The Study of Prosody-Pragmatics Interface with Focus Functioning as Pragmatic Markers: The Case of Question and Statement

Abstract

This paper investigated that based on [22] ‘s perspective that Pragmatic Markers (PMs) are realized mainly through prosody between native speakers and non-native speakers, when focus functions as pragmatic markers, whether pragmatic factors from non-native speakers restrict the realization of Pragmatic Markers through prosody leading to misunderstanding in intercultural communication, in the case of declarative questions and statements. Pitch contours of 17 Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners (non-native speakers)’ sentences were compared with that of six native speakers using four sentences from AESOP. The results demonstrated that native speakers and non-native speakers indeed realized pragmatic markers (focused words) through prosodic cues (pitch range), but differed in the way of realization for pragmatic markers, leading to pragmatic misunderstanding. This paper proves [22] ‘s opinion and demonstrates that pragmatic elements from transfer, L2 teaching, proficiency of non-native speakers constraint prosodic ways for realizing pragmatic markers, which indicates conventionality in cross-culture conversation.