Prosodic encoding of topic and focus in mandarin

Bei Wang, Yi Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we investigate whether and how focus and topic can be separately encoded in Mandarin. A total of 60 sentences with three lengths and five tone combinations were recorded in four topic-focus conditions: initial focus, new topic, implicit topic and given topic, by six speakers. The results of acoustic analysis show that new topic is encoded with a raised pitch range on the initial word. Focus, in contrast, is encoded with an expanded pitch range on the focused word and a suppressed pitch range on the subsequent words.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody
Publication statusPublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event3rd International Conference on Speech Prosody, SP 2006 - Dresden, Germany
Duration: 2 May 20065 May 2006

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