Knowledge Bank

This paper examines the phonetic correlates of informational status of referring expressions in Standard Korean. Two experiments are conducted. The results show that speakers of Standard Korean indicate the informational status of referring expressions not only with acoustic cues such as amplitude and duration but also with intonational phrasing. The results also suggest that speakers of Standard Korean rather clearly distinguish "current" and "displaced" entities. The term 'intonational attenuation' is proposed to describe the use of intonational phrasing by some languages to indicate the given status of referring expressions.