Is there 'dephrasing' of the accentual phrase in Japanese?

Abstract

An experiment was carried out in order to examine two putative cases of 'dephrasing' of the accentual phrase in Japanese. The result revealed that it was possible to detect the accentedness of seemingly 'dephrased' accentual phrases in most of the cases. Although f0 contours of the accentual phrases in question are quasi-linear, we can detect their accentedness through the statistical examination of slope and intercept values of the regression lines fitted to the f0 contours.