In the canonical word order for Japanese, adverbial modifiers precede head - constituents. Analysis of fo contours of recorded utterances reveals that constructions with adverbs can be classified into two types: Type 1: adverbs which require focus; the pitch range of the modified predicate is notably compressed and lowered. Type 2: adverbs which do not require focus, rather, the predicate requires focus; the pitch range of the predicate is expanded or reset at a new value.

Different prosodic features should be attributed to type 1 and type 2 adverbs.