Intonation Phrase formation in German narrow focus constructions

Fabian Schubö
University of Stuttgart

This study tests for the impact of focus and givenness on the prosodic phrasing of sentences with clausal embedding in German. Prior works showed that givenness leads to prosodic reduction in form of ‘deaccentuation’ and pitch accent compression (e.g. Féry & Kügler 2008); it is unclear, however, if the presence of given elements also influences prosodic phrase structure, in particular the formation of Intonation Phrases (ι). In the framework of Prosodic Phonology (Nespor & Vogel 1986), ι-phrases are grounded in the syntactic clause: While root clauses obligatorily coincide with ι-phrase boundaries, embedded clauses trigger their insertion on an optional basis (Downing 1970 for English, Truckenbrodt 2005 for German). Clause boundaries and givenness may thus be hypothesized to constitute opposing forces in the formation of ι-phrase structure: Clause boundaries enforce the insertion of ι-phrase boundaries whereas given elements may prevent them. Furthermore, the length and the prosodic weight of constituents can be assumed to have an influence.
The present study shows that pre- and post-focal givenness reduces the ι-phrase structure in sentences with clausal embedding, thus overriding the force of the internal clause edge to trigger an ι-phrase boundary. In the framework of an elicited production study, sentences with an extraposed object clause, as illustrated in (1), were tested under three focus conditions: first, with broad focus; second, with a narrow focus on the object of the main clause (Lehrer ‘teacher’), i.e., preceding the internal clause edge; and, third, with a narrow focus on the subject of the embedded clause (Manuel), i.e., following the internal clause edge. The unfocussed material was explicitly given in a preceding context question. The results reveal that speakers regularly insert an ι-phrase boundary in the broad focus condition, but not in the narrow focus conditions; a narrow focus in the main clause prevents the insertion of an ι-phrase boundary in almost all cases whereas a narrow focus in the embedded clause leads to variability in ι-phrase formation. The reduction of ι-phrase structure in the narrow focus conditions is accounted for by means of prominence manipulation in the post-focal area.

(1) Cornelius will dem Lehrer melden, dass Manuel eine Brille gestohlen hat.

‘Cornelius wants to report to the teacher that Manuel stole a pair of glasses.’