Focus and Taiwanese Unchecked Tones

Abstract

This study investigated how focus influences f0 contour and duration of Taiwanese lexical tones. F0 and duration values were taken from pitch tracks and spectrograms generated from SVO sentences with different focus conditions. The four focus conditions included a broad focus condition with focus on the entire sentence, and three narrow focus conditions with narrow focus falling on the first, second, and third words. Results of the duration data revealed that (1) duration of narrow focused syllables were longer than syllables in other focus conditions and (2) duration of narrow focused syllables varied as a function of their position within the phrase; penultimate focused syllables were longest. Analysis of f0 minimum and maximum indicated that (1) f0 range of narrow focused syllables was expanded and (2) together, mean f0 value and expansion of f0 range distinguish focus conditions. Comparison between f0 and duration data showed that duration was more consistently used to distinguish focus condition than f0 range and mean f0 value in Taiwanese.