Intonation and interface conditions
Name
54490974-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
1.55 MB
Format
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Checksum (MD5)
31578f0984b3dc478ef43c970c725c5d
Author(s)
Ishihara, Shinichiro, 1973-
Advisor(s)
David Pesetsky.
Date Issued
2003
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The thesis presents a theoretical and experimental investigation of the interaction between focus intonation pattern (FIP) and certain syntactic phenomena-especially those involving wh-questions-in Japanese. A phonological mechanism of FIP formation is proposed that accounts for the variety of FIPs observed in various syntactic configurations. In the FIPs of Japanese wh-questions, the F0 of wh-phrases is raised, and the F0 of following phrases is lowered. There is a correlation between the domain of Fo-lowering and the scope of the wh-phrase. In a matrix wh-question, Fo-lowering after the wh-phrase continues until the end of the sentence, while in the case of an indirect wh-question, it stops at the end of the embedded clause. I account for this FIP- Wh-scope correspondence as follows. A pair of phonological rules is proposed that manipulate the prominence relations between semantically focalized phrases and post-focus phrases. These rules apply cyclically during the course of syntactic derivations, rather than waiting until the whole sentence is syntactically composed. Adopting the Multiple Spell-Out analysis (Chomsky, 2000, 2001b), I propose that the phonological rules for FIP formation apply to Spell-Out domains, rather than to a whole sentence. This proposal departs from previous analyses of FIP in Japanese (Truckenbrodt, 1995; Selkirk, 2003; Sugahara, 2003) in two respects: (1) it does not refer to prosodic phrasing; and (2) it is based on a cyclic model instead of a single-output model. The analysis makes the following prediction: if there are two wh-phrases that take different scopes in a single sentence, two independent FIPs will be created at different Spell-Out domains. This prediction was tested instrumentally. The results show that such a pitch contour is possible, and confirms other predictions as well.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2003.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-184).
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Subjects
Linguistics and Philosophy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
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