The influence of expectations on tonal cues to prominence. (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Röhr, Christine T.; Baumann, Stefan; Grice, Martine
• Is Part Of: Journal of phonetics. Volume 94(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Prosodic prominence -- Pitch accent -- Tonal onglide -- Expectation -- Context -- Production -- Perception; Phonetics -- Periodicals; Phonetics -- Periodicals; Phonétique -- Périodiques; Phonetics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 414.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wocn.2022.101174
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0095-4470

Abstract

Highlights: Exciting information bears more prominent pitch accents than neutral information. Exciting information bears more rising pitch accents and larger rises. This also means fewer falling pitch accents and, when there are falls, smaller excursions. Individuals differ in how they use both categorical and gradient encoding of this dimension. Listeners can use accentual cues to how exciting information is expected to be. Abstract: Contexts such as "Guess what happened yesterday" lead to expectations as to how unusual and exciting the content of a following utterance will be. This paper investigates how speakers encode this pragmatic meaning in their productions and further evaluates the findings from the listeners' perspective. Contexts in which the speaker is required to make information exciting for the listener lead to target words being made more prominent, with more frequent use of rising accents and larger rising tonal onglides than information placed in a neutral or ordinary context. Conversely, ordinary information is made less prominent by means of fewer and smaller rising onglides as well as more and larger falling onglides. Individual speakers convey this information in different but systematically compatible ways, supporting a view of intonational phonology that integrates qualitative pitch accent categories and quantitative phonetic parameters. Listeners' ratings of the contexts and the production stimuli confirm the interpretation of the intended meanings and the role of the tonal onglide: A large rising onglide (as in L+H*) on the target word clearly leads to the interpretation of unusual/exciting information, whereas a small rising onglide (as in H*) or falling onglides (as in H+!H* and H+L*) do not.