Informative contract and prosody in the Spanish of Buenos Aires

Abstract

The informative contract on three cognitive categories of the mental representation of referents: activation, semi-activation, inactivation states has been explored. Semi-spontaneous discourses were taken from experimental interactions among three male informants (speakers of Buenos Aires Spanish dialect) and the listener, the researcher. Tonal prominences were analysed through intonational contours on pairs of contrasted words. Findings have shown this tonal tendency: the highest prominences correlated with inactive states, the lowest prominences with active and semi-active states.