Project Details
Projekt
Towards a prosodic grammar for rhetorical questions
Subject Area
General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
Term
from 2016 to 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 240796339
The first phase of the project investigated the prosodic realization of rhetorical questions (RQs) vs. information-seeking questions (ISQs) mainly in German, but also Icelandic and English, in two question types (polar questions, wh-questions). The project yielded important cross-linguistics insights in the prosodic reflexes of illocution type (RQ vs. ISQ). RQs differ from ISQs in their prosodic realization, both in phonology and phonetics. Phonologically, polar RQs in German were mainly realized with H-% (high plateau), while polar ISQs mostly ended in H-^H% (high-rise). Wh-RQs almost exclusively terminated in a low edge tone (L-%), whereas wh-ISQs allowed for more tonal variation (L-%, L-H%, H-^H%). Crucially, a distinction between rising and falling intonation is insufficient – against some of the existing semantic literature. Irrespective of question type, RQs were mainly produced with a special kind of L*+H accent, in which both tonal targets were aligned with the stressed syllable – henceforth (L+H)*. Phonetically, RQs were more often realized with breathy voice quality in the beginning of the utterance than ISQs, and they were produced with longer constituent durations than ISQs. The object noun was particularly lengthened. The main objective of the second phase of the project is to work towards a prosodic grammar of RQs. This involves: (a) testing the existence of the new accent type category (L+H)* and possibly add it to the tonal inventory of at least German, (b) determine the well-formed combinations of the phonological (pitch accents, boundary tones) and phonetic cues (duration, voice quality, pitch range) identified in the first phase, and (c) work out which of the cues and which specifications are language-specific, and which are part of the grammar of more than one language. Specifically, we further elaborate on the relevant prosodic cues in two more German varieties (Northern German, Bern Swiss German), with a focus on the (L+H)* accent, as well as on non-tonal cues to RQs in Icelandic (voice quality, duration). In four large-scale perception experiments, complemented by neurolinguistic evidence, we investigate the well- formedness of prosodic realizations of RQs in German and Icelandic. In addition, we include two further languages, which differ from German and Icelandic in their prosodic systems: two varieties of Italian as a syllable-timed language, and Mandarin Chinese as a tone language. These languages pose different constraints on the relevant prosodic cues to signal RQs (duration, F0). In addition to the prosody- pragmatics interface (prosodic cues to illocution type), one further aspect of the project is the focus on the phonology-phonetics interface, e.g. the compositional nature of the phonological and phonetic cues to illocution type.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Subproject of
FOR 2111:
Questions at the Interfaces (QI)
