ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2006
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2006

Prosodic encoding of topic and focus in Mandarin

Bei Wang, Yi Xu

In this study, we investigate whether and how focus and topic can be separately encoded in Mandarin. A total of 60 sentences with three lengths and five tone combinations were recorded in four topic-focus conditions: initial focus, new topic, implicit topic and given topic, by six speakers. The results of acoustic analysis show that new topic is encoded with a raised pitch range on the initial word. Focus, in contrast, is encoded with an expanded pitch range on the focused word and a suppressed pitch range on the subsequent words.