Multiple focus in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract Xu (1999) reported that a single (non-sentence-final) focus in Mandarin Chinese has the phonetic effect of F 0 raising in the focus and F 0 lowering and compression following the focus. In this paper, results of an experiment on multiple (non-sentence-final) focus in Mandarin Chinese are reported, with baseline conditions single focus and no focus. The single focus conditions showed the expected effects. In the multiple focus conditions, only the second of two foci shows phonetic F 0 effects, while the first focus does not show such F 0 effects. Duration measurements also provide no clear evidence for a phonetic focus effect on the first of the two foci. The analysis we suggest, combining suggestions of Schwarzschild (1999) and Selkirk (2005) , is that one focus in a focus-construction attracts intonation phrase stress, and that the phonetic effects are triggered by intonation phrase stress, rather than by the F-feature that marks focus.

[1]  Elisabeth Selkirk.  The Syntax‐Phonology Interface , 2011 .

[2]  Carlos Gussenhoven,et al.  Sentence accents and argument structure , 1992 .

[3]  Rpg Rene Collier,et al.  Focus Conditions and the Prominence of Pitch-Accented Syllables , 1996 .

[4]  Bruce Hayes,et al.  Bengali intonational phonology , 1991 .

[5]  Chilin Shih,et al.  Quantitative measurement of prosodic strength in Mandarin , 2003, Speech Commun..

[6]  A. Prince,et al.  On stress and linguistic rhythm , 1977 .

[7]  Hubert Truckenbrodt.  The syntax–phonology interface , 2007 .

[8]  Carlos Gussenhoven,et al.  Intonation and interpretation: phonetics and phonology , 2002, Speech Prosody 2002.

[9]  D. Ladd.  Even, Focus, and Normal Stress , 1983 .

[10]  Paul de Lacy,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology , 2012 .

[11]  Sónia Frota,et al.  Prosodies : with special reference to Iberian languages , 2005 .

[12]  Mariko Sugahara,et al.  Post‐focus prosodic phrase boundaries in Tokyo Japanese: asymmetric behavior of an f0 cue and domain‐final lengthening* , 2005 .

[13]  Iggy Roca.  Thematic structure : its role in grammar , 1992 .

[14]  Chilin Shih,et al.  Prosody modeling with soft templates , 2003, Speech Commun..

[15]  Ray Jackendoff,et al.  Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar , 1972 .

[16]  W E Cooper,et al.  Acoustical Characteristics of Sentential Focus: Narrow vs. Broad and Single vs. Dual Focus Environments , 1986, Language and speech.

[17]  Fang Liu,et al.  Parallel Encoding of Focus and Interrogative Meaning in Mandarin Intonation , 2005, Phonetica.

[18]  Roger Schwarzschild,et al.  GIVENNESS, AVOIDF AND OTHER CONSTRAINTS ON THE PLACEMENT OF ACCENT* , 1999 .

[19]  Yi Xu,et al.  Effects of tone and focus on the formation and alignment of f0contours , 1999 .

[20]  Shunde Jin,et al.  An acoustic study of sentence stress in Mandarin Chinese , 1996 .

[21]  B. Hayes.  Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies , 1995 .

[22]  Chilin Shih.  Tonal effects on intonation , 2004 .

[23]  Daniel Büring,et al.  Towards a Typology of Focus Realization , 2008 .

[24]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Sound Pattern of English , 1968 .

[25]  Mats Rooth.  A theory of focus interpretation , 1992, Natural Language Semantics.

[26]  E. Gårding.  Speech Act and Tonal Pattern in Standard Chinese: Constancy and Variation , 1987, Phonetica.

[27]  Kriszta Szendroei,et al.  Focus and the syntax-phonology interface , 2001 .

[28]  Carlos Gussenhoven,et al.  Emphasis and tonal implementation in Standard Chinese , 2008, J. Phonetics.

[29]  J. Goldsmith,et al.  The handbook of phonological theory , 2011 .

[30]  Julia Hirschberg,et al.  The Influence of Pitch Range, Duration, Amplitude and Spectral Features on the Interpretation of the Rise-Fall-Rise Intonation Contour in English , 1992 .

[31]  Martine Grice,et al.  Prosodic marking of focus domains - categorical or gradient? , 2006, Speech Prosody 2006.

[32]  Robert Asher,et al.  The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics , 1995 .

[33]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress and Phrasing , 1996 .

[34]  S. Baumann,et al.  TONAL AND ARTICULATORY MARKING OF FOCUS IN GERMAN , 2007 .

[35]  Hubert Truckenbrodt,et al.  Phonological phrases : their relation to syntax, focus, and prominence , 1995 .

[36]  Sónia Frota,et al.  Comments on Intonational Phrasing in English , 2005 .

[37]  J. Pierrehumbert.  The phonology and phonetics of English intonation , 1987 .

[38]  Shalom Lappin,et al.  当代语义理论指南 = The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory , 2015 .

[39]  C. Gussenhoven.  The phonology of tone and intonation , 2004 .

[40]  D. Bolinger.  Intonation and its parts : melody in spoken English , 1987 .

[41]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Contrastive FOCUS vs. presentational focus: prosodic evidence from right node raising in English , 2002, Speech Prosody 2002.

[42]  San Duanmu,et al.  The Phonology of Standard Chinese , 2001 .

[43]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Bengali Intonation Revisited: An Optimality Theoretic Analysis in which FOCUS Stress Prominence Drives FOCUS Phrasing , 2008 .