El què del què?! The intonation of reclamatory

questions in Central Catalan

Paolo Roseano1,2, Ana Ma. Fernández Planas1, Wendy Elvira García1,

Ramon Cerdà Massó1, Eugenio Martínez Celdrán1

1Universitat de Barcelona, 2Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Barcelona, 17 de juny de 2013

Outline of the presentation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonation & syntax

4. Conclusions

1) Describing the intonation (and some syntactic

aspects) of a specific type of wh- questions in Central

Catalan –namely reclamatory wh- questions– that has

not been fully investigated yet. The description of

reclamatory questions will be carried out by comparison

with information-seeking wh- questions.

2) Investigating if/how counterexpectation affects the

intonational patterns of reclamatory questions.

2) Shedding some light on the pragmatic functions of

rising wh- questions in Central Catalan. The literature

suggests that, while falling intonation is the default

contour for wh- questions, rising intonation could

express curiosity, surprise and interest (Prieto 2004), or

a higher degree of courtesy (Payrató 2002).

Objectives

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

What is a reclamatory wh- question? There are different kinds

of questions headed by (or containing) a wh- word.

The object of the study

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

(3)

B: Li vull portar un regal al

Marc. Què li portaries?

A: Un llibre.

(1)

A: On vas?

B: (Que) a on vaig?

A: Sí.

(2)

A: Quan vagi a veure el Marc a

París, li portaria un [ehem].

B: Què li portaries?

A: Un llibre.

yes-no

wh movement

*wh in situ

…

*yes-no

wh movement

wh in situ (Que li portaries què?)

…

*yes-no

wh movement

*wh in situ

…

Answer

Syntax 1

Syntax 2

In order to account for the different types of wh- question, a quite complete

classification is needed. Among the several available (Hualde 1992, Payrató

2002, Prieto & Cabré 2007-2012, i.a.), Bolinger’s (1989) seems to be one of

the most complete and suitable for our purposes.

ORIGINAL

WH- QUESTION

Asks for new information.

ECHO

WH- QUESTION

Repeats a preceding

wh- question.

RECLAMATORY

WH-QUESTION

Calls for the repetition of

something said by the

interlocutor.

(One possible) classification of questions

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Bolinger’s (1989) classification is extremely detailed... nevertheless, we

added the distinction between neutral and counterexpectational questions

(as in Prieto i Cabré 2007-2012 or Payrató 2002, i.a.), that Bolinger did not

make explicit.

Data collection

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

29. Imagina’t que tu i jo som amics i que estem parlant. Estem

parlant de la meva mare. Jo t’estic dient que la meva mare

tenia una germana i t’estic dient com es deia aquella

germana. Quan t’ho dic, tusso. Tu no acabes d’entendre

com es deia i m’ho preguntes.

ENTREVISTADOR: La meva mare tenia una germana que

es deia [ehem].

INFORMADOR: Com es deia?

Discourse completion task (Billmyer and Varghese 2000,

Félix-Brasdefer 2010), with detailed instructions for the

interviewer. In 2 situations informants also received

detailed instructions (as in Face & Prieto 2007).

Corpus & informants

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Original Reclamatory

Neutral

6 questions

(120 items)

16 questions of “memory” type

(320 items)

3 questions of “understanding” type

(60 items)

Counter-

expectational

3 questions

(60 items)

2 questions

(40 items)

Informants = 20 native speakers of Central Catalan having

Catalan as dominant language, UB students.

Survey = 30 situations.

Total = 600 items.

Results: intonation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Four main contours were found for wh- questions.

H* L%

Results: intonation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

L+H* L%

Results: intonation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

L* H%

Results: intonation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

L* HL%

Results: intonation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Original Reclamatory

Neu

tra

l C

ou

nte

r-ex

pecta

tio

nal

H*L% 78%

L+H*L% 2%

H+L*L% 11%

L*H% 6%

L*HL% 3%

L+H*L% 50% H*L%

45%

L*H% 5%

H*L% 10% H+L*L%

1%

L*H% 88%

L*HL% 1%

L*H% 100%

Understan-

ding

L*H% 100%

Memory

(higher range) (higher range)

Results: syntax

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

wh

movement que + wh

movement wh

in situ que + wh

in situ General

reclamatory Cleft

Què menjava, el nen?

Que què menjava, el nen?

Menjava què?

Que menjava què?

Què? El què? Com?

Què és el que li portaries?

Neutral original 120

Counterexpectational original

60

Neutral reclamatory (memory)

320

Neutral reclamatory (understanding)

46

1

3

1

6

1

Counterexpectational reclamatory

23

2

1

7

Results: intonation & syntax

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Inton. & syntax

4. Conclusions

In the corpus there are 25 cases of left dislocated subjects

(e.g. I la seva germana, com es deia?) and 245 cases of right

dislocated subjects (e.g. Com es deia, la seva germana?). In

330 cases there is no explicit subject.

Left dislocated subjects show a variety of intonational

patterns, mostly rising (13 cases L*H-, 4 cases L+H*H-, 3

cases H*L-, 2 cases L*HL-, 2 cases H+L*L-, 1 case L+H*LH-).

Right dislocated subjects always display the same

configuration as in the immediately preceding non-dislocated

element, but with differences in range. Interestingly, such

differences in range are opposite in falling and rising wh-

questions.

Results: intonation & syntax

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Inton. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Results: intonation & syntax

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Inton. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Results: intonation & syntax

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Inton. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Intonation

Rising L*H% intonation in wh- questions in Central Catalan is

not related only with curiosity, surprise and interest (Prieto

2004), or courtesy (Payrató 2002), but also with the difference

between original wh- questions (that ask for new information

and are usually falling H*L%) and reclamatory questions (that

call for the repetition of a discourse-old piece of information

and are usually rising).

Counterexpectation has an effect on pitch range in reclamatory

questions. In information-seeking questions it has an effect on

pitch range and contour shape (L+H*L%).

Syntax

Original and reclamatory questions also differ in some syntactic

aspects (wh- word in situ, presence of initial que).

Right dislocated elements in rising and falling wh- questions

follow different intonational rules.

Conclusions

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

References

Bolinger, Dwight (1989). Intonation and Its Uses: Melody in Grammar and Discourse.

Stanford, Stanford University Press.

Billmyer, Kristine & Varghese, Manka (2000). Investigating instrument-based pragmatic

variability: Effects of enhancing discourse completion tests, Applied Linguistics

21(4): 517-552.

Face, T.; Prieto, P. (2007). Rising accents in Castilian Spanish: a revision of Sp-ToBI,

Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 6(1): 117-146.

Félix-Brasdefer, J. César (2010). Data collection methods in speech act performance:

DCTs, role plays, and verbal reports, in A. Martínez-Flor and E. Usó-Juan (eds.),

Speech act performance: Theoretical, Empirical, and Methodological Issues.

Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 41-56.

Hualde, José Ignacio (1992). Catalan. London, Routledge.

Payrató, Lluís (2002). L’enunciació i la modalitat oracional, in J. Solà, M.-R. Lloret, J.

Mascaró i M. Pérez Saldanya (eds.), Gramàtica del català contemporani.

Barcelona, Empúries,1151-1217.

Prieto, Pilar (2004). Fonètica i fonologia: els sons del català. Barcelona, Editorial UOC.

Prieto, Pilar & Cabré, Teresa (coords.) (2007-2012). Atles interactiu de l'entonació del

català.

Other Romance and non-Romance varieties show intonational

and syntactic differences between original (or information-seeking)

and reclamatory wh- questions.

Future investigation

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

Original Reclamatory

MA English

Castilian Spanish

Venetian

Friulian

Florentine

...

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1. Intonation

3.2. Syntax

3.3. Intonat. & syntax

4. Conclusions

(4)

B: Li vull portar un regal al

Marc. Què li portaries?

A: Un llibre.

(1)

A: És la una.

B: (Que) és la una?

A: Sí.

(2)

A: On vas?

B: (Que) a on vaig?

A: Sí.

(3)

A: Quan vagi a veure el Marc a

París, li portaria un [ehem].

B: Què li portaries?

A: Un llibre.

yes-no

wh word

wh movement

*wh in situ

L*HH% / L+¡H*L%

*yes-no

wh word

wh movement

wh in situ

L*HH%

yes-no

*wh word

*wh movement

*wh in situ

L*HH% / L+¡H*L%

*yes-no

wh word

wh movement

*wh in situ

H*L%

Future investigation