The acoustic correlates of wh-phrases in Persian wh-in-situ questions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 MA Graduate in Linguistics Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Wh-questions fall into two different classes: fronted wh-questions and wh-in-situ questions. In fronted wh-questions, the wh-phrase moves to the beginning of the sentence to form a wh-question. On the other hand, in wh-in-situ questions, the wh-phrase occurs at the same site as its declarative counterpart is expected to occur. In the present experimental research, we examined the prosodic correlates of wh-phrases in Persian wh-in-situ questions to determine which factors may phonetically distinguish Persian wh-phrases from their declarative counterparts. Results suggested that the duration of the accented syllable as well as the interval between the low (L) and the high (H) tone (L-to-H interval) in wh-phrases are significantly smaller than their declarative counterparts. Regression analyses revealed that L-to-H interval is strongly correlated with the duration of the accented syllable. Furthermore, the results showed that F0 maximum, F0 mean and F0 excursion size are significantly larger in wh-phrases compared to declarative phrases. These results were interpreted as suggesting that the overall pitch contour of Persian wh-phrases in wh-in-situ questions are significantly different from their declarative counterparts, and that Persian speakers use all prosodic factors related to duration and frequency to distinguish wh-phrases from declarative ones.

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