TONAL AND ARTICULATORY MARKING OF FOCUS IN GERMAN

Abstract

A production study on read German speech shows an increase in prominence-lending parameters as the focus domain is narrowed, or when contrast is ex-pressed over non-contrast. Prominence-lending pa-rameters included tonal and durational cues (e.g. nu-clear pitch accent type and scaling, duration of seg-ments and syllables) as well as those relating to su-pralaryngeal articulation (e.g. formant values of vow-els in nuclear syllables). These cues are exploited by different speakers to different degrees and in different combinations, but are all used for signalling aspects of focus.