@article{GotznerSpalek2022,
  author    = {Gotzner, Nicole and Spalek, Katharina},
  title     = {Expectations about upcoming discourse referents},
  series = {International review of pragmatics : IRP},
  volume    = {14},
  journal   = {International review of pragmatics : IRP},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Brill},
  address   = {Leiden},
  issn      = {1877-3095},
  doi       = {10.1163/18773109-01401003},
  pages     = {77 -- 94},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {In the current study, we explore how different information-structural devices affect which referents conversational partners expect in the upcoming discourse. Our main research question is how pitch accents (H*, L+H*) and focus particles (German nur `only' and auch 'also') affect speakers' choices to mention focused referents, previously mentioned alternatives or new, inferable alternatives. Participants in our experiment were presented with short discourses involving two referents and were asked to orally produce two sentences that continue the story. An analysis of speakers' continuations showed that participants were most likely to mention a contextual alternative in the condition with only and the L+H* conditions, followed by H* conditions. In the condition with also, in turn, participants mentioned both the focused/accented referent and the contextual alternative. Our findings highlight the importance of information structure for discourse management and suggest that speakers take activated alternatives to be relevant for an unfolding discourse.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ChenHoehle2018,
  author    = {Chen, Aoju and H{\"o}hle, Barbara},
  title     = {Four- to five-year-old' use of word order and prosody in focus marking in Dutch},
  series = {Linguistics Vanguard},
  volume    = {4},
  journal   = {Linguistics Vanguard},
  publisher = {De Gruyter},
  address   = {Berlin},
  issn      = {2199-174X},
  doi       = {10.1515/lingvan-2016-0101},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {This study investigated Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds' use of word order and prosody in distinguishing focus types (broad focus, narrow focus, and contrastive narrow focus) via an interactive answer-reconstruction game. We have found an overall preference for the unmarked word order SVO and no evidence for the use of OVS to distinguish focus types. But the children used pitch and duration in the subject-nouns to distinguish focus types in SVO sentences. These findings show that Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds differ from their German- and Finnish-speaking peers, who show evidence of varying choice of word order to mark specific focus types, and use prosody to distinguish focus types in subject and object nouns in both SVO and OVS sentences. These comparisons suggest that typological differences in the relative importance between word order and prosody can lead to differences in children's use of word order and prosody in unmarked and marked word orders. A more equal role of word order and prosody in the ambient language can stimulate more extensive use of prosody in the marked word order, whereas a more limited role of word order can restrict the use of prosody in the unmarked word order.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SauermannHoehle2018,
  author    = {Sauermann, Antje and H{\"o}hle, Barbara},
  title     = {Word order in German child language and child-directed speech},
  series = {Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Ubiquity Press LTD},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2397-1835},
  doi       = {10.5334/gjgl.281},
  pages     = {32},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {We report two corpus analyses to examine the impact of animacy, definiteness, givenness and type of referring expression on the ordering of double objects in the spontaneous speech of German-speaking two- to four-year-old children and the child-directed speech of their mothers. The first corpus analysis revealed that definiteness, givenness and type of referring expression influenced word order variation in child language and child-directed speech when the type of referring expression distinguished between pronouns and lexical noun phrases. These results correspond to previous child language studies in English (e.g., de Marneffe et al. 2012). Extending the scope of previous studies, our second corpus analysis examined the role of different pronoun types on word order. It revealed that word order in child language and child-directed speech was predictable from the types of pronouns used. Different types of pronouns were associated with different sentence positions but also showed a strong correlation to givenness and definiteness. Yet, the distinction between pronoun types diminished the effects of givenness so that givenness had an independent impact on word order only in child-directed speech but not in child language. Our results support a multi-factorial approach to word order in German. Moreover, they underline the strong impact of the type of referring expression on word order and suggest that it plays a crucial role in the acquisition of the factors influencing word order variation.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SimikWierzba2017,
  author    = {Simik, Radek and Wierzba, Marta},
  title     = {EXPRESSION OF INFORMATION STRUCTURE IN WEST SLAVIC: MODELING THE IMPACT OF PROSODIC AND WORD-ORDER FACTORS},
  series = {Language : journal of the Linguistic Society of America},
  volume    = {93},
  journal   = {Language : journal of the Linguistic Society of America},
  publisher = {Linguistic Society of America},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0097-8507},
  doi       = {10.1353/lan.2017.0040},
  pages     = {671 -- 709},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The received wisdom is that word-order alternations in Slavic languages arise as a direct consequence of word-order-related information-structure constraints such as 'Place given expressions before new ones'. In this article, we compare the word-order hypothesis with a competing one, according to which word-order alternations arise as a consequence of a prosodic constraint: 'Avoid stress on given expressions'. Based on novel experimental and modeling data, we conclude that the prosodic hypothesis is more adequate than the word-order hypothesis. Yet we also show that combining the strengths of both hypotheses provides the best fit for the data. Methodologically, our article is based on gradient acceptability judgments and multiple regression, which allows us to evaluate whether violations of generalizations like 'Given precedes new' or 'Given lacks stress' lead to a consistent decrease in acceptability and to quantify the size of their respective effects. Focusing on the empirical adequacy of such generalizations rather than on specific theoretical implementations also makes it possible to bridge the gap between different linguistic traditions and to directly compare predictions emerging from formal and functional approaches.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PattersonEsaulovaFelser2017,
  author    = {Patterson, Clare and Esaulova, Yulia and Felser, Claudia},
  title     = {The impact of focus on pronoun resolution in native and non-native sentence comprehension},
  series = {Second language research},
  volume    = {33},
  journal   = {Second language research},
  publisher = {Sage Publ.},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {0267-6583},
  doi       = {10.1177/0267658317697786},
  pages     = {403 -- 429},
  year      = {2017},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KueglerGenzel2012,
  author    = {K{\"u}gler, Frank and Genzel, Susanne},
  title     = {On the prosodic expression of pragmatic prominence The case of pitch register lowering in Akan},
  series = {Language and speech},
  volume    = {55},
  journal   = {Language and speech},
  number    = {9},
  publisher = {Sage Publ.},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {0023-8309},
  doi       = {10.1177/0023830911422182},
  pages     = {331 -- 359},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {This article presents data from three production experiments investigating the prosodic means of encoding information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put target words either in wide, informational, or corrective focus, or in one of the experiments also in pre-focal or post-focal position rendering it as given. The prosodic parameters F0 and duration were measured on the target words. Duration is not consistently affected by information structure, but contrary to the prediction that High (H) and Low (L) tones are raised in ex situ (fronted) focus constructions we found a significantly lower realization of both H and L tones under corrective focus in ex situ and in situ focus constructions. Givenness does not seem to be marked prosodically. The data suggest that pragmatic prominence is expressed prosodically by means of a deviation from an unmarked prosodic structure. Results are thus contradicting the view of the effort code that predicts a positive correlation of more effort resulting in higher F0 targets.},
  language  = {en}
}