Between Fall and Fall-Rise : Substance-Function Relations in German Phrase-Final Intonation Contours
(2005) In Phonetica 62(2-4). p.196-214- Abstract
- This study investigates an intonation contour of German whose status has not been established yet: a globally falling contour with a slight rise at the very end of the phrase (FSR). The contour may be said to lie on a phonetic continuum between falling (F) and falling-rising (FR) contours. It is hypothesized that F, FR and FSR differ with respect to their communicative functions: F is terminal, FR is non-terminal, and FSR is pseudo-terminal, respectively. The hypotheses were tested in two steps. First, measurements in a labelled corpus of spontaneous speech provided the necessary background information on the phonetics of the contours. In the second step, the general hypothesis was approached in a perceptual experiment using the paradigm... (More)
- This study investigates an intonation contour of German whose status has not been established yet: a globally falling contour with a slight rise at the very end of the phrase (FSR). The contour may be said to lie on a phonetic continuum between falling (F) and falling-rising (FR) contours. It is hypothesized that F, FR and FSR differ with respect to their communicative functions: F is terminal, FR is non-terminal, and FSR is pseudo-terminal, respectively. The hypotheses were tested in two steps. First, measurements in a labelled corpus of spontaneous speech provided the necessary background information on the phonetics of the contours. In the second step, the general hypothesis was approached in a perceptual experiment using the paradigm of a semantic differential: 49 listeners judged 17 systematically generated stimuli on nine semantic scales, such as ‘impolite/polite’. The hypotheses were generally confirmed. Both F and FSR were associated with a conclusive statement, while FR was more likely to be judged as marking a question. FSR differs from F in that it does not express features such as categoricalness, dominance or impoliteness. The results are interpreted as an instance of the frequency code: the addition of a slight rise means avoidance of extremely low F0; the functional consequence is a reduction of communicated dominance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/157763
- author
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- intonation, prosody, fall-rise, phrase-final, semantic differential, pseudo-terminal, terminal, frequency code, dominance
- in
- Phonetica
- volume
- 62
- issue
- 2-4
- pages
- 19 pages
- publisher
- Karger
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000234303100010
- scopus:29744464107
- pmid:16391503
- ISSN
- 1423-0321
- DOI
- 10.1159/000090098
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
- id
- 95339495-61a7-40c0-b172-073686446bb8 (old id 157763)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:59:02
- date last changed
- 2023-09-29 17:17:27
@article{95339495-61a7-40c0-b172-073686446bb8,
abstract = {{This study investigates an intonation contour of German whose status has not been established yet: a globally falling contour with a slight rise at the very end of the phrase (FSR). The contour may be said to lie on a phonetic continuum between falling (F) and falling-rising (FR) contours. It is hypothesized that F, FR and FSR differ with respect to their communicative functions: F is terminal, FR is non-terminal, and FSR is pseudo-terminal, respectively. The hypotheses were tested in two steps. First, measurements in a labelled corpus of spontaneous speech provided the necessary background information on the phonetics of the contours. In the second step, the general hypothesis was approached in a perceptual experiment using the paradigm of a semantic differential: 49 listeners judged 17 systematically generated stimuli on nine semantic scales, such as ‘impolite/polite’. The hypotheses were generally confirmed. Both F and FSR were associated with a conclusive statement, while FR was more likely to be judged as marking a question. FSR differs from F in that it does not express features such as categoricalness, dominance or impoliteness. The results are interpreted as an instance of the frequency code: the addition of a slight rise means avoidance of extremely low F0; the functional consequence is a reduction of communicated dominance.}},
author = {{Ambrazaitis, Gilbert}},
issn = {{1423-0321}},
keywords = {{intonation; prosody; fall-rise; phrase-final; semantic differential; pseudo-terminal; terminal; frequency code; dominance}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2-4}},
pages = {{196--214}},
publisher = {{Karger}},
series = {{Phonetica}},
title = {{Between Fall and Fall-Rise : Substance-Function Relations in German Phrase-Final Intonation Contours}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000090098}},
doi = {{10.1159/000090098}},
volume = {{62}},
year = {{2005}},
}