Acoustical Characteristics of Sentential Focus: Narrow vs. Broad and Single vs. Dual Focus Environments

Acoustical analyses of speech production were conducted to determine the effects of two types of sentence focus distinction on intonational attributes of fundamental voice frequency ( F o ) and duration. In each of two experiments, analyses were performed on seven speakers who orally read sentences containing variations in focus prompted by preceding questions. In Experiment 1, speakers produced higher F o peaks and longer word durations for words assigned narrow focus in comparison with the same words in neutral-focus sentences. Sentences bearing broad focus on the verb phrase, however, were produced with a widespread durational increase but no heightening of F o peaks. In Experiment 2, speakers produced comparable F o peaks and word durations for narrow-focused words regardless of whether the sentence contained one or two foci. The main difference between the single and dual focus sentences was that the word following an initial focused item in a dual-focus sentence did not exhibit the low F o value characteristic of words that follow focused items. The lack of a low post-focus F o in dual-focus sentences represents an anticipatory influence of the additional focus at the end of the sentence.