The Role of Tonal Onglides in German Nuclear Pitch Accents. (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ritter, Simon; Grice, Martine
• Other Names: Butler Joseph guest-editor.; Cruz Marisa guest-editor.; Vigário Marina guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Language and speech. Volume 58:Number 1(2015:Mar.)
• Page Start: 114
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: Intonation -- leading tone -- off-ramp -- on-ramp -- perception -- pitch accent -- pragmatic meaning trailing tone; Language and languages -- Periodicals; Speech -- Periodicals; Language disorders -- Periodicals; Speech disorders -- Periodicals; 401.9
• DOI: 10.1177/0023830914565688
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0023-8309

Abstract

A perception experiment with native German listeners provided evidence for the relevance of the tonal onglide in nuclear accents – the pitch movement leading towards the target on the accented syllable. Listeners were able to distinguish between two pragmatic meanings of a short phrase (given/non-contrastive and new/contrastive) using the tonal onglide as the sole acoustic cue. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the onglide merits a phonological status in an intonation model of German and should not be regarded as merely phonetic detail.