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KMID : 0917520030100020319
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Journal of Speech Sciences
2003 Volume.10 No. 2 p.319 ~ p.338
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A Study on the Sentence Final Tonal Patterns and the Meaning of English Wh-Questions
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Kim Hwa-Young
Lee Dong-Wha
Kim Kee-Ho
Lee Yong-Jae
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Abstract
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The aim of this paper is to examine the sentence final tonal patterns of English wh-questions through phonetic experiments, based on Intonational Phonology, and to explain the meaning of the final phrase tones of English wh-questions. Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg (1990) suggested that it is pitch accents rather than boundary tones which play a crucial role in the meaning of a sentence, and that most of the general questions have H-H% tonal patterns in the sentence final. However, they could not explain why wh-questions had final falling tonal patterns (L-L%). While Bartels (1999) suggested that L phrase tone has the meaning of ’ASSERTION’ and it could be applied to the explanation of the meaning of wh-questions’ final tonal patterns. However, her suggestions are only theoretical explanation without any experimental support. In this paper, based on Bartels (1999), the data was classified into the following three classes: 1) echo wh-questions, 2) reference questions, and 3) common wh-questions. Using this data, a production test by three English native speakers was conducted. The results show that reference questions and common wh-questions have L phrase tones in the sentence final at a high rate, and echo wh-questions have H phrase tones in the sentence final at a high rate.
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KEYWORD
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Wh-questions, Echo Wh-questions, Reference Questions, Intonation, Intonational Phonology, Pitch Accent, Phrase Tone
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