Investigation of nonpitch-accented phrases in Brazilian Portuguese: no evidence favoring stress shift

The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) to investigate possible differences in durational patterns within phrase stress groups contrasting stress clash vs nonclash condition, and (b) to test the assumptions of a coupled-oscillator model of speech rhythm production. Measures of duration for relevant units in isolated read sentences uttered by four subjects were statistically analyzed and tonal events were annotated. The pattern that emerges from the analyses is that of a monotonous increasing of duration of syllable-sized units when approaching phrasal stress. These results contradict the Rhythm Rule and seem to indicate that no apparent, systematic, duration-related stress shift seems to take place in Brazilian Portuguese. 1