ChileanSpanishIntonation

ChileanSpanishIntonation*

HctorOrtiza,MarcelaFuentesbandLlusaAstrucc

UniversidadMetropolitanadeCienciasdelaEducacinandUniversidaddeSantiagodeChilea
UniversidadCatlicaSilvaHenrquezb
TheOpenUniversitycandTheUniversityofCambridgec

1.Introduction

This chapter presents some of the most representative intonation patterns of the
SpanishdialectspokeninSantiago,Chile.Chileisanarrow4,200kilometrelongstripofland
extending down the Pacific Coast of Latin America, of which less than 300,000 square
kilometresishabitable.Ofthetotalpopulationof15million,justover8millionliveinthe
capitalareaaroundthecitiesofSantiago,ValparasoandRancagua,whileanother4million
areconcentratedinthesouthernregionfromConcepcintoTemuco.Traditionally,Chilean
linguistshavebrokenChileanSpanishinfourdialectareasmainlyonthebasisoflexicaland
segmental differences. The latest standard description (Wagner 1998, 2004), for example,
includes 217 rural and urban locations, where 16% and 84% of the Chilean population is
concentrated,respectively.WehavechosentodescribetheSantiagodialectbecauseitisthe
mostrepresentative.

Intonation studies in Chile began in the 1950s coinciding with the development of
phonology,whenSilvaFuenzalida(19561957)reducedpitchcontourstoafinitenumberof
pitch phonemes which, combined with stress and juncture phonemes, give rise to
suprasegmentalmorphemes.NothingmuchhappeneduntilContreras(1976)putforwarda
theorytodescribenuclearaccentplacementinconnectionwithwordorderandinformation
structure. A few years later, Silva Corvaln (1984) examined the intonation of OV, narrow
focusconstructions,andUrrutia(1988)investigatedaChileansoutherndialectsupportedby
spectrographicevidence.

Relevantinstrumentalresearchdatesbacksomefifteenyearsandconcentratesmainly
on either Santiago or the southern region. Cepeda conducted a major project on the
intonationofdifferentsocialandagegroupsinthesoutherncityofValdivia(Cepeda1997,
1998a,1998b,2000,2001,2002,Cepedaetal.1997,19981999,1999,CepedaandPoblete
1996a,1996b,CepedaandRoldn1995).Tapia(1995)examinedtheintonationcontoursof
yesnoquestionsandtheiranswersinacorpuscollectedinConcepcin(southernChile),and
Cid(1996)comparedtheintonationofquestiontagsinEnglishandChileanSpanish.Roldn
(2000) described the role of pitch variations in the production of attenuated speech. The
Santiago dialect was the object of study of a threeyear project carried out at Pontificia
UniversidadCatlicadeChilebetween1997and1999,whichinvolvedtheanalysisofa25
*

We thank, first of all, our informants. Thanks go as well to Eva EstebasVilaplana and Christoph
Gabriel,andtotheeditors,PilarPrietoandPaoloRoseano,whoreadandcommentedonaprevious
draftofthischapter.Alltheerrorsthatremainareours.

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hour corpus; this was, at the same time, the first attempt to conduct prosodic research
within the AutosegmentalMetrical framework (Cid and Ortiz 1998, 2000, Cid and Poblete
1999,Cidetal.2000)andtheresultsdonotdiffermuchfromthoseobtainedinthepresent
study. Rosas (2002) examined the ALECh corpus and described the intonation of 240
statements elicited from twelve, mostly regional speakers. Cepeda and Rosas (2007)
analysed the configurations of justification adverbial clauses with a discursive politeness
effect,andPereira(2007)lookedintotheroleofpitchandpausetodisambiguateutterances
with high attachment of relative clauses. More recently, Romn, Cofr and Rosas (2008)
compared doublepeak prenuclear patterns in declaratives with singlepeak prenuclear
patternsinquestionsaspartoftheAMPERproject.

A few studies have focused mainly on prominence and analysed, for instance, the
reaccentuationofgiveninformationandtheshiftingofprenuclearandnuclearpitchaccents
to avoid prominence clashes (Ortiz 1994, 2000, 2003). More recent research has
concentrated on the strategies used to solve accentual clashes (Atria 2009), patterns with
onesinglepeakbeingthepreferredsolution.

Thechapterisorganizedasfollows:section2containstheinventoryofpitchaccentsand
boundarytonesfoundintheSantiagoChileandialect;insection3wepresentandcomment
on the basic intonation contours found in the Chilean corpus, including statements,
questions,commandsandvocatives;andinsection4weofferourconclusions.

2.ChileanSpanishintonationalphonology

2.1.Thepitchaccents

Table1showstheinventoryofpitchaccentsusedinthisdescription.

Table 1: Inventory of monotonal and bitonal pitch accents in Chilean Spanish and their schematic
representations

Monotonalpitchaccents
L*

This accent is phonetically realised as a low plateau at the

minimum of the speakers range. In the present corpus, it is
found in the nuclear position of wh and echo questions, gentle
requestsandthelastitemofclosedenumerations.

H*

This accent is phonetically realised as a high plateau with no

preceding F0 valley. In our data, it is attested as one of the
possible choices for nuclear position in invitational questions,
openenumerationsandcallingcontoursfollowedbyH%.

Bitonalpitchaccents
L+H*

256

This accent is phonetically realised as a rising pitch movement

duringtheaccentedsyllablewiththeF0peaklocatedattheend
ofthissyllable.Itcanbefoundinthenuclearpositionofnarrow

ChileanSpanishIntonation
focus statements, statements of the obvious, wh questions,
neutral yesno questions, counterexpectational and echo
questions, commands and vocatives, among others. The
downstepped version is attested in neutral statements, and the
upstepped version, in emphatic and contradiction statements
andinvitationalandrhetoricalquestions.

L+>H*

Thisaccentisphoneticallyrealisedasarisingpitchmovementon
the accented syllable with the F0 peak usually slightly aligned
with the postaccentual syllable. It is attested in the prenuclear
position of broad focus statements, exclamative statements,
commands,requestsandquestionsofalltypes.

H+L*

This accent is phonetically realised as a F0 fall within the

accented syllable. It is attested in nuclear position in yesno
questionsandechoquestions(witharisingcontour);inquestions
seeking confirmation and in disjunctive questions (with a falling
contour). The downstepped version is found in broad focus
statements.

2.2.Theboundarytones

Table2:InventoryofmonotonalandbitonalboundarytonesinChileanSpanishandtheirschematic
representations

Monotonalboundarytones
L%

L% is phonetically realised as a low sustained tone or a

fallingtoneatthebaselineofthespeaker.Itisfoundat
the end of broad and narrow focus statements,
commands, wh questions, invitational and rhetorical
questions,yesnoquestionsandvocatives.

M%

M% is phonetically realised as a rising or falling

movement to a target mid point. It is attested in
uncertaintystatements,echoandimperativequestions,
callingvocatives,greetingsandcourtesyadverbials.

H%

H% is phonetically realised as a rising pitch movement

comingfromaloworahighpitchaccent.Itisfoundin
gentlerequests,invitationsanduncertaintystatements.

HH%

HH%isphoneticallyrealisedasasharpriseattheendof
the phrase usually attaining the highest level of the
speakersrange.Itisfoundinquestionsofvarioustypes.

LH%

LH%isphoneticallyrealisedasaF0valleyfollowedbya
rise.Itisattestedincounterexpectationalquestions.

Bitonalboundarytones

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3.BasicintonationalpatternsinChileanSpanish

Following the guidelines established for the present volume, a total of 69 utterances
(plus another 6 which helped us corroborate initial findings) were recorded by 5 Santiago
ChileanSpanishspeakers(2womenand3men)between30and65yearsold,whichyielded
a total of 375 configurations. The recordings were analysed separately by the three
researchers and the results were compared with consensus then being reached on any
initiallydifferinganalyses.Itisworthnotingthatsomeoftherecordingswereanalysedmore
than once and that, on the whole, there was not much interresearcher variation in the
preliminaryanalysisandintonationalmarking.The69utteranceswereobtainedbymeansof
aguidedquestionnairebasedonPrieto(1991)consistingofvariouscontextsandsituations
which elicited semispontaneous answers, although the questionnaire was modified both
lexically and syntactically in order to reflect Chilean usage. The basic version of this
questionnaire can be found in Prieto and Roseano (coords. 20092010). A few more
sentencetypeswereaddedmainlytoascertaintheexistenceoftheprenuclearaccentL*+H
and the status of final vocatives. The collected utterances were classified into statements,
questions(wh,yesno,etc.),commands,requestsandvocatives.Inthecaseofthefirsttwo
categories, both marked and unmarked versions were considered, as well as meanings
associated with attitudinal factors which convey more or less subtle overtones, such as
factual,exclamatoryanddisapprovingdeclaratives,invitationalandcriticalquestions,etc.

Our theoretical framework conforms to the revised Sp_ToBI proposal by Estebas

Vilaplana and Prieto (2008) developed for Castilian Spanish. With respect to the earlier
modelbyBeckmanetal.(2002),thisbasicallyentailstheincorporationofnewpitchaccents
L*andL*+H,thusyieldinganinventoryoftwomonotonal(L*andH*)andfourbitonalpitch
accents(L+H*,L+>H*,L*+HandH+L*),aswellasbitonalboundarytones,tomakeupatotal
offour,i.e.tworises(HH%andLH%),afall(HL%)andamidstylisedtone(M%).Oneofthe
main aims of this chapter is to determine the extent of which the new (Castilian Spanish)
proposal conforms to the description of the Santiago Chilean dialect. The utterances were
acousticallyanalysedwithPraat(BoersmaandWeenink2010).

Inthissectionweexaminethemainintonationpatternsfoundforthevarioussentence
types in the Santiago Chilean dialect in the following order: 3.1 statements; 3.2 biased
statements;3.3questions(includingyesnoandwh);3.4commands;and3.5vocatives.

3.1.Statements

3.1.1.Broadfocusstatements

BroadfocusstatementsaretypicallyproducedwithL+>H*prenuclearaccentsandwith
L+!H* or, less frequently, !H+L* as nuclear accents, followed by L%. That is, as in Castilian
Spanish and other dialects, prenuclear accents are consistently produced with a rise
throughoutthestressedsyllableandapeakinthepostaccentedsyllable.Itisworthnoting,
however, that the delayed peak is not as late as in Castilian. The difference between the
highestpointintheprenuclearaccentandthedelayedpeakmayoftenbeaslowas5Hz.The
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other proposed prenuclear accent, L*+H, which underlines the auditory perception of a
delayed peak, was not found in the present corpus. Unlike Castilian and other Spanish
dialects, Santiago Chilean Spanish does not have monotonal L* nuclear accents in broad
focus declaratives. Indeed, the most frequent nuclear accent is a rise aligned with the
stressed syllable and downstepped to the previous accent, which conveys an involved
attitudeonthepartofthespeaker.Theotherpossibilityisafallwithinthenuclearsyllable,
whichsignalsmorefactualandthereforelessenthusiasticinformation.Thisisalsothetype
of nuclear accent found in the last items of closed enumerations. We therefore transcribe
the typical nuclear accents of Santiago broad focus statements as either L+!H*, after a
previous H* accent (as is also reported for Mexican Spanish by delaMota et al. this
volume) or !H+L*, as we can see in figures 1 and 2. The latter implies less emotional
involvement.

3.1.2.Biasedstatements

The nuclear accent used in biased statements differs from that of broad focus
statementsintherelativeprominenceoftheF0peak.Thishigherpeakcanbetranscribed
either as L+H* (without the downstep diacritic) or as L+H* (with an upstep diacritic). This
transcriptionallowsustodistinguishamongthreelevelsofprominence,namelyL+!H*,L+H*
andL+H*.

3.1.2.1.Narrowfocusstatements

Contrastive narrow focus can also be expressed with a L+H* nuclear accent. Figure 3
showsthesentenceNo,delimonesNo,oflemons,elicitedinresponsetoDoyouwanta
kilogramoforanges?byamalespeaker.Bothaccentshavebeenrealisedonanextrahigh
pitch,whichwetranscribesimplyasL+H*,bearinginmindthatthetargetsrepresenthighF0
values.SimilarpatternsareattestedinEcuadorian(seeORourkethisvolume),Castilian(see
EstebasVilaplana and Prieto this volume) and Mexican Spanish (see delaMota et al. this
volume).

Narrowfocuscontradictionstatementsaresimilartocorrectionstatements.Thenuclear
configuration used in emphatic statements (L+H*) is also used in example 4, the
contradiction statement No, se van a Lima! No, theyre going to Lima!, with which a
speaker amicably but firmly contradicts information wrongly assumed by a friend. The
rendering is relatively slow and the presence of three pitch accents gives it a deliberate
flavour.

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Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

300
250
200
150
100
50

Bebe

una

limonada

L+>H*

L+!H*

L%

Figure1:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthebroadfocusstatementBebeunalimonada
S/heisdrinkinglemonadeproducedwithaL+>H*prenuclearaccentandL+!H*nuclearaccent
followedbyaL%boundarytone.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

200
170
140
110
80
50

Mara

come

mandarinas

L+>H*

!H*

!H+L*

L%

Figure2:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthebroadfocusstatementMaracome
mandarinasMaraiseatingtangerinesproducedwithL+>H*and!H*prenuclearaccentsanda
!H+L*nuclearaccentfollowedbyaL%boundarytone.

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ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

No,

de

limones

L+H*

L%

L+H*

L%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure3:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthenarrowfocusstatementNo,delimonesNo,of
lemonsproducedwithtwoidenticalL+H*L%nuclearconfigurations.

0.5

1.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

No,

se

L+H*

van

L-

L+H*

Lima!

L+H*

L%

Figure4:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthecontradictionstatementNo,sevanaLima!
No,theyregoingtoLima!producedwithaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

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H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

3.1.2.2.Exclamativestatements

ThehigherdegreeofemphasiscanbeseenintheexclamativestatementQufroms
horrible!Itsdreadfullycold!,whichistranscribedwithaL+H*nuclearaccentonhorrible
followedbyaL%boundarytone,asshowninfigure5.

3.1.2.3.Statementsoftheobvious

The meaning conveyed by this sort of statement is obviousness. The speaker is

expressing surprise (perhaps ironic) while answering an interlocutors question, believing
thatthisanswerisselfevident.Figure6displaystheintonationcontourofthesentenceS,
mujer, de Guillermo! Yes [shes pregnant] by Guillermo [of course]! consisting of similar
L+H*prenuclearaccentsandaL+H*nuclearaccentwithalowboundarytoneL%.(Notethis
configurationisalsoreportedforVenezuelanAndeanSpanishbyAstrucetal.thisvolume.)

3.1.2.4.Uncertaintystatements

Asinotherdialects,uncertaintystatementstakeaM%boundarytone.Thespeakerhas
her doubts about a present she has bought and produces a type of configuration whose
meaningcanbeassociatedwithaselfdoubtingattitude.Fromadiscoursepointofview,this
type of pattern consists of two intonational phrases, the first of which conveys the new
informationandthesecondofwhichconveysgivenness,witharelativelystableplateauin
between.Thetwointonationalphrasesseeninexampleinfigure7,Puedequenolegusteel
regalo que le compr S/he may not like the present I have bought him/her, have no
metricalbreak.ThefirsthasaL+>H*H%nuclearpatterntoexplainthediponguste,which
signals the new information, while the second, associated with background information,
takesaH*M%configuration.

3.2.Questions

3.2.1.Yesnoquestions

Asusualinotherdialects,yesnoquestionsoffermorevarietythanstatements.Tobegin
with,prenuclearaccentsareoftwotypes,H+L*andL+>H*,whereastheprenuclearaccent
ofstatementsisL+>H*.Wefindthreemainnuclearconfigurations:H+L*,i.e.astepdownto
thenuclearsyllable;L+H*,i.e.arisewithinthenuclearsyllable;andL*beforethefinalhigh
target.Finally,theboundarytonescanvarybetweenL%andHH%.Figure8givesanexample
oftheinformationseekingyesnoquestionYallegMara?HasMariaarrivedyet?,with
twoprenuclearaccents,L+H*andH+L*,thelatterstartingadistinctdipbeforethefinalrise
L+H*HH%.Hereitisworthpointingoutthatthetargetofthistypeoffinalriseisnotashigh
as in other Spanish dialects, like Castilian (EstebasVilaplana and Prieto this volume) and
MexicanSpanish(delaMotaetal.thisvolume).Infact,theMexicanrealisationofHH%is,in
comparison,extremelyhigh.Ingeneral,themeaningsassociatedwiththeseconfigurations
involvegenuineinterestonthepartofthespeaker.

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Fundamental frequency (Hz)

ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Qu

fro

ms

L+>H*

horrible!

H*

L+H*

L%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure5:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheexclamativestatementQufromshorrible!
Itsdreadfullycold!producedwithaL+H*nuclearpitchaccentfollowedbyaL%boundarytone.

0.5

250
210
170
130
90
50

S,

mujer,

de

L+H*

L+H*

Guillermo!

L+H*

L%

Figure6:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthestatementoftheobviousS,mujer,de
Guillermo!Yes[shespregnant]byGuillermo[ofcourse]!producedwithtwoL+H*prenuclear
accentsandaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

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Fundamental frequency (Hz)

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

0.5

200
170
140
110
80
50

Puede

que

no

1 0

le

H*

guste

el

regalo

2 0

L+>H*

que

le

H*

compr

H* M%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure7:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheuncertaintystatementPuedequenoleguste
elregaloquelecomprS/hemaynotlikethepresentIhaveboughthim/herproducedwithtwo
intonationalphrases,thefirstwithaL+>H*configurationandthesecondwithH*M%.

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Ya

lleg

Mara?

L+H*

H+L*

L+H*

HH%

Figure8:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheinformationseekingyesnoquestionYalleg
Mara?HasMariaarrivedyet?producedwithaL+H*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

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ChileanSpanishIntonation

It is difficult to find totally neutral yesno questions in our corpus, as most questions
appear to have nuances of politeness or some other pragmatic overtone. For instance,
questionssuchasTienehora?Haveyougotthetime?,Tienemermelada?Haveyougot
any jam?, Puedo entrar? May I come in? were interpreted as requests with greater or
lesserdegreesofformalityand/ordeferentiality.

Gentlerequestsareexemplifiedinfigures9and10.ThefirstisTienemermelada?Have
yougotanyjam?andthesecond,Tienehora?Haveyougotthetime?.Thefirsttakesa
H+L*prenuclearaccentandaL+H*nuclearaccentwithahightarget,aconfigurationwhich
simplycarriesameaningofpoliteness.Inthesecondexample,ontheotherhand,apleading
nuanceisaddedtopoliteness,suggestedbytheL*L%nuclearconfigurationinwhichL*is
realisedwithamarkedlylongsyllable.Thispatternisverycommoninindirectspeechacts
such as commands of the type Ven Come with a begging overtone, that is, I beg you to
come.

Figure11showsaversionofadisjunctivequestion,inwhichthefirstphraserisestoHH
while the second falls to L%. This makes the meaning more pointed but still friendly,
suggestedbythevoicequalitythespeakeruses,whichextendsoverthewholeutterance:a
labialsettingimplyingapermanenthalfsmile(Laver1994:398).

3.2.2.Biasedyesnoquestions

3.2.2.1.Echoyesnoquestions

Echo questions have a pattern similar to informationseeking yesno questions, except

that the boundary tone has a higher target: a nuclear accent L* followed by a HH%
boundary.Phoneticallyspeaking,therealisationofthistypeofboundaryishigherthanthat
ofordinaryyesnoquestions.Figure12illustratesDijistequesonlasnueve?Didyousayit
wasnineoclock?Thenucleardipprecedingthefinalrisereinforcestheeffectofsurprised
disbelieforincredulity.Bycontrast,ashallowerdipandweakerrisewouldturnthequestion
intoaneutralechoquestion.

A counterexpectational yesno question expressing marked incredulity, Tienes fro?!

Yourecold?!,isproducedwithabitonalboundarytoneLH%,whichisnotnormallyfound
in other sentence types in the Santiago Chilean dialect and is illustrated in figure 13. The
nuclearconfigurationisL+H*LH%.

3.2.2.2.Imperativeyesnoquestions

Another example of an indirect speech act is a yesno question used to express a

command. In our corpus, the imperative yesno question Quieren callarse? Would you
pleasebequiet?wasproducedwithaH*prenuclearandaL+H*M%nuclearpattern(figure
14).

Questionswithaninvitationalnuanceconsistofacharacteristicsteadyrise(H*HH%),as
exemplifiedin figure 15, where the boundary tone has a noticeably high target. The same
pattern would turn a polite question, like that in 10, into a much more neutral yesno
question,deprivedofthepoliteovertone.
265

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Tiene

mermelada?

H+L*

L+H*

HH%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure9:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthepoliteyesnoquestionTienemermelada?
Haveyougotanyjam?producedwithaL+H*HH%nuclear
configuration.

0.5

200
170
140
110
80
50

Tiene

hora?

H+L*

L*

L%

Figure10:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthepoliteyesnoquestionwithapleadingnuance
Tienehora?Haveyougotthetime?producedwithaL*L%nuclearconfiguration.

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ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

500
410
320
230
140
50

Quieren

meln

L*

L+H*

helado?

HH-

H+L*

L%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure11:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthedisjunctivequestionQuierenmelno
helado?Wouldyoulikemelonoricecream?thefirstpartofwhichisproducedwithaL+H*HHand
thesecondwithaH+L*L%nuclearconfiguration.

0.5

1.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Dijiste

que

L+>H*

son

las

nueve?

L*

HH%

Figures12:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheechoyesnoquestionDijistequesonlas
nueve?Didyousayitwasnineoclock?producedwithaL*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

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H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Tienes

fro?!

L*

L+H*

LH%

Figure13:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthecounterexpectationalyesnoquestion
Tienesfro?!Yourecold?!producedwithaL+H*LH%nuclearconfiguration.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

350
300
250
200
150
100

Quieren

callarse?

H*

L+H*

M%

Figure14:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheimperativeyesnoquestionQuieren
callarse?Wouldyoupleasebequiet?producedwithaL+H*M%configuration.

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ChileanSpanishIntonation

3.2.2.3.Confirmationyesnoquestions

A yesno question expecting confirmation, Verdad que vas a venir? You are coming,
arent you?, was said in our corpus with a nuclear pattern similar to that in example 2, a
versionofabroadfocusstatement,thatis,afinalfallinvolvingaH+L*nuclearaccentanda
L% boundary tone. The main difference lies in the high plateau reached in the question
betweentheprenuclearandthenuclearaccents,asshowninfigure16.

3.2.3.Whquestions

As in other Spanish dialects, wh questions can take either a falling or a rising nuclear
pattern.AquestionsuchasQuhoraes?Whattimeisit?,forexample,willtakeariseif
the speaker asks an open, more neutral question, whereas a more urgent meaning is
conveyedwithafall,thatis,whenthespeakerscourseofactiondependsonhowearlyor
late it is. Infigure 17, the informationseekingwh question De dnde vienes? Where do
you come from? displays a L+H* prenuclear and a L* HH% nuclear configuration which,
phoneticallyspeaking,hasarelativelymildrisecomparedwithothersamplesinourcorpus.
Therelativelyhighkeyconveysaneutralmeaning.

Adifferenttypeofwhquestionisshowninfigure18,whereweseeaL+H*prenuclear
configurationandaL*L%nuclearpattern.Thissuggestsamoreserious,urgentovertone.

3.2.4.Biasedwhquestions

3.2.4.1.Echowhquestions

Withechoquestionsspeakersrepeattheinformationreceivedeitherbecausetheyhave
notheardandaskforrepetitionorbecausetheyneedtohaveitclearintheirmindbefore
giving an answer. A neutral echo wh question is exemplified in figure 19, where Dnde
voy?WhereamIgoing?issaidwithaL+H*prenuclearandaL*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

Asimilarhighpitchedboundarytonecanbeseeninthenextbiasedwhquestionused
toconveyincredulity.Theearlydipoftheprenuclearaccentandthehighpitchedboundary
tone reinforce the emphatic meaning of the counterexpectational echo wh question
displayedinfigure20Qudicesquetedieron?Whatdoyousaytheygaveyou?

3.2.4.2.Imperativewhquestions

Anexampleofanimperativewhquestion,withwhichthespeakerurgesthelistenerto
carry out a neglected task, is shown in figure 21, Cundo lo vas a hacer? When are you
goingtodoit?,realisedwithaL+H*prenuclearandaL*L%nuclearpattern.

Thesamepleadingnuanceinexample10(Tienehora?)ispresentinthefollowingwh
question,figure22,withaninvitationflavour,Porqunovienen?Whydontyoucome?,
inwhichthereisagainafallingnuclearcontourL+H*L%withsyllablelengthening.

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Fundamental frequency (Hz)

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Quieren

caramelos?

L+>H*

H*

HH%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure15:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheinvitationyesnoquestionQuieren
caramelos?Wouldyoulikesomesweets?producedwithaH*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Verdad

que

L+>H*

vas

venir?

H+L*

L%

Figure16:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheconfirmationyesnoquestionVerdadque
vasavenir?Youarecoming,arentyou?producedwithaH+L*L%nuclearconfiguration.

270

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ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

300
250
200
150
100
50

De

dnde

vienes?

L+H*

L*

HH%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure17:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheinformationseekingwhquestionDednde
vienes?Wheredoyoucomefrom?producedwithaL*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

De

dnde

vienes?

L+H*

L*

L%

Figure18:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheurgentwhquestionDedndevienes?
Wheredoyoucomefrom?producedwithaL*L%nuclearconfiguration.

271

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

500
410
320
230
140
50

Dnde

voy?

L+H*

L*

HH%

Figure19:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheneutralechowhquestionDndevoy?
WhereamIgoing?producedwithaL*HH%nuclearconfiguration.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

500
410
320
230
140
50

Qu

dices

H+L*

que

te

dieron?

H*

L+H*

HH%

Figure20:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthecounterexpectationalwhquestionQu
dicesquetedieron?Whatdoyousaytheyservedyou?producedwithaL+H*HH%nuclear
configuration.

272

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

350
300
250
200
150
100

Cundo

lo

vas

(a) hacer?

L+H*

L*

L%

Figure21:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheimperativewhquestionCundolovasa
hacer?Whenareyougoingtodoit?producedwithaL*L%nuclearconfiguration.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

300
250
200
150
100
50

Por

qu

no

L+H*

vienen?

L+H*

L%

Figure22:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheinvitationwhquestionPorqunovienen?
Whydontyoucome?,producedwithaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

273

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

3.2.4.3.Rhetoricalwhquestions

Rhetorical questions are those which do not expect an answer and are used either
becausethisisselfevidentorwhenspeakersthemselvesprovideit.Inthepresentcorpus,
an example of the first type, Qu haran sin m? What would you do without me?, was
produced with two L+>H* prenuclear accents followed by a L+H* L% nuclear pattern, as
presentedinfigure23.Theteasing,smugattitudethisquestionconveysisreinforcedbya
brisk,clippedrenderingofthenuclearsyllable(m).

3.3.Commandsandrequests

3.3.1.Commands

Strongillocutionaryforceisassociatedwiththerisingfallingnuclearconfiguration L+H*
L%. In the following example, there is also a profusion of rising prenuclear accents L+H*
whichpreparetheground,sotospeak,forthefallingnuclearaccent.Thiscanbeseeninthe
commandVenparaacahoramismo!Comehereatonce!,figure24.

3.3.2. Requests

A similar pattern to that described in figure 2 for a neutral statement, i.e. a L+>H*
prenuclear accent and a !H+L* L% nuclear configuration, is found in the neutral request
LlenenesteformularioFillinthisform.Softened,moreinvitationalcommandsandgentle
requestsareobtainedinvariousways,suchasbymovingtheHtargetofthefirst,prenuclear
accent,toahigherregisterand/orbyusingaM%boundarytone.Anotheroptioninvolves
the addition of a falling or rising courtesy adverbial such as por favor please, which is
generallyunaccentedandappendedtothemainclauseormaytakeariseendinginaM%
boundarytone.AsimilarcontourisattestedinVenezuelanAndeanSpanish(Astrucetal.this
volume).Thefirstoftheseoptionsisillustratedinfigure25.

Finally, in figure 26 we illustrate an insistent cajoling request with which the speaker
intends to win her interlocutors trust. Ya, ven, hombre Come on, come with us, man
consists of three rising pitch accents, the nuclear accent occurring on the vocative that
concludes the utterance. In the Chilean dialect, sentencefinal accented vocatives are
associatedwithaweightypragmaticmeaning.

274

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

ChileanSpanishIntonation

0.5

500
410
320
230
140
50

Qu

haran

sin

m?

L+>H*

L+>H*

L+H*

L%

Figure23:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortherhetoricalwhquestionQuharansinm?
Whatwouldyoudowithoutme?producedwithaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

1.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Ven

para

L+H*

ac

ahora

L+H*H-

mismo!

L+H*

L+H*

L%

Figure24:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthecommandVenparaacahoramismo!Come
hereatonce!producedwithaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

275

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Llenen

este

formulario,

por

L+>H*

!H*

favor

L-

L+H*

M%

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

Figure25:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortherequestLlenenesteformulario,porfavorFill
inthisform,pleaseproducedwithaL+H*M%nuclearconfiguration.

0.5

1.5

300
250
200
150
100
50

Ya,

ven,

L+H*

M-

hombre

L+H*

L-

L+H*

L%

Figure26:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthegentlerequestYa,ven,hombreComeon,
comewithus,manproducedwithaL+H*L%nuclearconfiguration.

276

ChileanSpanishIntonation

3.4.Vocatives

As pointed out previously (Ortiz 1994), vocatives are normally accented in utterance
initialpositioninChileanSpanish.Infinalposition,however,theaccentuationofvocatives
depends on the illocutionary force of the speech act. We can safely distinguish, then,
betweenmarkedandunmarkedfinalvocatives.ToChileanears,anaccentedvocative,which
is typical of other Spanish dialects in all situations (Castilian Spanish, for example) would
sounddefinitelyexaggeratedinthecaseillustratedinfigure27,elicitedbythecontextYou
sayhellotosomebodyyouseeeverydayatwork.Thisistheunmarkedformofaddressand
theresultisasinglepitchaccent(L*+HHH%)onholaandadeaccentedfinalvocativewhich
merely completes the rise. The accented vocative hombre seen in example 26 sounds
emotionallyinvolved.Anunaccentedvocative,whichisalsopossiblehere,wouldsoundless
enthusiastic.

Vocatives can also be used as tentative calls. Figure 28, Marina!, shows one of the
possibleversionsofthis:thecallingcontourcommonlyknownasthestylisedtone,whichisa
sustained mid pitch L+H* M%. The same configuration is also reported by ORourke et al.
with respect to Ecuadorian Andean Spanish (this volume) and is also found in Castilian
(EstebasVilaplana and Prieto this volume) and Mexican Spanish (delaMota et al. this
volume).

4.Conclusions

Thefollowingmainconclusionsmaybedrawnfromtheabovedescription:
a) ThereareanumberofcoincidencesbetweentheChileanandCastilianSpanishpitch
accentandboundarytoneinventories.ThisisthecaseofthemonotonalH*andL*
andthebitonalL+H*,L+>H*andH+L*accents.ItisalsotrueofthemonotonalH%,
L%andM%andthebitonalHH%andLH%boundarytones.
b) Thereisverylittleevidence,however,oftheexistenceofL*+Handnoevidenceof
theboundarytoneHL%.
c) L+H*anditsupsteppedversionL+H*arethemostfrequentnuclearpitchaccents,
whereas H+L* is the least frequent. As to boundary tones, the bitonal variety is of
rareoccurrence.
d) L+>H* is often realised with very little peak delay compared with other Spanish
dialects;L+H*isnotanunusualalternativeinprenuclearposition.
e) Nuclearsyllablelengtheningmaycontributesignificantlytosofteningcommandsand
turning certain yesno questions, and even statements, into indirect speech acts
involvingapleadingattitude.
f) Unmarked, final vocatives used simply to address an interlocutor, as opposed to
tentativecallsorcallingfromoveradistance,areunaccentedandmerelyappended
toaprecedingnuclearaccent.

277

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

0
300
250
200
150
100
50

Hola,

Mario

L*+H

HH%

Figure27:Waveform,spectrogramandF0tracefortheunmarkedformofaddress,utterancefinal
vocativeinHola,MarioHello,MarioproducedwithaL*+HHH%nuclearconfiguration.

Fundamental frequency (Hz)

0.5

400
330
260
190
120
50

Marina!

L+H*

M%

Figure28:Waveform,spectrogramandF0traceforthevocativeMarina!usedasatentativecall,
producedwithaL+H*M%nuclearconfiguration.

278

ChileanSpanishIntonation

Someofthemostfrequentintonationcontoursforavarietyofsentencetypesoccurring
inSantiagoChileanSpanishhavebeendescribedinthischapter.Thefollowingchartcontains
asummaryofthenuclearpitchconfigurations(finalpitchaccentandboundarytones).These
havebeenorganizedaccordingtothedifferentsentencetypes.

Table3:InventoryofnuclearpitchconfigurationsinChileanSpanishandtheirschematicrepresentations

Statements

Broadfocusstatements

L+!H*L%

!H+L*L%

Biasedstatements

Narrowfocusstatements

L+H*L%

Contradictionstatements

L+H*L%

Exclamativestatements

L+H*L%

Statementsoftheobvious

L+H*L%

Uncertaintystatements

H*M%

Questions
Yesnoquestions

Informationseekingyesno
questions

L+H*HH%

Politeyesnoquestions

L+H*HH%

L*L%

279

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

Biasedyesnoquestions

Echoyesnoquestions

L*HH%

Counterexpectationalyesno
questions

L+H*LH%

Imperativeyesnoquestions

L+H*M%

Invitationyesnoquestions

H*HH%

Confirmationyesno
questions

H+L*L%

Whquestions

Informationseekingwh
questions

L*HH%

Urgentwhquestions

L*L%

Biasedwhquestions

Echowhquestions

L*HH%

Counterexpectationalwh
questions

L+H*HH%

Imperativewhquestions

L*L%

Rhetoricalwhquestions

L+H*L%

280

ChileanSpanishIntonation

Imperatives:commandsandrequests

Commands

L+H*L%

Requests

L+H*M%

L+H*L%

Vocatives

Tentativecalls

L+H*M%

281

H.Ortiz,M.Fuentes,L.Astruc

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