Tonology and sentence structure in Greek

Abstract

This is an experimental investigation of tonal production as a function of lexical stress variability and sentence types in Greek. One production experiment was carried out according to which the lexical stress assignment in the last words varied in the last three syllables in the context of polylectic and monolectic statement and alternative (polar) question sentence contexts. The results indicate that statements are associated with a rise-fall tonal pattern encompassing the last stressed syllable whereas the questions are associated with a rise-fall tonal pattern encompassing the last syllable of the utterance. The initial rise of the rise-fall in statements may be trancated whereas the rise-fall in alternative questions remained fairly invariable.