Focus and intonation in Japanese
- This paper discusses how focus changes prosodic structure in Tokyo Japanese. It is generally believed that focus blocks the intonational process of downstep and causes a pitch reset. This paper presents experimental evidence against this traditional view by looking at the prosodic behavior of Wh words, which receive focus lexically in Japanese as in other languages. It is demonstrated, specifically, that the focused Wh element does not block downstep although it receives a much higher pitch than its preceding element. This suggests that presence of lexical focus does not trigger pitch reset in Japanese.
Author details: | Haruo Kubozono |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24472 |
ISSN: | 1866-4725 |
ISSN: | 1614-4708 |
Title of parent work (German): | Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 |
Subtitle (German): | Does focus trigger pitch reset? |
Publisher: | Universitätsverlag Potsdam |
Place of publishing: | Potsdam |
Editor(s): | Shinichiro Ishihara, Svetlana Petrova, Anne Schwarz |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Publication year: | 2007 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2008/10/21 |
Tag: | Downstep; Focus; Intonation; Japanese; Pitch Reset |
Volume: | 9 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 27 |
Source: | Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Prosody, Syntax, and Information Structure (WPSI 2). - Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2007. - S. 1 - 28. - (Interdisciplinary studies on information structure ; 9) |
RVK - Regensburg classification: | ER 300 |
Organizational units: | Extern / Extern |
Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik | |
DDC classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632, ISSN 1866-4725 / ISIS (2007) 09 |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft |
License (German): | Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
External remark: | erschienen in: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Prosody, Syntax, and Information Structure (WPSI 2). -Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2007 - 118 S.(Interdisciplinary studies on information structure ; 9) ISSN 1866-4725 URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22234 |