Phonetic Realization And Phonological Analysis Of Prosodic Focus In Henan Dialects

Chinese is a typical tone language and its dialects varied in the expression of prosodic focus.Although the prosodic focus research is gradually getting scholar’s attention,such as Cantonese,Taiwan Mandarin,Beijing Mandarin,and so on,the relevant study of prosodic focus in Henan dialects has not yet been found.By means of acoustic experiments,the present study aims to investigate prosodic focus and intonational characteristics of Henan dialects within the framework of intonational phonology.The present study selects three dialect areas:Anqin dialect area（Jiaozuo city）,Zhengbian dialect area（Pingdingshan city）and Xinhuang dialect area（Xinyang city）.The research questions are as follows:a.How is the focus prosodically marked across 3 Henan Dialect areas?b.What are the characteristics of prosodic focus in Henan dialects in the framework of intonational phonology?The subjects selected in the present study are all male speakers（aged 60+）with pure dialect accent,and the recording is made in a professional recording room.The relevant acoustic parameters,such as pitch,duration,and intensity,are obtained through the speech analysis software Praat and ProsodyPro script,and the data is analyzed in programme R.The experimental results are as follows:（1）the contours are all presenting with a rise trend on focused words across 3 dialect areas.Pitch range on the focused words are significantly expanded in Anqin dialect area and Zhengbian dialect area,and Xinhuang dialect area is not obvious;（2）the F₀ contour of Anqin dialect area and Xinhuang dialect area perform similar under the tonal combination tone 4,which indicates that different dialect may present same pitch trend on focused words and employ the same focus implementation;（3）except for Xinhuang dialect area,Anqin dialect area and Zhengbian dialect area obtain the phenomenon of Post-focus Compression（PFC）;（4）in Xinhuang dialect area,the pitch on the first syllable of the focused words is lower than the second syllable,which presents a weak-strong prosodic phenomenon;（5）the duration is distinctly increased on the focused words in Zhengbian dialect area and on subject focus in Xinhuang dialect area,while Anqin dialect area is less significant.The findings through the intonational analysis are as follows:（1）in terms of phonological features,there are great differences between focus types rather than tonal combinations in Henan dialects;（2）under the influence of background information,the intonation structures of broad focus are highly complex,while the subject focus and the object focus are relatively simple;（3）prosodic focus in Henan dialects featured with the prominence of local pitch accents rather than the general trend of the F₀ contour.The present study makes a detailed acoustic analysis of the prosodic focus in Henan dialects,which deepens the understanding of the approaches of prosodic focus realization.At the same time,with the adoption of intonational phonology,the present study broadens the research methods and provides the basis for the future studies on prosodic focus.