Intonational means to mark Verum focus in German and French

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Phonetics
• Pragmatics

Background:

• The prosody-pragmatics interface in German and French exhibits differences, particularly in focus-to-accent mapping.
• German is thought to have a direct focus-to-accent mapping, whereas French is constrained by structural factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the intonational marking of Verum Focus in German and French using a semi-spontaneous dialogue setting.
• To examine how pragmatic information (Verum Focus) interacts with structural constraints in accentuation.

Main Methods:

• Semi-spontaneous dialogue setting to elicit natural language use.
• Intonational analysis of utterances, focusing on Verum Focus contexts, especially with auxiliaries.
• Comparison of accent patterns and prominence in German and French.

Main Results:

• German auxiliaries were predominantly accented in Verum Focus contexts, as predicted.
• French Verum Focus contexts showed a significant number of focal accents on phrase-initial auxiliaries.
• French exhibited a shift in accent prominence towards initial elements in Verum Focus, indicating a structural constraint interaction.

Conclusions:

• German aligns with the expectation of direct focus-to-accent mapping for Verum Focus.
• French also marks Verum Focus with focal accents, particularly on initial auxiliaries, but this is modulated by structural constraints.
• The findings suggest a nuanced interaction between pragmatic function and phonological structure in French intonation.