Anàlisi acústica de la resolució de xocs accentuals en català

This study aims at examining the production process of two syllables in a clash context and at describing the stress clash resolution strategies used in Catalan. First, we carried out a perception experiment (500 target sentences) which proved a high level of confusion between stressed syllables in a clash environment and unstressed syllables (camí net vs. caminet): this demonstrates the systematic destressing of the first syllable in the clash. Secondly, a production experiment was carried out with groups of three sentences (576 utterances) in which always the same syllable was compared (pi, vi) in three different prosodic conditions: clash context (vi blanc, pi gros), stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable (vi blanquet, pi grosset), and unstressed syllable (vinet blanc, pinet gros). The results show that duration and amplitude are not robust acoustic correlates of the perception of deaccenting; conversely, the F0 contour seems to be the main cue of destressing in such clash contexts. Summing up, this article shows that Catalan uses a general strategy in stress clash resolution, the weakening or complete deaccenting of the first stress in the clash (bon home[ b mכn'כə], bon vi [b כm ‘bi]), and furthermore, that this strategy is directly reflected in the tonal organization of the sentence.