Break indices of level 4 (BI 4) correspond to the end of major prosodic units, that is, they mark the boundaries of intonational phrases, or IPs. The main cues of level 4 are the following: the presence of boundary tones, pauses, as well as strong pre-boundary lengthening. Importantly, BI 4 inhibits the application of many sandhi rules such as vowel deletion, vowel coalescence, gliding, and fricative voicing.
For more information, see Prieto et al. (2015) and Vanrell & Prieto (2024).
Example
On vas, com hi vas i quan tornaràs?
[Where are you going, how are you getting there and when will you be back?]
In this example, there are six prosodic words assembled in three intonational phrases. The three phrases on vas, com hi vas and quan tornaràs are constituted of two PrWords each one, they finish with low boundary tones L%, and they are followed by a pause. Thus, these three phrases are three IPs, and must be separated by a break index of level 4.
- To see how to discriminate between BI 3 and BI 4: click here
