Analysis for: The prosodic marking of rhetorical questions in Standard Chinese

The present study investigates the prosody of information-seeking (ISQs) and rhetorical questions (RQs) in Standard Chinese, in polar and wh-questions. Like in other languages, ISQs and RQs in Standard Chinese can have the same surface structure, allowing for a direct prosodic comparison between illocution types (ISQ vs. RQ). Since Standard Chinese has lexical tone, the use of f0 as a cue to illocution type may be restricted. We investigate the prosodic differences between ISQs and RQs as well as the interplay of prosodic cues to RQs. In terms of f0, results showed that RQs were lower in f0, with the f0 range on the first word being expanded followed by f0 compression. RQs were further longer in duration and more often realized with non-modal voice quality (glottalized voice) as compared to ISQs. These prosodic cues were largely manipulated in tandem (illocutionary pairs with larger durational differences also showed larger differences in mean f0; voice quality, in turn, seemed to be an additional cue). We suggest three possible explanations (assertive force, focus, speaker attitude) that unite the present findings on RQs in Standard Chinese with the findings on RQs in other, non-tonal languages.

This is a report on the statistical analyses of the production experiment for the manuscript:

The prosodic marking of rhetorical questions in Standard Chinese (Katharina Zahner-Ritter, Yiya Chen, Nicole Dehé & Bettina Braun)

本研究深入探讨了标准汉语中信息寻求句（ISQs）和反义疑问句（RQs）的韵律特征，尤其在极性和wh-疑问句中。与其他语言类似，标准汉语中的ISQs和RQs在表层结构上可能相同，从而允许对言外行为类型（ISQ与RQ）之间的韵律进行直接比较。鉴于标准汉语具有词汇调，f0作为言外行为类型的线索可能受到限制。本研究探讨了ISQs与RQs之间的韵律差异以及韵律线索对RQs的相互作用。在f0方面，结果显示RQs的f0较低，首词的f0范围扩大，随后f0压缩。与ISQs相比，RQs在时长上更长，且更频繁地以非模态语调（喉音语调）实现。这些韵律线索在很大程度上是协同操作的（时长差异较大的言外行为对也显示了较大的平均f0差异；语调反过来似乎又是一个额外的线索）。我们提出了三个可能的解释（断言力、焦点、说话者态度），这些解释将标准汉语中RQs的研究发现与其他非声调语言中RQs的研究发现联系起来。以下是该生产实验的统计分析报告：

标准汉语中反义疑问句的韵律标记（Katharina Zahner-Ritter，Yiya Chen，Nicole Dehé & Bettina Braun）