This study compares the prosodic properties of French wh-in-situ echo questions and string-identical information seeking questions in relation to focus. Thirty-six (12 $\times$ 3) wh-in-situ questions were embedded in dialogues designed to elicit (A) echo questions expressing auditory failure, (B) information seeking questions with broad focus or (C) information seeking questions with narrow focus on the wh-phrase, i.e. a focus structure similar to the one of echo questions. Analyses regarding the F0, duration and intensity of the utterances produced by 20 native speakers of French show clear prosodic differences between the three conditions. Our results indicate that part of the prosodic properties of echo questions can be attributed to the presence of narrow focus (A and C vs. B) while another part is truly characteristic of echo questions themselves (A vs. B and C). In combination with known differences regarding their pragmatics, semantics and syntax, this sets echo questions apart as a separate question type. At the same time, our results offer evidence for prosodic encoding of focus in French wh-in-situ questions, confirming and adding to existing claims regarding the prosody of focus marking in French on the one hand and the presence of focus marking in wh-interrogatives on the other.

中文翻译：

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法语 wh-in-situ 问题的韵律：Echo vs. non-echo

本研究比较了法语的韵律特性什么- 原位回声问题和字符串相同的信息，寻求与焦点相关的问题。三十六（12$\次$3)什么原位问题嵌入对话中，旨在引发 (A) 表达听觉失败的回声问题，(B) 广泛关注的信息搜索问题或 (C) 狭隘关注的信息搜索问题什么-短语，即类似于回声问题的焦点结构。对 20 位以法语为母语的人所产生的话语的 F0、持续时间和强度的分析表明，三种条件之间存在明显的韵律差异。我们的研究结果表明，回声问题的部分韵律特性可归因于窄焦点（A 和 C 与 B）的存在，而另一部分是回声问题本身的真正特征（A 与 B 和 C）。结合它们在语用、语义和句法方面的已知差异，这将回声问题作为一个单独的问题类型分开。同时，我们的结果为法语焦点的韵律编码提供了证据什么-就地问题，一方面确认和补充关于法语焦点标记韵律的现有主张，以及焦点标记的存在什么- 疑问句。