Prosody and gesture in the interpretation of yes-answers to negative yes/no-questions
In this paper we investigate the role of prosody and gesture in the interpretation of yes-answers to negative yes/no-questions in Catalan, a language with a polarity-based system of confirmation/contradiction of negative yes/no-questions. Two rating experiments were conducted to test (i) whether yes...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2015 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositório: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:287777 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/287777 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1515/tlr-2014-0016 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Ambiguity Gesture Negative yes/no-questions Prosody Yes-answers |
| Resumo: | In this paper we investigate the role of prosody and gesture in the interpretation of yes-answers to negative yes/no-questions in Catalan, a language with a polarity-based system of confirmation/contradiction of negative yes/no-questions. Two rating experiments were conducted to test (i) whether yes-answers to negative yes/no-questions are perceived as ambiguous by Catalan speakers when prosody and gesture are not available (Experiment 1), and (ii) whether the interpretation of sí 'yes' as an answer to a negative yes/no-question is dependent on prosodic and gestural properties of the answer (Experiment 2). Our results show that yes always asserts a salient propositional discourse referent, which can be either p or ¬p. Intonation and gesture guide the interpretation of yes-answers to negative yes/no-questions in Catalan, and we show that a yes-answer with a marked intonation and gesture is to be interpreted as a denial or REJECT of a salient propositional discourse referent. |
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