The pitch contour in WH‐questions

Abstract

The fundamental frequency (F0) contour of WH‐questions was investigated in three experiments. In experiment 1, WH‐questions were compared in context and in isolation. On the last content word of a WH‐question in context, higher peaks and steeper slopes on the fall‐rise pattern were found. No significant difference was measured for the WH‐word. In experiment 2, F0 declination lines were compared for pairs of sentences with high phonetic similarities, one being a WH‐question, the other a declarative sentence. The slopes were seen to be significantly steeper for the WH‐question than for the declaratives. Although the slopes differ for sentences in context and isolation, significance tests suggest that this is not an effect due to the questioning or declarative nature of the sentence. In summary, it has been seen that a steeper declination line is a distinguishing feature of WH‐questions as opposed to declaratives, while prominent fall‐rise patterns appear to serve semantic purposes. Measurements to establish...