The prosody of corrective focus and its domain in Korean

Abstract

Speakers place focus on specific linguistic elements using systematic modulations to highlight new or important information. Focus effects have primarily been studied for domains larger than a segment, such as syllables or words. By eliciting focus on segment-sized units using a corrective focus task, this study examines at what granularity or scope speakers manifest focus and its acoustic consequences for consonants differing in gestural and tonal compositions. Data were obtained from 16 native Korean speakers producing corrective focus on segments having varying syllable-internal positions (i.e., onset, nucleus, versus coda focus) and varying segmental compositions (i.e., tense and lax consonants). The results indicate that the patterns of focus modulation do not differ depending the on anticipated sub-syllabic focus position but rather are exhibited through the syllable. This suggests that the domain of focus extends beyond segment-sized intervals. Moreover, focus is manifested with systematic variations as a function of the gestural compositions active during its domain. Finally, there is some support for an interaction among multiple prosodic gestures—focus gestures and accentual phrase tone gestures. Overall, evidence suggests that focus has a syllable-sized (or larger) scope of effect that is sensitive to co-active articulatory and prosodic (tonal) gestures. [Work supported by NIH.]