Kinematic encoding of focus and edge-prominence in Seoul Korean.

Abstract

Articulatory gestures under phrasal prominence undergo strengthening, becoming longer, larger, and faster. Limited research, mainly on head-prominence languages, shows that prominence-induced strengthening interacts with focus structure, increasing gradually across focus types. However, it is unclear how focus structure is encoded in edge-prominence systems. Here, we examine Seoul Korean, an edge-prominence language, in which the focused word is known to start an accentual phrase (AP) and exhibits prominence-induced strengthening, while the post-focal items are dephrased. Analyses of kinematic duration, displacement, and velocity, examine degree of strengthening on focused AP-initial gestures and/or dephrasing on initial gestures in the first post-focal word. Results show that focused AP-initial strengthening reflects focus structure, although kinematic dimensions differ in the number of focus types they distinguish. Yet, the order of encoded types remains consistent and similar to that found in head-prominence languages. Post-focally, there is durational evidence of dephrasing only after contrastive focus and its reach is constrained by the number of intervening syllables. Instead, the other focus types exert strengthening on the onset of the post-focal word, suggesting focus-induced spillover effects that cross-word boundaries. These findings support the view that prominence is organized as a hierarchical structure, with its levels reflecting different focus types.