Prosodic structure revisited: the need to disentangle rhythm from intonation

Abstract

Abstract It is well established that speech flow is segmented into prosodic chunks which are crucial for accurately interpreting utterances. Since the eighties, several proposals have been formulated, mostly within Prosodic Structure Theory and the Autosegmental Metrical Model, to account for how prosodic chunks are derived and organised. These theoretical frameworks usually consider prosodic units as phonological primitives and domains within which segmental and suprasegmental phenomena are analysed. Due to the variability observed in the chunking obtained, which partly results from the various criteria used to derive these prosodic units, their exact nature and status can be questioned. In this contribution, it will be argued that prosodic structure and the chunks observed are best analysed as resulting from two types of structure-creating mechanisms, intonation and its relation to meaning on the one hand, and rhythm and its manifestations in languages on the other. This proposal is based on an analysis of French, a language with a strong syncretism between accentuation, metrical patterns and intonation.