Sentence planning and f0 scaling in Wenzhou Chinese

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of constituent length and syntactic complexity on f0 pre-planning in Wenzhou Chinese. We compared the scaling of constituent-initial f0 peaks in sentences with identical syntactic structure (SVO) and different constituent lengths (1–3 words in the subject/object) to determine whether f0 pre-planning spans over the entire utterance or is confined locally to sub-constituents. Furthermore, different types of embedded clauses with the same length were tested to assess the influence of syntactic structures on sentential f0 scaling.Results showed that initial f0 peak within the subject or object varied mainly as a function of the length of the respective constituent, with only subtle influence from their respective other constituent, suggesting that f0 scaling in Wenzhou Chinese is determined primarily by the length of the target constituent. The scope of planning, however, cannot be categorically confined to the sub-constituents and instead, is graded over the whole utterance with strong activation over the subject phrase and weak activation over the object phrase. For sentences with embedded clauses, there was a significantly steeper f0 peak/valley drop across a clause boundary than that across a phrasal boundary, suggesting a tight mapping between major syntactic structure and prosodic planning.