Phonology/syntax Interface Workshop January, 18th 2012

1. The intonational system and the prosodic hierarchy of Embosi (Bantu, C25)Annie Rialland&Martial Embanga AborobonguiLaboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, CNRS/Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France Phonology/syntax Interface Workshop January, 18th 2012

2. Embosi, a Bantu language (C 25) spoken in Congo (Brazzaville) The estimated number of speakers is 108.000 in the cuvette Region. (Ethnologue) There are also Embosi speakers in Brazzaville and in the diaspora. Part of Congo-Brazzaville (from Ethnologue)

3. Overview • 1) Tonology of Embosi, a 2T language without downstep Tonal rules associated with hiatus reductions • 2) Intonation of Embosi • Prosodic Phrases? • Domain for register determination • Intonational Phrases (Intermediate IPs and IPs) • « superimposed » boundary tones • adual register model to account for the relationship between tones and boundary tones • a prosodic hierarchy without Phonological Phrase

4. Tonology • Hiatus reduction • Tonal rules associated to hiatus reduction, which are the main tonal rules in Embosi

5. Hiatus reductions (1) • Hiatus reductions occur both within and between Phonological Words. Rules vary slightly depending upon the domains. • We will consider rules occurring between Phonological Words: • Coalescence when a is followed by i : a + i => e/ ɛ 1. (ngá) ω+ (í -lémbi) ω (ngélémbi) IP 1sg SM1sg. REC- get lost “I got lost” • Loss of the first vowel in other contexts : 2. (o -yúlu)ω + (á -kɔ́si) ω (oyúlakɔ́si) IP cl 1-woman SM cl 1.REC – get wounded “The woman got wounded.” 3. (ɔ- saβili)ω + ( a -ndɔrɔ )ω (ɔsaβilandɔrɔ) IP cl 1-interpret cl 6 -dream “The one who interprets dreams”

6. Hiatus reductions (2) Hiatus reduction between PW applies anywhere within a a clause (or a sentence?), when there is no pause: 4. ( tááláaβelóotúlámwána) IP (mɛ ngóadimwánoβelóotúl ɛɛ) IP (táá) ω ( láaβelá) ω (otúlá) ω (mwána) ω ( mɛ)ω (ngóo) ω (adi) ω the father can deny a child but the mother AUX (mwána) ω (oβelá) ω(otúla ɛɛ)ω child can (inf) negate NEG “ A father can deny a child but a mother cannot deny a child.” 5. (nɔsáa lóopfúβobosómíilára líikándá) IP (nɔ ) ω (ɔ-sáa ) ω (lóo-pfúβa ) ω(o-bosó) ω(míilára) ω you do before with washing before dressing ( líi-kándá ) ω with clothes « You wash before you dress."

7. Tonal rules associated with hiatus reduction • L+L -> L • 13(ɛ -bɛlɛ )ω+ (e-kúlú) ω (ɛbɛlekúlú) IP cl7. thigh – cl7. short “A short thigh“ • H+H -> H • 14(gnɔsí)ω + (á-bɔɔ́) ω (gnɔsábɔɔ́) IP cl 1-bird SM.cl 1. PAST- get rotten “The bird got rotten.”

8. *No contour on a mora (1) • H + L L (stem)H + L • 15 (gnɔsí) ω + (a-di) ω + (βa)  (gnɔsádiβa) IP cl 1.bird SM cl 1- be there “The bird is there.” The avoidance of HL on a mora is triggered by OCP (L + L  L).

9. *No contour on a mora (2) • L + H H (stem)L + H • 16. (ngɔlɔ)ω + (á-sÉmbi) ω (ngɔlasÉmbi) IP L + H-H L-H cl.1.silure – SM. cl 1.REC -ferment “The silure fermented” The avoidance of LH on a mora is triggered by OCP (H+ H  H)

10. *No contour on a mora (3)when OCP cannot apply (a). • H + L H (stem)H + L + H μ μ μ All moras are kept. 17 (e-dunú)ω + (o-yúlu) ω (edunóoyúlu) IP H + L-H HL-H cl.7. old – cl.1. woman “the old woman”

11. *No contour on a mora (5)when OCP cannot apply (b). • L + H L (stem) H + L The LH contour on a mora is avoided and reduced to H. • 18 ( mwána) ω + ( á-pasi) ω + ( ɛ -bɔ́li) ω (mwánápasɛbɔ́li) IP L H L H H L cl 1. child SM cl 1.REC- tear lips “The child had his lips torn”

12. Intonation & prosodic constituents • Prosodic Phrases ? • Determination of the register • Intermediate Intonational Phrases -«Superimposed» H% boundary tones. • Intonational Phrases -«Superimposed» boundary tones.

13. Corpora 1) a read corpus of 90 utterances, designed in order to study relatives and read by the second author (Corpus: “Relatives”) 2) A 10 minutes-interview (with 150 IPs), about a family problem, recorded by the second author in Brazzaville (Corpus: “Ambara”). The interviewee (in his sixties) is bilingual (Embosi/French). 3) A 8 minutes-interview about traditional songs and their composition, recorded by the second author in Brazzaville (Corpus: “songs”). The interviewee (in her fifties) is basically monolingual in Embosi with some knowledge of French. 4) 30 isolated utterances, recorded by the second author

14. Prosody of a one-clause-sentence L% lowering H pen IP The girls are playing near the river ( Read corpus: « Relatives ») No downstep, L % superimposed on H -> last H is realised very low -> penultimate H plateau is lowered

15. Prosody of a sentence with a relative clause(realised as a single IP) L% The girls who can swim are playing near the river lowering H pen. (Read corpus: « Relatives »)

16. Prosody of a cleft sentence(realised with a register lowering on the relative clause) L% PP IP It is the girls who are playing drums Register lowering on PP ( Read corpus: « Relatives »)

17. Prosody of a sentence involving 2 Intermediate IPs L% InIP IntIP IP [You have] no reason or you have no right to organize the burying of this person H% superimposed on the last H of the IP (corpus interview: Ambara)

18. Prosody of a sentence with a topic(realised with an Intermediate IPs) PP IntIP IP nowand the-in-laws form an entity the mother’s father TOPIC (corpus interview: Ambara) H% superimposed on the last H of the IP

19. Prosody of a sentence with 2 PP PP It is me as I am Mbosi of Boundji As Mbosi of Boundji (corpus interview: song) Register expansion and raising In the dialog, « Mbosi of Boundji » is contrasted with Teke, Kukuya…

20. «Prosodic phrases»: • Characteristics: register domains • Role : expressing the «focus/givenness» dimension

21. Are «Prosodic phrases» constituents or not? • A similar question have been asked about constrastive focus in Japanese which is signaled by register expansion with two answers: • 1) Focus, post-focus... form prosodic constituents (Intermediate IPs in a recursive structure) as proposed by Kubozono (2007) • 2) Focus does not form a prosodic constituent • Freeing focus from prosodic phrasing • Ishihara (2005)

22. Intermediate Intonational Phrases, Intonational Phrases and«superimposed» Boundary Tones

23. Boundary tones and tones:a dual-register organisation There is no downstep or register modification triggered by the H/L tonal alternation. • The register is determined at the level of PP. • Boundary tones are superimposed at the level of IP • Boundary tones are realised higher or lower than tones, which results in a dual register organisation: H% H L L% PP IP

24. Scalings of T% • L% are realized at the bottom of the speaker’s register, as in English (Maeda 1976) and many other languages. • H% • H% are realised higher than any tone in a given utterance or at the same level as tones realised on an « emphatic » register. • H% are realised at the top of a speaker’s pitch range in a given utterance.

25. Various relationships between « boundary tones » and tones in Bantu languages • Local superimposition in Shekgalagari, Hyman & Monaka (2008, TIE3) • Superimposition over a domain « The interaction of tone and intonation in Jita yes/no questions » Downing 1989 • In Jita polar questions, all the tones are raised until the last H tone: H B H B H B B B L% is associated to the 2nd mora of 00 and HH words

26. « Linearised » boundary tones in a Bantu language: the case of Chichewa L% L% et H% are added at the end of the utterance, after the tonal realisation. H% Myers S., 1996, Boundary tones and the phonetic implementation of tone in Chichewa, Studies in African Linguistics, vol. 25.1

27. Distribution of Boundary tones • Intermediate Intonational Phrases • H% at the end of topics • H% at the end of non final clauses (similar role as continuation rises) • Intonational Phrases • H% at the end of yes/no question utterances • L% at the end of assertive utterances and -wh questions • as in Sotho (Zerbian 2006), IPs are aligned with the right edge of Inflexional SyntacticPhrases (basically the root clause).

28. No phonological phrase • Hiatus reduction occurs between any Phonological Word in a clause (or utterance) if the context of the rule is met (no pause). • There is no penultimate lengthening and no grouping of the kind which can be found in Chichewa, for example: • (a) (Subj) (VP) – Kanerva (1990: 102, fig (112)) (fíisi]) (a-na-dyá ḿ-káango]) cl1.hyena1subj-pst1-eat cl3-lion ‘The hyena ate the lion.’ (b)(Subj) (VP) (Top) – (Kanerva 1990: 107, fig (123b)) (mwaána]) (a-na-ḿ-pézá kú-dáambo]) (gaálu]) cl1.child 1subj-pst1-1obj-find Loc-cl5.swampcl1.dog • Another Bantu languages has been analysed without PhP : Northern Sotho (Zerbian 2006)..

29. Conclusion In Embosi, a 2 tone language without downstep, we propose an analysis with: • No Phonological Phrases (as in Sotho) • Prosodic Phrases (focus/givenness dimension). • Intermediate Intonational Phrases and Intonational Phrases with « superimposed » boundary tones . - a dual-register-model to account for the relationship between tones and boundary tones.

30. This research is part of a French-German cooperative project: « Syntax/phonology interface in Bantu languages » (« SymPhonI » or « BantuPSyn »). Directed by L. Downing & A. Rialland Funded by the French ANR and the German DFG. involving: - ZAS (Berlin) - Laboratory of Phonetics & Phonology (CNRS/3 Paris) - Dynamique du langage (CNRS/Lyon 2)

31. Thank you for your attention