Wh-question or wh-declarative? Prosody makes the difference

Speech Communication, vol. 118, pp. 21–32

Abstract

Mandarin wh -words can have question or non-question (e.g., existential, universal quantificational) interpretations. Their interpretations in a sentence are usually not ambiguous, as the distinct interpretations need to be licensed by particular items/contexts. The starting point of our study concerns a case which allows the wh -words to remain ambiguous in a sentence: wh -words such as shénme appearing with diǎnr . After empirically confirming that such sentences are indeed ambiguous (Study 1), we turn to the question of whether and how prosody helps disambiguate such sentences. Our production experiment (Study 2) shows that wh -declaratives differ from wh -questions in terms of prosodic properties already from the clause onset. Wh -declaratives are longer than wh -questions starting from the subject and the pattern reverses at the wh -word; wh -declaratives are lower in F0 and smaller in F0 range than wh -questions at the wh -word and there is a F0 range compression in the post- wh -word region in wh -questions; wh -declaratives show larger intensity range than wh -questions at the verb and the pattern reverses at the wh -word. An implication of this study concerns the focal status of wh -words in wh -questions and wh -declaratives: wh -words are foci in wh -questions but cannot be foci in wh -declaratives.

Authors 2

1. Stella Gryllia Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, The Netherlands

2. Lisa Lai‐Shen Cheng Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, The Netherlands