Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2150, USA.
Cognition. 2011 Apr;119(1):58-69. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.005. Epub 2011 Jan 14.
Listeners' comprehension of phrase final rising pitch on declarative utterances, or uptalk, was examined to test the hypothesis that prolongations might differentiate conflicting functions of rising pitch. In Experiment 1 we found that listeners rated prolongations as indicating more speaker uncertainty, but that rising pitch was unrelated to ratings. In Experiment 2 we found that prolongations interacted with rising pitch when listeners monitored for words in the subsequent utterance. Words preceded by prolonged uptalk were monitored faster than words preceded by non-prolonged uptalk. In Experiment 3 we found that the interaction between rising pitch and prolongations depended on listeners' beliefs about speakers' mental states. Results support the theory that temporal and situational context are important in determining intonational meaning.
本研究旨在考察在陈述句中（即所谓的“上扬语调”），句末升调的音长是否可以区分音高上扬的不同功能，以验证音长可能会使功能相悖的音高得以区分的假设。在实验 1 中，我们发现，虽然听众认为延长音长能够表明说话者更加不确定，但延长音长与音高并无关联。在实验 2 中，当听众在后续话语中对目标词进行监控时，我们发现延长音长与音高的相互作用影响了对目标词的监控。与非延长的上扬语调相比，在延长的上扬语调之后，目标词的监控速度更快。在实验 3 中，我们发现音高和延长音之间的相互作用取决于听众对说话者心理状态的信念。研究结果支持了这样一种理论，即时间和情境语境对于确定语调的意义是非常重要的。
