Phonetic realization of focus in English declarative intonation

The present study investigates how focus is phonetically realized in declarative sentences in American English. The goal is to test the hypotheses that, (a) focus is manifested in parallel rather than in alternation with other intonational functions, and (b) every syllable in a sentence is associated with a local pitch target. Eight native speakers of American English recorded short declarative sentences with narrow focus at different locations or without any narrow focus. Detailed f0 analyses reveal that a narrow focus is realized by expanding the pitch range of the on-focus stressed syllables, suppressing the pitch range of postfocus syllables, and leaving the pitch range of prefocus syllables largely intact. Focus is not found, however, to determine the presence or absence of f0 peaks. Data analyses also reveal evidence for the presence of a local pitch target in every syllable. These findings are incompatible with conventional theories of English intonation. As an alternative, the Parallel Encoding and Target Approximation (PENTA) model is considered. The model defines and organizes the intonational components in terms of function rather than form. It also assumes target approximation rather than interpolation as the basic articulatory mechanism of f0 contour generation. It is argued that the approach used in the PENTA model, which takes account of both communicative functions and articulatory implementation, may provide a coherent account of detailed f0 contours in English.