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On the Prosodic Expression of Pragmatic Prominence: The Case of Pitch Register Lowering in Akan

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Title: On the Prosodic Expression of Pragmatic Prominence: The Case of Pitch Register Lowering in Akan
Language: English
Authors: Kugler, Frank, Genzel, Susanne
Source: Language and Speech. Sep 2012 55(3):331-359.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 29
Publication Date: 2012
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Tone Languages, Foreign Countries, Pragmatics, Linguistic Theory, Intonation, Phonology, African Languages, Suprasegmentals, Correlation, Prediction
Geographic Terms: Ghana
DOI: 10.1177/0023830911422182
ISSN: 0023-8309
Abstract: This article presents data from three production experiments investigating the prosodic means of encoding information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put target words either in wide, informational, or corrective focus, or in one of the experiments also in pre-focal or post-focal position rendering it as given. The prosodic parameters F0 and duration were measured on the target words. Duration is not consistently affected by information structure, but contrary to the prediction that High (H) and Low (L) tones are raised in "ex situ" (fronted) focus constructions we found a significantly lower realization of both H and L tones under corrective focus in "ex situ" and "in situ" focus constructions. Givenness does not seem to be marked prosodically. The data suggest that pragmatic prominence is expressed prosodically by means of a deviation from an unmarked prosodic structure. Results are thus contradicting the view of the effort code that predicts a positive correlation of more effort resulting in higher F0 targets. (Contains 6 figures, 1 table and 10 notes.)
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 114
Entry Date: 2012
Accession Number: EJ976942
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
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  Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
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  Data: This article presents data from three production experiments investigating the prosodic means of encoding information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put target words either in wide, informational, or corrective focus, or in one of the experiments also in pre-focal or post-focal position rendering it as given. The prosodic parameters F0 and duration were measured on the target words. Duration is not consistently affected by information structure, but contrary to the prediction that High (H) and Low (L) tones are raised in "ex situ" (fronted) focus constructions we found a significantly lower realization of both H and L tones under corrective focus in "ex situ" and "in situ" focus constructions. Givenness does not seem to be marked prosodically. The data suggest that pragmatic prominence is expressed prosodically by means of a deviation from an unmarked prosodic structure. Results are thus contradicting the view of the effort code that predicts a positive correlation of more effort resulting in higher F0 targets. (Contains 6 figures, 1 table and 10 notes.)
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      – SubjectFull: Ghana
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