Dip and hat pattern: a phonological contrast of German?

• Is the high plateau in a ‘hat pattern’ a phonetic artefact, or does it reflect a phonological feature? Can it contrast with a low plateau, i.e., a ‘dip pattern’? The presented perception experiment supports the phonological point of view, since it shows that the dip/hat contrast can disambiguate German oder-constructions, which are interpretable as ‘alternative’ or ‘yes/no-questions’. This specific function may be derived from a more general substance–function relation: While a hat pattern has a ‘bracketing function’, a dip signals detachment.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

bracketing function

perception

alternative question

phonetics

phonology

AM

KIM

intonation model

hat pattern

concatenation

Lingvistik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)