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Related Experiment Videos

Prosodic structure and wh-questions.

K Straub1, C Wilson, C McCollum

  • 1Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2685, USA. kstraub@jhu.edu

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
|September 1, 2001
PubMed
Summary
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Syntactic gaps in sentences do not influence speech prosody. Previous research suggested gaps affected pitch and word length, but this study shows those findings were due to other factors.

Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Phonetics
  • Syntax

Background:

  • Previous research suggested syntactic gaps influence prosodic contour.
  • Specifically, a filler-gap dependency was claimed to explicitly encode gap location in phonological representation.
  • Evidence included pre-gap word lengthening and increased pitch excursion across gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To challenge the claim that syntactic gaps are explicitly encoded in the phonological representation of spoken utterances.
  • To investigate the influence of wh-gaps on prosodic contour, controlling for confounding factors.
  • To re-evaluate the phonological encoding of filler-gap dependencies.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of spoken utterances containing wh-gaps.
  • Controlled experimental design to separate the effect of gaps from other prosodic factors.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Examination of prosodic features such as word duration and pitch excursion.

    • Main Results:

    • The study found no evidence that syntactic gaps are explicitly encoded in the phonological representation.
    • Previously observed prosodic effects associated with gaps were attributed to confounding factors.
    • Separating these factors eliminated the evidence for gap-specific prosodic encoding.

    Conclusions:

    • The phonological representation of sentences does not appear to explicitly encode the location of syntactic gaps.
    • Prosodic variations previously linked to gaps are likely influenced by independent intonational phrasing factors.
    • The findings challenge the hypothesis that filler-gap dependencies have a direct impact on speech prosody.