Intonation

Abstract

Abstract Australian languages display many intonational features that are similar to other intonation languages. The overall intonational profile of languages that have fully worked out intonational systems suggests that they show demarcative phrasal prosody with strong right-edge marking contours. The dominant declarative intonational contour is falling, and rising or mid- to high level tunes signal discourse continuation. More distinctive patterns are also evident. Question intonation resembles patterns associated with narrow focus and imperative intonation resembles patterns associated with an extreme upwards reset of pitch range at the beginning of the intonational phrase. Other distinctive tunes include linear lengthening intonation used for specific semantic affect and there are particular contours associated with various expressive functions. Focus prosody is strongly associated with position in the utterance with the focal constituent often syntactically dislocated or fronted, and realized in its own intonational phrase and realized in expanded pitch range relative to surrounding non-focal material.