From pitch to purpose: The prosodic-pragmatic mapping of [I + verb] belief constructions in English and Mandarin

Journal article

This paper explores how prosodic variation via focus-marking acts as a pragmatic tool to create conversational implicatures. A cross-linguistic study in Mandarin and English was conducted to investigate this prosodic-pragmatic link through a particular pragmatically ambiguous construct: [I + verb] preceding an opinion. Given that opinions inherently express speaker belief, the addition of [I + verb] belief constructs (i.e. “I think,” “I feel,” “I believe”) appears semantically redundant. Pragmatically, however, different prosodic variations of [I + verb] may perform either boosting (Main Clause) or hedging (Epistemic marker, Discourse marker) functions. Following an overview of the prosodic-pragmatic interface and alternative semantics theory, the cross-linguistic use of pitch as a cue for prominence will be discussed, leading to a developed conceptual framework for the pragmatic-prosodic mapping of [I + verb].

Authors: Zhao, L; Dehe, N; Murphy, V

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Journal of Pragmatics
• Volume: 123
• Pages: 57-77
• Publication date: 2017-11-03
• Acceptance date: 2017-10-15
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2017.10.015
• EISSN: 1879-1387
• ISSN: 0378-2166
• Keywords: alternative semantics; prosody–pragmatics interface; focus marking; comment clause; confidence; prominence