Department of German Language and Literature I - Linguistics.
Department of Linguistics, Institute of Linguistics - Phonetics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Neuroreport. 2020 May 22;31(8):624-628. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000001453.
Accentuation influences selective attention and the depth of semantic processing during online speech comprehension. We investigated the processing of semantically congruent and incongruent words in a language that presents cues to prosodic prominences in the region of the utterance occurring after the focussed information (the post-focal region). This language is Italian, in particular the variety spoken in Bari. In this variety, questions have a compressed, post-focal accent, whereas in statements there is a low-level pitch in this position. Using event-related potentials, we investigated the processing of congruent and incongruent target words with two prosodic realizations (focussed with accentuation, post-focal realization) and in two-sentence modalities (statement, question). Results indicate an N400 congruence effect that was modulated by position (focal, post-focal) and modality (statement, question): processing was deeper for questions in narrow focus than in post-focal position, while statements showed similar pronounced N400 effects across positions. The attenuated N400 difference for post-focal targets in questions was accompanied by a more enhanced late positivity when they were incongruent, indicating that attentional resources are allocated during updating of speech act information.
重音会影响在线言语理解过程中的选择性注意和语义加工的深度。我们研究了在一种语言中语义一致和不一致的单词的处理，这种语言在焦点信息（焦点后区域）之后的话语区域中提供韵律突出的线索。这种语言是意大利语，特别是巴里方言。在这种方言中，疑问句有一个压缩的焦点后重音，而陈述句在这个位置上则是低调。使用事件相关电位，我们研究了具有两种韵律实现（强调焦点，焦点后实现）和两种句子模态（陈述句、疑问句）的一致和不一致目标词的加工。结果表明，N400 一致性效应受到位置（焦点、焦点后）和模态（陈述句、疑问句）的调制：在窄焦点疑问句中，处理过程比焦点后位置更深，而陈述句在各个位置都表现出相似的显著 N400 效应。疑问句中焦点后目标的 N400 差异减弱，同时当它们不一致时，晚期正性波增强，这表明在更新言语行为信息时，注意力资源被分配。
