Imperatives in European Portuguese: a perception approach

In European Portuguese (EP), intonation has a grammatical function. In the available research in EP intonation, production imperatives are said to have an F0 risingfalling contour of large amplitude and are described as having an intonation contour similar to wh-questions, although they present rhythmic differences (Viana, 1987). A possible increase in pitch span was also reported. Two perception experiments were developed to identify sound-sequence features of imperative intonation prototype. The results showed that the major intonation distinction between declaratives and imperatives in EP was related both with local events, that determine utterance contour shape, namely F0 movements, and global events that locate F0 levels.