Big accents and PP-phrasing in Swedish

Sara Myrberg
Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University

I discuss the definition of the Phonological Phrase, PP, in Swedish. In much previous work on Swedish no distinction has been made between the PP and the intonation phrase, IP (cf. e.g. Hansson 2003). In Myrberg (2010) however, I claimed that such a distinction should be made. This claim was however, based on a relatively small data set. Several questions were left unanswered, primarily relating to the distribution of PP edges and the phonological status of accents that appear close to the left edge of an IP (so-called initiality accent).
In this talk, I present a dataset designed to answer these questions, and to provide a solid empirical base for the definition of the PP in Swedish. Five Stockholm Swedish speakers read in total 1200 sentences. The clause initial constituent (subject) was controlled for length (2, 3, 4, or 5 Prosodic Words) and information structure (given vs. focus). I discuss the distribution of different types of accents in the clause initial subject of these sentences (big accent and small accent, previously referred to as focal accent and word accent).
The distribution of big accents in the dataset implies that the distinction between PP and IP should be upheld in Swedish, as was argued by Myrberg (2010). In several respects, the PP in Swedish is similar to the phonological phrase/intermediate phrase that has been assumed for the West Germanic languages.
However, I also argue, counter to my previous analysis and counter to what is commonly assumed for West Germanic languages, that PP heads can be aligned with either the right or the left edge of the PP. Left alignment of PP heads is common in the leftmost PP of an Intonation Phrase.
Further, the dataset allows generalizations regarding optionality and variation in terms of the distribution of PP edges. I show that the preverbal constituent obligatorily forms at least one PP, but that it may optionally form multiple PPs (primarily when it is long). There is also variation in terms of the left- vs. right headedness of (sequences of) PPs in the clause initial constituent.