Prosodic licensing in Korean wh-questions: De-phrasing and pitch reduction

• 영문명: Prosodic licensing in Korean wh-questions: De-phrasing and pitch reduction
• 발행기관: 경희대학교 언어정보연구소
• 저자명: 정희련(Heeryun Chung) 강준구(Jungu Kang)
• 간행물 정보: 『언어연구』제40권 제3호, 607~646쪽, 전체 40쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 언어학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2023.12.31

영문 초록

This paper discusses the prosody of Korean wh-questions and prosodic grouping accompanied by de-phrasing and pitch reduction. Our findings show that Jun and Oh’s (1996) observation on the wh-phrasing needs to be clarified. While they proposed a phonological condition of a wh-word forming an AP with the following word, Experiment 1 reveals wh-elements tend to be grouped with an IP boundary, ignoring any elements situated between them. Experiment 2 further clarifies that, instead of just an IP boundary, Korean wh-phrasing actually reacts to the Q-features. This can be inferred from the empirical data showing that the embedded C head of that-clause is prosodically not realized while that of if-clause is realized. Specifically, the elements between the wh-element and its licensor are prosodically reduced/deleted, indicating a possible prosodic grouping in Seoul Korean wh-questions. To explain this phenomenon, we adopt Richards’ (2016) Generalized Contiguity Theory and its notion of agreeing/selecting elements being dominated by a single prosodic node. We propose that in Korean, wh-element must also agree with its licensor by forming a unified prosodic unit, which we term Basin formation.

목차

1. Introduction

2. Background

3. E xperiment 1 : wh-phrasing effect in Korean multiple wh-questions

4. Experiment 2

5. Proposal

6. Conclusion

References

키워드

Contiguity Theory feature licensing Generalized Contiguity Match Theory pitch reduction prosody wh-questions