Intonation of sentences with an NPI

This paper presents the results of a production experiment on the intonation of sentences containing a negative polarity item (NPI) in Tokyo Japanese. The results show that NPI sentences exhibit a focus intonation: the F0-peak of the word to which an NPI is attached is raised, while the pitch contour after the NPI-attached word is compressed until the negation. This intonation pattern is parallel to that of wh-question, in which the F0 of the wh-phrase is raised while the post-wh-contour is compressed until the question particle

Prosody by phase : evidence from focus intonation–Wh-scope correspondence in Japanese

Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of Multiple Spell-Out in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a wh-phrase to a phase edge position causes a mismatch between FI and wh-scope. Both predictions are tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out

Working Papers of the SFB 632

The 10th volume of the working paper series contains two papers contributed by SFB-members. The first paper "Single prosodic phrase sentences" by Caroline Féry (A1) and Heiner Drenhaus (C6, University of Potsdam) investigates the prosody of Wide Focus Partial Fronting in a series of production and perception experiments. The second paper "Focus Asymmetries in Bura" by Katharina Hartmann, Peggy Jacob (B2, Humboldt University Berlin) and Malte Zimmermann (A5, University of Potsdam) explores the strategies of marking focus in Bura (Chadic)

The prosodic expression of focus, contrast and givenness: A production study of Hungarian

This paper reports the results of a production experiment that explores the prosodic realization of focus in Hungarian, a language that is characterized by obligatory syntactic focus marking. Our study investigates narrow focus in sentences in which focus is unambiguously marked by syntactic means, comparing it to broad focus sentences. Potential independent effects of the salience (textual givenness) of the background of the narrow focus and the contrastiveness of the focus are controlled for and are also examined.The results show that both continuous phonetic measures and categorical factors such as the distribution of contour types are affected by the focus-related factors, despite the presence of syntactic focus marking. The phonetic effects found are mostly parallel to those of typical prosodic focus marking languages like English. The prosodic prominence required of focus is realized through changes to the scaling and slope of F0 targets and contours. The asymmetric prominence relation between the focus and the background can be expressed not only by the phonetic marking of the prominence of the focused element, but also by the phonetic marking of the reduced prominence of the background. Furthermore, contrastiveness of focus and (textual) givenness of the background show independent phonetic effects, both of them affecting the realization of the background. These results are argued to shed light on alternative approaches to the information structural notion of contrastive focus and the relation between the notions of focus and givenness

Intonation and interface conditions

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-184).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.The thesis presents a theoretical and experimental investigation of the interaction between focus intonation pattern (FIP) and certain syntactic phenomena-especially those involving wh-questions-in Japanese. A phonological mechanism of FIP formation is proposed that accounts for the variety of FIPs observed in various syntactic configurations. In the FIPs of Japanese wh-questions, the F0 of wh-phrases is raised, and the F0 of following phrases is lowered. There is a correlation between the domain of Fo-lowering and the scope of the wh-phrase. In a matrix wh-question, Fo-lowering after the wh-phrase continues until the end of the sentence, while in the case of an indirect wh-question, it stops at the end of the embedded clause. I account for this FIP- Wh-scope correspondence as follows. A pair of phonological rules is proposed that manipulate the prominence relations between semantically focalized phrases and post-focus phrases. These rules apply cyclically during the course of syntactic derivations, rather than waiting until the whole sentence is syntactically composed. Adopting the Multiple Spell-Out analysis (Chomsky, 2000, 2001b), I propose that the phonological rules for FIP formation apply to Spell-Out domains, rather than to a whole sentence. This proposal departs from previous analyses of FIP in Japanese (Truckenbrodt, 1995; Selkirk, 2003; Sugahara, 2003) in two respects: (1) it does not refer to prosodic phrasing; and (2) it is based on a cyclic model instead of a single-output model. The analysis makes the following prediction: if there are two wh-phrases that take different scopes in a single sentence, two independent FIPs will be created at different Spell-Out domains. This prediction was tested instrumentally. The results show that such a pitch contour is possible, and confirms other predictions as well.by Shinichiro Ishihara.Ph.D

Information structure in Modern Greek

Skopeteas S. Information structure in Modern Greek. In: Féry C, Ishihara S, eds. Handbook of Information Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press; In Press

Insect-induced daidzein, formononetin and their conjugates in soybean leaves.

In response to attack by bacterial pathogens, soybean (Gylcine max) leaves accumulate isoflavone aglucones, isoflavone glucosides, and glyceollins. In contrast to pathogens, the dynamics of related insect-inducible metabolites in soybean leaves remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the biochemical responses of soybean leaves to Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) herbivory and also S. litura gut contents, which contain oral secretion elicitors. Following S. litura herbivory, soybean leaves displayed an induced accumulation of the flavone and isoflavone aglycones 4',7-dihyroxyflavone, daidzein, and formononetin, and also the isoflavone glucoside daidzin. Interestingly, foliar application of S. litura oral secretions also elicited the accumulation of isoflavone aglycones (daidzein and formononetin), isoflavone 7-O-glucosides (daidzin, ononin), and isoflavone 7-O-(6'-O-malonyl-β-glucosides) (malonyldaidzin, malonylononin). Consistent with the up-regulation of the isoflavonoid biosynthetic pathway, folair phenylalanine levels also increased following oral secretion treatment. To establish that these metabolitic changes were the result of de novo biosynthesis, we demonstrated that labeled (13C9) phenylalanine was incorporated into the isoflavone aglucones. These results are consistent with the presence of soybean defense elicitors in S. litura oral secretions. We demonstrate that isoflavone aglycones and isoflavone conjugates are induced in soybean leaves, not only by pathogens as previously demonstrated, but also by foliar insect herbivory

Regressed three-dimensional capillary network and inhibited angiogenic factors in the soleus muscle of non-obese rats with type 2 diabetes

Based on findings obtained using two-dimensional capillary analyses on tissue cross-sections, diabetes has been shown to be associated with a high risk for microangiopathy and capillary regression in skeletal muscles. We visualized the three-dimensional architecture of the capillary networks in the soleus muscle of non-obese Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats with type 2 diabetes and compared them with those of control Wistar rats to provide novel information, e.g., capillary volume, on the capillary networks. In addition, we examined pro- and anti-angiogenic gene expression levels in the soleus muscle of GK rats using TaqMan probe-based real-time PCR. As expected, plasma glucose levels were higher and insulin levels lower in GK than control rats. The three-dimensional architecture of the capillary networks was regressed and capillary volume was smaller in the soleus muscle of GK compared to control rats. The mRNA expression levels of the pro-angiogenic factors HIF-1α, KDR, Flt-1, ANG-1, and Tie-2 were lower, whereas the level of the anti-angiogenic factor TSP-1 was higher in GK than control rats. These data suggest that a decrease in pro-angiogenic and increase in anti-angiogenic factors may play an important role in type 2 diabetes-induced muscle circulatory complications