INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH, LOW AND LEVEL CONTOUR ENDINGS AND PUNCTUATION SYMBOLS IN DUTCH

Johanneke Caspers
Dept. of Dutch Studies / Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University

ID 1456
[full paper]

A distinction can be made between three different final boundary tone types in Dutch: high (H%), low (L%) and ‘level’ (%). As yet it is not completely clear what these tones signify to the listener; the present perception test aims to find out more about the interpretation of these tones. In a listening experiment declarative sentences with different intonation contours were presented to native listeners, who had to indicate whether they thought the stimulus ended in a comma, a full stop or a question mark. Results are clear for L% tones (full stop) and for level tones (mainly commas, no question marks). Within the category of H% tones the higher ending rises lead to more question responses, while the lower ending rises prompt more comma responses.

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