Between fall and fall-rise: substance-function relations in German phrase-final intonation contours.

Area of Science:

• Phonetics
• Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• German intonation features a falling (F) and falling-rising (FR) contour.
• A novel contour, falling with a slight rise at the end (FSR), exists on a phonetic continuum between F and FR.
• The communicative functions of F, FR, and FSR are hypothesized to be terminal, non-terminal, and pseudo-terminal, respectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the phonetic and communicative functions of the FSR intonation contour in German.
• To test the hypothesis that F, FR, and FSR contours serve distinct communicative roles.
• To determine if FSR is perceived differently from F and FR in terms of conclusiveness, politeness, and dominance.

Main Methods:

• A corpus study of spontaneous German speech to gather phonetic data on F, FR, and FSR contours.
• A perceptual experiment using a semantic differential scale with 49 listeners.
• Listeners judged 17 systematically generated stimuli on nine semantic scales, including politeness and conclusiveness.

Main Results:

• Both F and FSR contours were associated with conclusive statements.
• The FR contour was more frequently perceived as marking a question.
• FSR was distinguished from F by a lack of perceived categoricalness, dominance, or impoliteness.

Conclusions:

• The FSR contour serves a pseudo-terminal communicative function, distinct from the terminal F and non-terminal FR contours.
• The slight rise in FSR mitigates the perception of dominance and impoliteness associated with the purely falling F contour.
• Results support the frequency code hypothesis, where acoustic modifications signal functional consequences like reduced perceived dominance.