The Acoustic Correlates of Wh-Phrases in Persian wWh-in-Situ Questions

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.
 
Extended abstract
1.Introduction
Wh-questions are expressions that use wh-phrases to enquire about desired information. There are two types of wh-questions: fronted wh-questions and wh-in-situ questions. In fronted wh-questions, which occur in languages such as English, the wh-phrase moves to the beginning of the sentence to form a wh-question (Carnie, 2007; Chomsky, 1977). On the other hand, there are languages, including Persian, in which the wh-phrase is not required to move to sentence-initial position to form a wh-question. In Persian, wh-questions are in situ by default (Kahnemuyipour, 2009; Karimi, 2005; Karimi & Taleghani, 2007).1 In wh-in-situ questions, the wh-phrase occurs at the same site as its declarative counterpart is expected to occur. The absence of the wh-phrase in sentence initial position in Persian wh-in-situ questions raises the question as to whether or not the prosody of a sentence is indicative of the sentence type. In addition, the occurrence of the interrogative marker at a later point in the sentence brings focus to the role of prosody in characterizing the pre-wh part (i.e., the part of the sentence before the wh-phrase) as compared with the post-wh part (i.e., the part of the sentence after the wh-phrase) of the sentence.
2.Theoretical Framework
In the autosegmental-metrical model of intonational phonology, f0 contours are composed of low and high tones (L and H, respectively) associated with prosodic boundaries or prominent, i.e. stressed syllables; these Ls and Hs are phonetically realized as a sequence of local maxima and minima, known as f0 turning points or targets. Under this approach, pitch rises and falls are essentially regarded as transitions from one turning point to another, i.e. local f0 movements are not primitives of the linguistic analysis, but are defined in terms of their beginning and ending points (Arvaniti, 2009, Gussenhoven, 2004).
3.Methodology
The materials of this experiment represent two main conditions: (i) wh-in-situ questions and (ii) declaratives. We composed a corpus of 97 sentences for each condition, which means that each participant produced 194 sentences. The wh-words used in the sentences were “who”, “which” and “what” (as singular and plural subjects), “which” and “whom” (as singular and plural objects). Twelve native speakers of standard Persian (4 males and 8 females) between the ages of 24 and 42 years participated in the production experiment. All of them were university students at different universities in Tehran. The sentences in both conditions were structured so as to be minimally different to provide the best comparison across conditions. Moreover, sentences were composed of the same number of words and syllables in both conditions. To avoid the effect of pitch perturbation caused by obstruents (Ladd, 2008), we tried to use words consisting of sonorants as much as possible. However, in some cases it was not possible to avoid certain stops, e.g. /k/ in the word kodom “which”.
4.Results and discussion
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.
5.Conclusion
Overall, the findings of the present research indicate that Persian speakers use all prosodic factors related to duration and frequency to distinguish wh-phrases from declarative ones. Thus, in the absence of the wh-phrase in sentence initial position in Persian wh-in-situ, the prosody of a sentence is indicative of the sentence type. In addition, prosody serves to characterize the pre-wh part (i.e., the part of the sentence before the wh-phrase) as compared with the post-wh part (i.e., the part of the sentence after the wh-phrase) of the sentence, when the interrogative marker occurs at a later point in the sentence.
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