German sentence accent revisited

  • Results of a production experiment on the placement of sentence accent in German are reported. The hypothesis that German fulfills some of the most widely accepted rules of accent assignment— predicting focus domain integration—was only partly confirmed. Adjacency between argument and verb induces a single accent on the argument, as recognized in the literature, but interruption of this sequence by a modifier often induces remodeling of the accent pattern with a single accent on the modifier. The verb is rarely stressed. All models based on linear alignment or adjacency between elements belonging to a single accent domain fail to account for this result. A cyclic analysis of prosodic domain formation is proposed in an optimality-theoretic framework that can explain the accent pattern. Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explainedResults of a production experiment on the placement of sentence accent in German are reported. The hypothesis that German fulfills some of the most widely accepted rules of accent assignment— predicting focus domain integration—was only partly confirmed. Adjacency between argument and verb induces a single accent on the argument, as recognized in the literature, but interruption of this sequence by a modifier often induces remodeling of the accent pattern with a single accent on the modifier. The verb is rarely stressed. All models based on linear alignment or adjacency between elements belonging to a single accent domain fail to account for this result. A cyclic analysis of prosodic domain formation is proposed in an optimality-theoretic framework that can explain the accent pattern. Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of Multiple Spell-Out in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a wh-phrase to a phase edge position causes a mismatch between FI and wh-scope. Both predictions are tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Caroline FéryORCiDGND, Laura Herbst
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8273
ISSN:1614-4708
ISSN:1866-4725
Title of parent work (German):Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632
Editor(s):Shinichiro Ishihara, Michaela Schmitz, Anne Schwarz
Publication type:Article
Language:English
Publication year:2004
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Contributing corporation:Sonderforschungsbereich 632 Informationsstruktur <Potsdam>
Release date:2006/09/07
Tag:Information structure; Prosody; Syntax
Issue:1
First page:43
Last Page:75
Source:Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632. - Vol. 1
RVK - Regensburg classification:ER 300
Further contributing person(s):Ishihara, Shinichiro , Schmitz, Michaela , Schwarz, Anne (eds.)
Organizational units:Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Collection(s):Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632, ISSN 1866-4725 / ISIS (2004) 01
Institution name at the time of the publication:Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:erschienen in:
Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; Working papers of the SFB 632. - Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2004. - (ISIS ; 1)
URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8237

zugleich in Printform erschienen im Universitätsverlag Potsdam.
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