The influence of syntax on prosodic structure in Japanese

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the syntactic and prosodic structures of utterances which are structurally ambiguous. Two experiments were conducted involving ambiguous noun phrases (right-versus left-branching) and relative clause constructions containing an adjunct with ambiguous scope of modification. Results of careful examination of the F0 contours and downstepping patterns reveal that inter-and intra-speaker variability as well as depth of syntactic embedding are important factors in determining the prosodic phrasing.