in context of contrastive focus. As to the contrastive focus in PWG, we have observed that, both in branching PPhs, compound words and proper names, there seems to be no possibility of occurrence of phonological prominence of focus in a PWd different from the PWd that is the nucleus of the focalization. For acronyms, there is this possibility, despite the fact that this phenomenon is not frequent. As to the role of the PWG stress in blocking the phenomenon external vowel sandhi (SVE) in different prosodic structures, we have not observed systematically distinct behaviors between branching PWGs and PPhs with the same number of PWds in analogous phrasal structures. On the other hand, we have observed that the PWG stress does influence the occurrence of SVE even when it does not coincide with the PPh stress. Therefore, according to the results that we have obtained, the PWG seems relevant to the prosodic description of PB.

Neste estudo, investigamos a hipótese de que fenômenos fonológicos que ocorrem com certos elementos morfossintáticos, como palavras compostas, nomes próprios e siglas, em português brasileiro (doravante, PB) dão evidência para a proposição do domínio prosódico denominado Grupo de Palavras Prosódicas (PWG Prosodic Word Group [Vigário, 2007, 2010]), o qual se situa na hierarquia prosódica entre a Palavra Prosódica (PWd) e o Sintagma Fonológico (PPh). Esse mesmo nível tem sido denominado grupo clítico (C) (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, 2007; Hayes, 1989) e descrito como o domínio prosódico que compreende as palavras compostas e as palavras lexicais acentuadas eventualmente acompanhadas por clíticos. Contudo, não há consenso absoluto quanto à associação de clíticos a palavras lexicais acentuadas implicar realmente a existência de um nível prosódico distinto, uma vez que esse tipo de associação pode variar: em várias línguas já foi observada a associação de clíticos a níveis superiores e inferiores ao da PWd. Cabe ainda observar que palavras compostas e palavras lexicais acentuadas acompanhadas por clíticos não são os únicos elementos morfossintáticos do PB cujo domínio prosódico em que são mapeados consiste no nível da hierarquia prosódica situado entre PWd e PPh. Para a nossa investigação, analisamos um corpus de PB no sentido de determinarmos de que forma a prosodização desses elementos em PWGs se difere ou se assemelha à prosodização de PWds e PPhs. Com esse objetivo, procuramos contrastes entre a a prosodização de elementos que, por hipótese, tenham PWG como domínio e a prosodização de elementos que tenham PPh como domínio. Ademais, procuramos, em contexto de foco contrastivo, contrastes entre o comportamento de PPhs e PWGs ramificados. Com relação à marcação de foco contrastivo em PWG, observamos que, tanto em PPhs ramificados como em palavras compostas e nomes próprios, parece não haver possibilidade de ocorrência de proeminência fonológica de foco em uma PWd diferente da PWd núcleo da focalização. Para siglas, existe essa possibilidade, ainda que o fenômeno não seja frequente. Com relação ao bloqueio de SVE pelo acento de PWG em diferentes estruturas prosódicas, não observamos comportamentos sistematicamente distintos entre PWGs e PPhs ramificados com o mesmo número de PWds em estruturas frasais análogas. Por outro lado, observamos que o acento de PWG tem influência na ocorrência de SVE mesmo quando não coincide com o acento de PPh. Portanto, de acordo com os resultados que obtivemos, o PWG se mostra relevante para a descrição prosódica do PB. / In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that phonological phenomena that occur with certain morphosyntactic elements, such as compound words, proper names and acronyms, in Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth, PB) give evidence to the proposition of the prosodic domain denominated Prosodic Word Group (PWG [Vigário, 2007, 2010]), which, within the prosodic hierarchy, is located between the Prosodic Word (PWd) and the Phonological Phrase (PPh). This same level has been called Clitic Group (C) (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, 2007; Hayes, 1989) and described as the domain which includes the compound words and the stressed lexical words eventually accompanied by clitics. However, there is not consensus as to if the association of clitics to stressed lexical words really implies the existence of a distinct prosodic level, as this kind of association can vary: in many languages the association of clitics has already been observed to levels above and below the PWd. It is also important to say that PWds and stressed lexical words accompanied by clitics are not the only morphosyntactic elements in PB whose prosodic domain in which they are mapped is the level of the prosodic hierarchy located between the PWd and the PPh. For our investigation, we analyzed a corpus of PB with the objective of determining how the prosodization of these elements in PWGs differs or resembles the prosodization of PWds and PPhs. With this objective, we have looked for contrasts between the prosodization of elements which hypothetically have the PWG as domain and the prosodization of elements which hypothetically have the PPh as domain. Moreover, we have looked for contrasts between the behavior of branching PPhs and PWGs in context of contrastive focus. As to the contrastive focus in PWG, we have observed that, both in branching PPhs, compound words and proper names, there seems to be no possibility of occurrence of phonological prominence of focus in a PWd different from the PWd that is the nucleus of the focalization. For acronyms, there is this possibility, despite the fact that this phenomenon is not frequent. As to the role of the PWG stress in blocking the phenomenon external vowel sandhi (SVE) in different prosodic structures, we have not observed systematically distinct behaviors between branching PWGs and PPhs with the same number of PWds in analogous phrasal structures. On the other hand, we have observed that the PWG stress does influence the occurrence of SVE even when it does not coincide with the PPh stress. Therefore, according to the results that we have obtained, the PWG seems relevant to the prosodic description of PB.

Research on prosodic structure, the underlying structure organising the prosodic grouping of spoken utterances, has shown that it consists of hierarchically organised prosodic constituents. The present thesis explores the nature of this constituency, in particular the question of whether prosodic structure is comprised of a given set of qualitatively distinct domains, or of a set of domains of the same type varying only gradiently in "strength", or a possible mixture of both types of relations across prosodic levels. This question is addressed by testing how prosodic constituency (mirrored on boundary strength manipulations) is signalled acoustically via pre- and post-boundary durations, intonation contours, and two sandhi processes, namely vowel hiatus resolution and post-nasal stop voicing in Modern Greek. Results show that the phonetic signalling of boundary strength provides support for a mixture of both differences of type and strength across prosodic levels, with some levels only differing in terms of their strength. Pre-boundary durations and resolution of vowel hiatus are gradiently affected by boundary strength with shorter to longer durations from lower to higher domains, and less instances of vowel deletion higher in the hierarchy. Post-nasal stop voicing is qualitatively affected by boundary strength with almost all voicing instances occurring in the lowest constituent of the structure in the way a qualitative view of prosodic constituency would predict, and in line with research on prosodic phonology. Finally, both the alignment and scaling of intonation contours at the edges of domains is found to distinguish qualitatively the lowest domain from the higher ones. All higher phrasal domains align with respect to the boundary and their peak scaling varies consistently gradiently across speakers. When combining those two findings, support is provided for the existence of differences of strength and type within the same process. Taken together the results from these four phenomena support the postulation of an underlying prosodic structure with a limited number of qualitatively distinct domains, within which at the same time some type of recursivity or structured variability must be allowed for. It is shown that there are structural properties of speech, like the length of the utterance, influencing the organisation of utterances in a principled gradient manner, supporting the existence of differences of strength within domain types. These findings bear significance for theories of prosodic structure that have assumed either the view of solely qualitative differences, or sole boundary strength differences, as well as for future proposals on prosodic constituency. Finally, the use of Modern Greek in this thesis adds to the existing literature on a language that has been extensively used by researchers working in views supporting the existence of qualitative distinctions of type across prosodic domains, and provides the first in depth experimental analysis of post-nasal stop voicing.

This thesis develops the phonological model for the Stockholm Swedish intonation system. Though previous research provides a general model of this system, many phonological aspects of it have remained understudied. The intonational options that are available to speakers of Stockholm Swedish are discussed, and it is argued that Stockholm Swedish provides evidence for complex branching of phonological domains. Specifically, it is argued that so called focal accents, which are referred to as (H)LH-accents in the present work, have essentially two different functions. First, they signal information structural categories such as focus. Second, they signal left edges of Intonation Phrases (IP). It is also argued that a wide range of options exist in the post-nuclear area. Six types of contours for such areas are distinguished, plus one additional rising contour when there are no post-nuclear accents. Based on these findings, I present an account of the branching options for the phonological categories in the Stockholm Swedish prosodic hierarchy. I argue that there is evidence for recursive phonological structures in Stockholm Swedish, i.e. that a mother node and a daughter node can belong to the same phonological category. Also, Stockholm Swedish provides evidence for a distinction between prosodic coordination (equal sister nodes) and prosodic adjunction (unequal sister nodes). Prosodic structure is mapped onto syntactic structure via a set of variably ranked Optimality Theoretic constraints. The relation between phonological and syntactic structure shows that the phonology prefers prosodic coordination (equal sisters) over adjunction (unequal sisters). The material for the study comprises a corpus of approximately 420 read sentences, which were specifically designed to test various phonological hypotheses, and approximately 17 minutes of uncontrolled speech.

華語三聲變調的運作範疇(domain)一直以來皆是漢語音韻學家激烈探討的主題，不同研究對於運作範疇的定義皆不同，而過去研究也留下了一些尚待解決的問題，例如分類詞(Classifier)以及介係詞(Preposition)如何與其他音節形成三聲變調的運作範疇。本篇論文藉由觀察語料庫中324句最短為6音節，最長為24音節且由數個三聲音節所組成的中文句子，來檢視台灣華語三聲變調若以Nespor & Vogel (1986)所提出之韻律階層(Prosodic hierarchy)為範疇來運作是否能得出自然且多樣的聲調組合。以下分析主要根據韻律階層的順序分成以下四部分：音韻詞(Phonological word)、附著詞組(Clitic group)、音韻詞組(Phonological phrase)、語調詞組(Intonational phrase)。而作者假設三聲變調有兩種運作方式，一種為循環(Cyclic)，一種為同時(Simultaneous)。循環運作時，三聲變調可先以音韻詞邊界為範疇，再以附著詞組邊界為範疇，再以音韻詞組邊界為範疇，最後再以語調詞組邊界為範疇。同時運作時，三聲變調則只以語調詞組邊界為範疇。語料庫分析結果顯示，中心語(Head)之非遞歸邊(Nonrecursive side)的分支性(Branchingness)需被納入音韻詞組的定義中以得出正確的聲調組合。再者，語調詞組的定義也需將語意(Semantic)以及韻律(Metric)的因素納入考量，以限制語調詞組邊界的形成。經過修正，韻律階層理論不僅能成功描述分類詞以及介係詞之三聲變調現象更可預測華語三聲變調的多樣性。 / Mandarin tone sandhi has been argued by different scholars to apply to different phonological domains such as the foot, the phonological phrase etc. This thesis tackles three main issues left by Shih (1986) and Hsiao (1991): the classifier, the preposition and the under-generation problem. In revising the framework of Nespor & Vogel (1986)’s Prosodic Hierarchy, this thesis proposes a possible explanation of the problems. This thesis constructed a corpus of 324 sentence tokens consisting of 6 to 24 third tone syllables. The tokens were recorded from four Taiwan Mandarin native speakers at a speech rate of at least 200 beats per minute. Through the observation of the tone patterns collected, it is found that the original definitions of the phonological phrase and the intonational phrase given by Nespor & Vogel (1986) are not able to describe the Taiwan Mandarin data. This thesis provides a revision of the prosodic hierarchy by taking into account the branchingness of the nonrecursive side on the phonological phrase level and by incorporating Selkirk (1984)’s Sense Unit Condition on the intonational phrase level. Finally, a foot formation condition is also proposed in order to restrict the minimal length of a phonological phrase or an intonational phrase.

It is well-known that the early assignment of prominence in sequences like THIRteen MEN vs. thirTEEN, (defined as the Rhythm Rule, or post-lexical stress shift), is an optional phenomenon. This dissertation examines some of the factors that encourage the application of stress shift in English and how it is phonetically realised. The aim is to answer two sets of questions related to why and how stress shift occurs in English: 1a) Does prosodic boundary strength influence stress shift? 1b) Does the adjacency of prominences above the level of the segmental string encourage stress shift? 2) How is stress shift realized? a) Is stress shift only a perceptual phenomenon? and b) Which syllables, if any, change acoustically when stress shift is perceived? To answer these questions, four experiments were designed. The first three experiments test whether the strength of the prosodic boundaries before and after the target word (e.g., canteen) influence stress shift. The effect of the strength of the left-edge prosodic boundary was investigated by comparing perceived stress patterns of the target (e.g., canteen) as produced in isolation where it is preceded by an utterance- and a phrase- initial prosodic boundary (the Isolated condition) with its rendition when embedded in a frame sentence (e.g., Say canteen again) where the left prosodic boundary before canteen is weaker (the Embedded condition). Results show a very clear tendency towards late phrasal prominence on the final accentable syllable (e.g., -teen in canteen) in the Embedded condition while in the Isolated condition this pattern appeared in less than half of the targets, showing that the stronger left boundary increased the incidence of stress shift. Two more experiments manipulated the strength of the boundary to the right of the target (#) respectively by changing the syntactic parse of the critical phrase (e.g. canteen cook) in sequences like (1) and by manipulating constituent length as in (2). Results showed that the syntactic manipulation significantly affected the strength of the prosodic boundary between the clashing words which was stronger in (1b) relative to (1a), and affected the incidence of stress shift, which was higher in (1a) relative to (1b). The length manipulation also affected the rate of stress shift, which was significantly higher in the phrase with the shorter word, e.g., soups (2a) relative to phrase with the longer word, e.g., supervisors (2b). (1) Example from the Syntax Experiment a. Who is the canteen (#) cook these days? (Pre-modifier + Noun) b. How do the canteen (#) cook these days? (NP + VP) (2) Example from the Length Experiment a. It should include the canteen (#) soups again. (Shorter constituent) b. It should include the canteen (#) supervisors again. (Longer constituent) Whilst we knew from the literature that the grouping of the clashing words within one Intonational Phrase (IP) encourages stress shift, results from the Syntax and Length experiments indicate that this (i.e., the phrasing of the clashing words within same IP) is not sufficient condition for the occurrence of stress shift, and that fine-grained degrees of boundary strength below the Intonational Phrase can drive changes in prominence pattern. The fact that higher rates of stress shift (and associated significant acoustic changes) were driven by manipulations of constituent length --for sequences with the same syntactic structure-- provides support for the idea that prosodic (rather than syntactic) boundaries directly influence stress shift. The fourth experiment tests the definition of stress clash in English in cases like fourteen candles where the two main lexical prominences are strictly adjacent along the time dimension, in fourteen canoes where the prominences are not adjacent in time, but adjacent at the higher levels of the metrical hierarchy, and in fourteen canteens where the main lexical prominences are not adjacent, and do not clash. This experiment highlighted and resolved an unacknowledged disagreement about what clash status sequences with one weak intervening syllable (e.g., fourTEEN caNOES). The fourTEEN caNOES type were shown to behave like metrically clashing sequences (e.g., fourteen CANdles) in attracting stress shift, and differently from the non-metrically-clashing sequences (e.g., fourteen CANTEENS) in discouraging it. These results provide empirical support for the Standard Metrical Theory (e.g. Selkirk, 1984; Nespor & Vogel, 1989) claim that 1) stress clash matters in triggering stress shift and that 2) stress clash in English is defined at the higher prosodic levels and not restricted to the level of the segmental string as indirectly assumed in a growing body of research (e.g., Vogel, Bunnel & Hoskins, 1995; Tomlinson, Liu & Fox Tree, 2014). Along with the establishment of prosodic boundary strength as one of the predictors influencing stress shift, another important contribution of the thesis is providing empirical evidence that the English Rhythm Rule is not solely a perceptual phenomenon and that it is associated with acoustic correlates. The main correlates of perceived stress shift consistently appearing across experiments is the decrease in the duration of the main lexical prominence of the target (e.g., -teen in canteen) and the increase of fundamental frequency and Sound Pressure Level peaks and on the initial syllable (e.g., canin canteen), when followed by a main clashing phrasal prominence. The acoustic analysis shows that the first accentable syllable also contributes in the perception of stress shift. This latter result does not lend support to the deletion formulation of the Rhythm Rule (Gussenhoven, 1991) which stipulates that the impressions of stress shift are solely associated with changes of prominence in the last accentable syllable of the target (e.g. -teen in canteen). Along with the determination of the acoustic correlates of perceived stress shift in English, the present research 1) indicates that fine-grained gradations of prosodic boundary strength can influence stress shift, 2) shows that while stress clash can increase the incidence of stress shift, stress shift can take place even in environments completely free of stress clash, and 3) provides evidence that stress clash should not be construed simply as the concatenation of two main lexical prominences along the time dimension.