A la recherche de traits pertinents prosodiques du français parisien

Abstract

Abstract An attempt was made to determine the prosodic features that distinguish modalities and emotive attitudes through controlled variation of fundamental frequency and overall sound pressure in a sample of four synthesized French sentences. The following tendencies were observed: (a) judgements ‘interrogative’ in disjunctive sentences were essentially more frequent with a steeper rise in fundamental frequency (interval/time) in the first stressed syllable; (b) in the case of certain melodic cliches, assertive and interrogative sentences were distinguished by characteristic intrasyllabic (constant vs. rising) fundamental frequency changes; (c) basic emotions such as anger, joy could not be distinguished on the basis of mere changes in the fundamental frequency; more complex social attitudes, however, can be differenciated in this way, and (d) if two fundamental frequency curves differed only in their angularity (in suddenness of change of direction) then sentences with a more angular fundamental frequency curve were rated as being significantly more aggressive than their smoother counterparts.