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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.

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Metadaten
Author details:Haruo Kubozono
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):License LogoKeine 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
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