The role of prosody in interpreting surprise questions in French

Bibliographic Data

ID22417839
AuthorsAgnès Celle (0000-0002-7604-2659, Université Paris Cité, corresponding author), Maud Pélissier (0000-0001-6639-9665, Université Paris Cité), Hiyon Yoo (Université Paris Cité)
Year2026
Volume36
Publication date2026-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of French Language Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-2695 • E-ISSN: 1474-0079
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0959269526100349
OpenAlexW7161994656
LanguageEN
References cited26

Previous research shows that speakers use prosody to disambiguate between string-identical canonical information questions and noncanonical questions conveying surprise. In this study, we investigated whether the prosodic cues produced by speakers are enough for naïve listeners to distinguish between the two readings of two distinct question structures in French that can express either a request for information or an emotive reaction of surprise: ‘qu’est-ce que’ and ‘c’est quoi ce NP’ questions. This article provides experimental evidence that listeners can in fact disambiguate between the two interpretations based on prosodic cues alone, in particular the contour and the duration of the question word.

Emotive · Information Structure · Prosody · Surprise · Categorization, perception, and language · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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