Abstract In order to investigate the distinct nuances of meaning conveyed by the different intonational contours encountered in yes-no questions in English, we conducted a corpus study of the intonation of 410 naturally occurring spoken interrogative-form yes-no questions in American English. First we annotated the intonation of each question using ToBI and then examined the meaning of each utterance in the context. We found that the low-rise nuclear contour (e.g., L*H-H%) is the unmarked question contour and is by far the most frequently occurring. Yes-no questions with falling intonation (e.g. H*L-L%) do not occur frequently, but when they do, they can be classified in speech act terms as “non-genuine” questions, where one or more felicity conditions on genuine questions are not met. Level questions (e.g., L*H-L%) tend to be “stylized” in meaning and pattern with falling questions in being non-genuine. We also found that the pitch accent on high-rise questions (e.g., H*H-H%), where the final pitch contour starts high and ends higher, tends to mark information that is given in the discourse or a function word. These are syllables that would normally remain unaccented parts of the post-nuclear “tail” of the intonation phrase. This leads us to propose that many such accents are “post-nuclear accents” in the sense of Ladd 2008.

中文翻译：

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美式英语中是非题中语调的含义：语料库研究

摘要为了研究英语“是-否”中遇到的不同国际轮廓所传达的意义的细微差别，我们对美国英语中410种自然出现的疑问句式“是-否”的语调进行了语料库研究。首先，我们使用ToBI注释每个问题的语调，然后检查上下文中每个话语的含义。我们发现低层核轮廓（例如，L * HH％）是未标记的问题轮廓，并且是迄今为止最频繁出现的轮廓。是-不会频繁出现语调下降的问题（例如H * LL％），但是当它们出现时，可以用言语行为术语将它们分类为“非正版”问题，其中对真实问题有一个或多个适宜条件是没见过。等级问题（例如，L * HL％）在含义和模式上往往被“风格化”，而对于非正版的疑问则不断减少。我们还发现，在最终问题音高轮廓开始时较高且在较高处结束时，高层问题（例如H * HH％）上的音调重音倾向于标记在话语或功能词中给出的信息。这些音节通常保留在语调短语的核后“尾巴”的未重音部分。这使我们提出，从Ladd 2008的意义上讲，许多这样的口音都是“后核口音”。这些音节通常在语调短语的核后“尾巴”中不加重音。这使我们提出，从Ladd 2008的意义上讲，许多这样的口音都是“后核口音”。这些音节通常保留在语调短语的核后“尾巴”的未重音部分。这使我们提出，从Ladd 2008的意义上讲，许多这样的口音都是“后核口音”。