Govor, Vol. 43 No. 1, 2026.
Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.22210/govor.2026.43.04
A hierarchical approach to prosody and intonation
Ivana Gusak Bilić
orcid.org/0009-0009-4713-9863
; Akademija dramske umjetnosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
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* Dopisni autor.
Sažetak
This paper discusses prosody and intonation within the Autosegmental-Metrical (AM) framework of intonational phonology. Although initially developed for English, the theory has roots in the study of African tonal languages and has been applied to a wide range of languages. The AM theory departs from the traditional concept of “suprasegmental” features, treating prosody as an integral part of the phonological representation of speech. Within this approach, intonation, rhythm, prominence, and prosodic phrasing are intertwined and cannot be fully understood in isolation. Prosodic structure is hierarchical: lower-level rhythmic domains, such as the mora, syllable, and foot, are embedded within higher-level intonational domains, including the phonological word, phonological phrase, intonational phrase, and utterance. Unlike syntactic structure, prosodic structure allows limited or partial recursion, particularly at higher prosodic levels. A key notion is metrical prominence, describing the relative strength across prosodic domains. The paper proposes a synthesised hierarchy of prominence levels, from syllabic stress to phrasal, nuclear, intonational accents, and, additionally, intonational stylisation. While intonational contours and accents can be analysed individually, their distribution becomes meaningful only within this hierarchically organised framework. Evidence from Croatian shows that nuclear accent tends to fall on the last word of the final phrase unless focus shifts prominence. Dialect variation affects pitch accents and their realisation, but systematic patterns reveal structural constraints. For instance, three Neoštokavian speakers place nuclear accents predictably, whereas Kajkavian aligns them with focus. Additionally, falling accents may surface as different pitch-accent types depending on their position within the intonational phrase, reflecting constraints on pitch alignment. Overall, the concept of the prosodic hierarchy, within both prosodic phonology and the AM framework of intonational phonology, explains the structurally motivated realisation of lexical accents.
Ključne riječi
prosodic phonology; autosegmental-metrical (AM) phonology; prosody; intonation; lexical accent
Hrčak ID:
348951
URI
Datum izdavanja:
7.7.2026.
Posjeta: 0 *