THE ROLE OF FUNDAMENTAL-FREQUENCY IN SIGNALING LINGUISTIC STRESS AND AFFECT - EVIDENCE FOR A DISSOCIATION

The fundamental frequency (F0) of the Voice is used to convey informat ion about both linguistic and affective distinctions. However, no rese arch has directly investigated how these two types of distinctions are simultaneously encoded in speech production. This study provides evid ence that F0 prominences intended to convey linguistic or affective di stinctions can be differentiated by their influence on the amount of f inal-syllable F0 rise used to signals question. Specifically, a tradin g relation obtains when the F0 prominence is used to convey emphatic s tress. That is, the amount of final-syllable F0 rise decreases as the F0 prominence increases. When the F0 prominence is used to convey affe ct, no trading relation is observed.