pISSN: 1598-3293

영어영문학연구, Vol.61 no.2 (2019)
pp.173~188

DOI : 10.18853/jjell.2019.61.2.009

A Preliminary Report on the Interaction between Prosodic Focus and Sentence Length

Lee, Yong-cheol

(Cheongju University)

Using a production experiment, this study tested the hypothesis that longer sentences induce higher pitch in the initial position as compared to shorter sentences, thus providing a greater advantage for focus prosody. This hypothesis was formulated based on two premises from previous studies: 1) sentence-initial pitch tends to be higher in longer sentences, and 2) higher pitches exert a greater influence on focus prosody relative to lower pitch, in terms of pitch values. In the production experiment, target stimuli varied by the numbers of words within a sentence (three, four, five, or seven words), and they were embedded in a question-and-answer pair to successfully elicit discourse-new focus on a particular position (that is, initial position in this study) within a sentence. The results of the production experiment revealed the emergence of a significant positive correlation between prosodic focus and sentence length. This means that when the number of words is longer, the size of the pitch peak also increases gradually in marking prosodic focus. The results of this study provide a valuable implication that higher pitches, whether lexical or post-lexical, seem to be more favorable to prosodic marking of focus within a single language.
  영어,음높이,발화,운율 초점,문장 길이

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