Word order and intonation are relevant means of information structure
in Russian.
Information structure is reflected in intonation phrases and is often
correlated with syntactic constituents. We assume two different types of
information structure: (i) focus-background structure and (ii) topic-comment
structure (cf. Junghanns/Zybatow 1
997, Zybatow/Junghanns 1998). The underlying model contains the features
[Top] (topic) and [Foc] (Focus), which can be contrastive [TOPc], [FOCc].
In speech production these features have articulatory and acoustic effects.
They are realized at the surfac
e. Thus it is clear that intonation contours as suggested e.g. by Bryzgunova
actually depend on placement of information structure features on syntactic
constituents.
In order to find prosodic correlates of phenomena triggered by information
structure we recorded spoken language and digitalized the recordings. Finally
we carried out a thorough analysis of the resulting speech signals. We
asked native speakers of Russi
an to pronounce everyday sentences to which they had had prior exposure.
From the recorded sentences we extracted oscillograms, spectograms and
intonation contours reflecting changes in fundamental frequency. The material
included in the experiment consi
sted of Russian declarative sentences in their contexts, which made
their information structure coherent and controllable.
Thus, we were able to make precise predictions about the assignment
of information structure features. The sentences of the experiment varied
with regard to word order and types of topic and focus (space prohibits
including further details):
(1) prototypical topic, new information focus:
- (Kuda uexala Miroslava?) Where did Miroslava go to?
- Ona uexala v JALtu. She went to Jalta.
[Top] [Foc]
(2) contrastive focus:
- (Ljuda uzhe uexala v Jaltu?) Has Ljuda already gone to Jalta?
- MiroSLAva uexala v Jaltu.(Ljuda dazhe ne metchtaet o poezdke v
[FOCc] Krym.)
Miroslava has gone to Jalta. Lujda doesn|t even dream of going to the
Crimea.
(3) contrasted topics:
MiroSLAva uedet v JALtu, a LJUda ostanetsja ZDES|.
[TOPc] [Foc]
[TOPc] [Foc]
Miroslava is going to Jalta, but Ljuda is going to stay here.
1. The main result is that Russian definitely has distinct prosodic
patterns for topic and focus. The position and type of accent are characteristic
of topic and focus.
Further results are:
2. Topics are realized with a rising-falling tonal sequence (low-high-low).
3. A rise of the fundamental frequency at the beginning of a sentence
marks contrasted topics, so called I-topics. These topics are special in
that the vertical amplitude is bigger compared with that of neutral topics.
4. A falling nuclear accent (HL*) corresponds to the natural focus.
The exponent of natural focus in Russian is constituted by the last lexical
accent, i.e. at the right periphery of a sentence.
5. Contrastive focus is distinguished by a rising-falling tonal pattern
(LH*L), the vertical amplitude being bigger than the one found with neutral
focus. The nuclear accent of contrastive focus accent is the most prominent
accent of the sentence.
Thus, the analyses of the acoustic material serve as empirical verification
of abstract syntactic and semantic assumptions encoded at PF. We took into
account parameters like type and position of accent, level of fundamental
frequency and time structure.