Acknowledgement or reply? prosodic features for disambiguating pragmatic functions of the italian token ‘sì’

This paper explores the role of some prosodic features in disambiguating three different pragmatic meanings of the multifunctional Italian token `sì' (yes), namely: a) acknowledgement with passive recipiency (implying the speaker intention of yielding the turn), b) acknowledgement with incipient speakership (implying the speaker intention of taking the turn), and c) positive reply to a yes-no question. Pragmatic and prosodic analysis of Bari Italian Map Task dialogues indicates that F0 contour on its own is a reliable cue for discriminating a) from b) and c), whereas it is uneffective for b) vs c) distinction, since in a) the terminal contour is predominantly rising, whereas in both b) and c) it is falling. However, for the b) vs c) distinction other prosodic parameters can play a role, namely duration, intensity and F0 range. We also reported a number of cases where `sì' tokens of type a) are also characterised by a falling F0 contour, making them impossible to distinguish from b) and c) types. For these cases, we found indications that other prosodic features could play a disambiguation role.