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The intonation of wh- and yes/no-questions in Tokyo Japanese

Ishihara, Shinichiro LU orcid (2017) In Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 91. p.339-415
Abstract
The paper reports experimental results on the intonation of wh- and yes/no-questions in Tokyo Japanese, and discusses several implications for the semantic and phonological theories of focus. The intonation of declarative sentences, wh-questions, and yes/no-questions are systematically compared. The results show that the wh-question exhibits an F0-prominence on the wh-phrase, while the yes/no-question exhibits an F0-prominence on the verb. It is claimed that these prominences are both focus-oriented. This proposal fits the standard semantic theory of questions (Hamblin 1973) nicely. Phonological theories of focus prosody in Tokyo Japanese are compared in the light of the results. The interaction... (More)
The paper reports experimental results on the intonation of wh- and yes/no-questions in Tokyo Japanese, and discusses several implications for the semantic and phonological theories of focus. The intonation of declarative sentences, wh-questions, and yes/no-questions are systematically compared. The results show that the wh-question exhibits an F0-prominence on the wh-phrase, while the yes/no-question exhibits an F0-prominence on the verb. It is claimed that these prominences are both focus-oriented. This proposal fits the standard semantic theory of questions (Hamblin 1973) nicely. Phonological theories of focus prosody in Tokyo Japanese are compared in the light of the results. The interaction of the notions of focus and discourse-newness/givenness are also discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
intonation, wh-question, yes/no-questions, Japanese, focus, givenness
host publication
Contrastiveness in information structure, alternatives and scaler implicatures
series title
Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
editor
Lee, Chungmin ; Kiefer, Ferenc and Krifka, Manfred
volume
91
pages
339 - 415
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000413017200020
  • scopus:85101547695
ISSN
0924-4670
ISBN
978-3-319-10106-4
978-3-319-10105-7
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-10106-4_19
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3422849d-1b49-4ea6-b4e9-c7e9a3bbe4d2
date added to LUP
2017-02-26 15:26:30
date last changed
2025-01-07 08:28:23
@inbook{3422849d-1b49-4ea6-b4e9-c7e9a3bbe4d2,
  abstract     = {{The paper reports experimental results on the intonation of <i>wh</i>- and yes/no-questions in Tokyo Japanese, and discusses several implications for the semantic and phonological theories of focus. The intonation of declarative sentences, <i>wh</i>-questions, and yes/no-questions are systematically compared. The results show that the <i>wh</i>-question exhibits an F<sub>0</sub>-prominence on the wh-phrase, while the yes/no-question exhibits an F<sub>0</sub>-prominence on the verb. It is claimed that these prominences are both focus-oriented. This proposal fits the standard semantic theory of questions (Hamblin 1973) nicely. Phonological theories of focus prosody in Tokyo Japanese are compared in the light of the results. The interaction of the notions of focus and discourse-newness/givenness are also discussed.}},
  author       = {{Ishihara, Shinichiro}},
  booktitle    = {{Contrastiveness in information structure, alternatives and scaler implicatures}},
  editor       = {{Lee, Chungmin and Kiefer, Ferenc and Krifka, Manfred}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-319-10106-4}},
  issn         = {{0924-4670}},
  keywords     = {{intonation; wh-question; yes/no-questions; Japanese; focus; givenness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{339--415}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory}},
  title        = {{The intonation of <i>wh</i>- and yes/no-questions in Tokyo Japanese}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10106-4_19}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-319-10106-4_19}},
  volume       = {{91}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}