Recursive focus prosody

Shinichiro Ishihara; Joost van de Weijer

doi:10.1007/978-981-19-4445-1_9

Recursive focus prosody

Shinichiro Ishihara, Joost van de Weijer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

Abstract

This paper presents results of a production experiment testing the recursivity of prosodic realization of focus in Tokyo Japanese. Tokyo Japanese wh-questions obligatorily exhibit focus prosody, which starts from a wh-phrase (WH) and continues until the question particle (Q) that binds the wh-phrase (Deguchi and Kitagawa 2002; Ishihara 2002, 2003). The current study examines the case where one WH–Q dependency is embedded inside the scope of another WH–Q dependency (namely, a matrix wh-question containing an indirect wh-question, e.g., Who remembers what John drank?). The results confirmed a claim that focus prosody can be realized recursively, while they also showed inter-speaker variation as to the availability of such recursive focus prosody. The paper discusses theoretical implications on recursivity of prosodic structure as well as recursivity of information structure.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Linguistic Interfaces in East-Asian Languages
Subtitle of host publication	A Festschrift in Honor of Yoshihisa Kitagawa
Editors	Jen Ting, Yu-Yin Hsu
Publisher	Springer Nature
Pages	183-208
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-19-4445-1
ISBN (Print)	978-981-19-4444-4, 978-981-19-4447-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4445-1_9
Publication status	Published - 2024 Aug

Publication series

Name	Studies in East Asian Linguistics
ISSN (Print)	2522-5103
ISSN (Electronic)	2522-5111

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Comparative Language Studies and Linguistics

Free keywords

focus
prosody
prosodic recursion
wh-question
syntax–prosody interface
Japanese

Access to Document

10.1007/978-981-19-4445-1_9Licence: CC BY

The phonology of subordinate clauses and syntactic processing in Japanese
Ishihara, S. (PI)
2019/01/01 → 2024/12/31
Project: Research

Lund University Humanities Lab
Gullberg, M. (Manager)
Lund University Humanities Lab
Infrastructure

Cite this

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title = "Recursive focus prosody",

abstract = "This paper presents results of a production experiment testing the recursivity of prosodic realization of focus in Tokyo Japanese. Tokyo Japanese wh-questions obligatorily exhibit focus prosody, which starts from a wh-phrase (WH) and continues until the question particle (Q) that binds the wh-phrase (Deguchi and Kitagawa 2002; Ishihara 2002, 2003). The current study examines the case where one WH–Q dependency is embedded inside the scope of another WH–Q dependency (namely, a matrix wh-question containing an indirect wh-question, e.g., Who remembers what John drank?). The results confirmed a claim that focus prosody can be realized recursively, while they also showed inter-speaker variation as to the availability of such recursive focus prosody. The paper discusses theoretical implications on recursivity of prosodic structure as well as recursivity of information structure.",

keywords = "focus, prosody, prosodic recursion, wh-question, syntax–prosody interface, Japanese",

author = "Shinichiro Ishihara and {van de Weijer}, Joost",

year = "2024",

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doi = "10.1007/978-981-19-4445-1_9",

language = "English",

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series = " Studies in East Asian Linguistics ",

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booktitle = "Linguistic Interfaces in East-Asian Languages",

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}

Recursive focus prosody. / Ishihara, Shinichiro ; van de Weijer, Joost.
Linguistic Interfaces in East-Asian Languages: A Festschrift in Honor of Yoshihisa Kitagawa. ed. / Jen Ting; Yu-Yin Hsu. Springer Nature, 2024. p. 183-208 ( Studies in East Asian Linguistics ).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

TY - CHAP

T1 - Recursive focus prosody

AU - Ishihara, Shinichiro

AU - van de Weijer, Joost

PY - 2024/8

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N2 - This paper presents results of a production experiment testing the recursivity of prosodic realization of focus in Tokyo Japanese. Tokyo Japanese wh-questions obligatorily exhibit focus prosody, which starts from a wh-phrase (WH) and continues until the question particle (Q) that binds the wh-phrase (Deguchi and Kitagawa 2002; Ishihara 2002, 2003). The current study examines the case where one WH–Q dependency is embedded inside the scope of another WH–Q dependency (namely, a matrix wh-question containing an indirect wh-question, e.g., Who remembers what John drank?). The results confirmed a claim that focus prosody can be realized recursively, while they also showed inter-speaker variation as to the availability of such recursive focus prosody. The paper discusses theoretical implications on recursivity of prosodic structure as well as recursivity of information structure.

AB - This paper presents results of a production experiment testing the recursivity of prosodic realization of focus in Tokyo Japanese. Tokyo Japanese wh-questions obligatorily exhibit focus prosody, which starts from a wh-phrase (WH) and continues until the question particle (Q) that binds the wh-phrase (Deguchi and Kitagawa 2002; Ishihara 2002, 2003). The current study examines the case where one WH–Q dependency is embedded inside the scope of another WH–Q dependency (namely, a matrix wh-question containing an indirect wh-question, e.g., Who remembers what John drank?). The results confirmed a claim that focus prosody can be realized recursively, while they also showed inter-speaker variation as to the availability of such recursive focus prosody. The paper discusses theoretical implications on recursivity of prosodic structure as well as recursivity of information structure.

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KW - prosody

KW - prosodic recursion

KW - wh-question

KW - syntax–prosody interface

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SN - 978-981-19-4447-5

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BT - Linguistic Interfaces in East-Asian Languages

A2 - Ting, Jen

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ER -

Recursive focus prosody

Abstract

Publication series

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Free keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

The phonology of subordinate clauses and syntactic processing in Japanese

Equipment

Lund University Humanities Lab

Cite this