It is well known that English marks the categories of information packaging, i.e. Topic, Focus, and Contrast, by pitch accents; the type of accent speakers use for this purpose, however, is a matter of substantial controversy. One of the tonal distinctions most widely discussed in this regard is Jackendoff’s (1972) account of Bolinger’s (1958) A- and B-accent. Despite its widespread adoption, the distinction between two accent types for Topic and Focus respectively remains problematic. The data in Hedberg and Sosa (2007), who study spontaneously produced utterances from American English, suggest that such a one-to-one relationship between pragmatic categories and prosodic features is questionable on empirical grounds. What is more is that a systematic investigation of both the information packaging and prosody of spontaneous, spoken utterances along the lines of Hedberg and Sosa (2007) is rare in the literature, as much of the research explores the issue by means of constructed examples or experimental approaches.
Against this background, my talk will explore the prosodic realisation of Topic, Focus, and Contrast in spontaneously produced British English. The data and corresponding audio files are taken from ICE-GB and analysed pragmatically in Riester, Brunetti and De Kuthy’s (2018) Question-under-Discussion framework as well as prosodically in the Tones and Breaks Indices (ToBI) annotation system. In this talk, I hope to show that, once the relevant pragmatic categories are identified on the basis of strict discourse-based principles, a more systematic picture of the interface of information packaging and prosody emerges.
Datum und Uhrzeit: 11.11.2026, 17:00h - 18:30h
Ort: Merangasse 70, 8010 Graz, SR 33.3.211
Teilnahme auch über Zoom möglich: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/66653336109?pwd=R8R1wzjPQUyvNU01vmstGC4MmzQh4x.1
Meeting-ID: 666 5333 6109
Kenncode: 950932
