Vanrell Maria Del Mar, Armstrong Meghan E, Prieto Pilar
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain.
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
Lang Speech. 2017 Jun;60(2):242-259. doi: 10.1177/0023830917694920.
This paper investigates the role of intonation in the marking of directly-perceived information in Majorcan Catalan polar questions. We conducted a perception experiment in which a total of 72 participants were introduced to a set of twins who were exposed to different types of evidence for a given p(roposition). One twin inferred p based on direct sensory information (via one of the five senses), while the other had been told that p by a third party, that is, reported information. Participants listened to a set of discourse contexts that ended in critical stimuli with three attested combinations of particle/intonation in this variety of Catalan: (1) polar questions produced with a falling nuclear contour ¡H+L* L%; (2) polar questions headed with the particle que 'that' produced with ¡H+L* L%; and (3) polar questions headed with the particle que and produced with a rise-fall L+H* L%. After hearing the stimulus, participants had to decide which of the twins had uttered the question-the one who inferred a proposition ( p) based on direct sensory information or the one who had been told p by a third party. The results show that listeners very consistently associate the que + L+H* L% combination with inferences drawn from direct sensory evidence as opposed to reported evidence. This shows that particles may work in tandem with intonation to convey the information source. Importantly, we show that intonation is a part of grammar that may be recruited for evidential strategies.
本文探讨了语调在马略卡加泰罗尼亚语一般疑问句中直接感知信息标记方面的作用。我们进行了一项感知实验，共有72名参与者被介绍给一组双胞胎，这组双胞胎接触到关于某个给定命题的不同类型证据。其中一个双胞胎根据直接感官信息（通过五种感官之一）推断出命题p，而另一个则是从第三方那里得知p，即传闻信息。参与者听了一组语篇语境，这些语境以关键刺激结束，在这种加泰罗尼亚语中有三种已证实的小品词/语调组合：（1）带有降调核轮廓¡H+L* L%的一般疑问句；（2）以小品词que“that”开头且带有¡H+L* L%的一般疑问句；（3）以小品词que开头且带有升降调L+H* L%的一般疑问句。听完刺激后，参与者必须决定是双胞胎中的哪一个说出了这个问题——是根据直接感官信息推断出命题（p）的那个，还是从第三方那里得知p的那个。结果表明，与传闻证据相比，听众非常一致地将que + L+H* L%组合与从直接感官证据得出的推断联系起来。这表明小品词可能与语调协同作用来传达信息来源。重要的是，我们表明语调是语法的一部分，可用于证据策略。
