The syntax-prosody interface in LFG

Revisiting Korean question focus

Abstract

This paper sets out two challenges to LFG analyses of the syntax-prosody interface—one general, one specific—arising from experimental evidence that shows considerable hearer variation in the interpretation of specific prosodic patterns in Korean that are canonically associated with the scope of question focus. We assume that this arises from a lexical preference for the question word reading of content pro-forms that are ambiguous between question words and indefinite pronouns, which has an effect on how pitch contours are perceived. A revised formal treatment of the phenomenon, building on Jones (2016) is presented, which robustly handles the variation in hearer perception and links to ongoing work to model hearers’ decision-making process.