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The phonology of second occurrence focus

Féry, Caroline and Ishihara, Shinichiro LU orcid (2009) In Journal of Linguistics 45(2). p.285-313
Abstract

This paper investigates the question of whether and how Second Occurrence Focus (SOF) is realized phonetically in German. The apparent lack of phonetic marking on SOF has raised much discussion on the semantic theory of focus (Partee 1999, Rooth 1992). Some researchers have reported the existence of phonetic marking of SOF in the postnuclear area (Rooth 1996, Beaver et al. 2007). In our experimental study with German sentences, we examined sentences both with prenuclear SOF and with postnuclear SOF, comparing them with their first occurrence focus (FOF) and non-focus counterparts. The results show that the phonetic prominence of focus (higher pitch/longer duration) is realized differently according to the type of focus as well as... (More)

This paper investigates the question of whether and how Second Occurrence Focus (SOF) is realized phonetically in German. The apparent lack of phonetic marking on SOF has raised much discussion on the semantic theory of focus (Partee 1999, Rooth 1992). Some researchers have reported the existence of phonetic marking of SOF in the postnuclear area (Rooth 1996, Beaver et al. 2007). In our experimental study with German sentences, we examined sentences both with prenuclear SOF and with postnuclear SOF, comparing them with their first occurrence focus (FOF) and non-focus counterparts. The results show that the phonetic prominence of focus (higher pitch/longer duration) is realized differently according to the type of focus as well as according to the position of the target expression. We account for these differences by considering several phonetic effects, those that are information-structure-related and those that are phonologically motivated.

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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Linguistics
volume
45
issue
2
pages
285 - 313
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:74349095731
ISSN
0022-2267
DOI
10.1017/S0022226709005702
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
1db57e05-1c6d-41ec-859d-28685c95ec4f
date added to LUP
2019-03-07 22:14:22
date last changed
2022-04-18 03:05:46
@article{1db57e05-1c6d-41ec-859d-28685c95ec4f,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper investigates the question of whether and how Second Occurrence Focus (SOF) is realized phonetically in German. The apparent lack of phonetic marking on SOF has raised much discussion on the semantic theory of focus (Partee 1999, Rooth 1992). Some researchers have reported the existence of phonetic marking of SOF in the postnuclear area (Rooth 1996, Beaver et al. 2007). In our experimental study with German sentences, we examined sentences both with prenuclear SOF and with postnuclear SOF, comparing them with their first occurrence focus (FOF) and non-focus counterparts. The results show that the phonetic prominence of focus (higher pitch/longer duration) is realized differently according to the type of focus as well as according to the position of the target expression. We account for these differences by considering several phonetic effects, those that are information-structure-related and those that are phonologically motivated.</p>}},
  author       = {{Féry, Caroline and Ishihara, Shinichiro}},
  issn         = {{0022-2267}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{285--313}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Linguistics}},
  title        = {{The phonology of second occurrence focus}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022226709005702}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S0022226709005702}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}