Speaker: Lena Borise (Harvard University)
Title: Word stress and phrasal intonation in Georgian
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 17, 5:00-6:30pm
Location: 32-D831
Abstract:
Based on novel acoustic data, I show that Georgian (Kartvelian) has (i) word stress, which is fixed on the initial syllable and primarily cued by duration, and (ii) phrasal intonational pitch targets that are located in the right periphery of the prosodic word (penult and ultima).
While it has long been acknowledged that these loci (initial syllable and the right periphery of a prosodic word) carry most prosodic prominence in Georgian, its nature has been disputed. According to the existing literature, the initial syllable carries stress in di- and trisyllabic words, while in longer words there is another stress-like target on the (ante)penultimate syllable (Akhvlediani 1949; Robins & Waterson 1952; Tschenkeli 1958; Gudava 1969; Tevdoradze 1978). In such longer words either the initial syllable or the (ante)penult have been variably analyzed as carrying (primary) stress, with the other locus possibly carrying secondary stress. The uncertainty surrounding Georgian word stress led some authors to suggest that instead of word stress Georgian relies solely on phrasal intonational pitch targets (Zhghenti 1953; 1959; 1963; Alkhazishvili 1959), like French (Vaissière 1983; Féry 2001) or Korean (Jun 1993). This paper advocates for a mixed approach, whereby both word stress and phrasal intonational pitch targets are present in the language, though their interaction with each other is minimal.
Specifically, the instrumental results suggest the following:
1. Georgian has fixed initial stress that is primarily cued by duration, based on the consistently greater duration of the initial syllable as compared to the following ones in words of any syllable count.
2. The ultima carries a high boundary tone, as expected in broad-focus declarative contexts, according to the earlier literature.
3. The penult in words of any syllable count carries another pitch target, which is similar in nature to the phrase accent L that has been described as appearing on the penult of predicates in questions and focal contexts. Its theoretical status remains to be established.