When focus shapes the flow : prosodic restructuring in mandarin complex nominals

Abstract

While extensive studies have explored acoustic focus realization in Mandarin, little is known about how focus affects the prosodic phrasing of Mandarin complex nominals. This study examined how contrastive focus influences syllable duration of Mandarin numeral-classifier-noun phrases. Using a mini-dialogue paradigm, we elicited contrastive focus of different spans, alongside a baseline no-focus condition. Two production experiments revealed that when focus was placed on the numeral, the default prosodic grouping was disrupted, dissimilar to when focus encompasses the entire phrase or in neutral contexts, with tonal factors amplifying the reorganization. Our results indicate that prosodic organization in Mandarin is shaped by tones, morphosyntactic structures, focus marking and their interplay. Crucially, the results challenge rigid models of boundary phrasing and disyllabic footing, highlighting a multilevel interaction among phonetics, prosodic phrasing, and syntax in tonal languages.