Relating Scalar Inference and Alternative Activation: A View from the Rise-Fall-Rise Tune in American English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.3.5768Keywords:
intonation, prosody, scalar inf, priming, rise-fall-riseAbstract
The rise-fall-rise (RFR) tune in American English has received numerous theoretical accounts to describe its meaning contribution, with a consistent theme being the relationship between RFR and "higher alternatives." However, Autosegmental-Metrical theory predicts three RFR-shaped tunes which differ in the rising pitch accent used (H*, L+H*, L*+H), raising the question of whether different RFR-shaped tunes in fact behave differently. We investigate this question under the lens of scalar inference (SI). We find that RFR-shaped tunes with different pitch accents behave similarly in offline interpretation, increasing the rate of SI calculation relative to falling tunes. In online processing using cross-modal priming with lexical decision, we find an asymmetry in the processing profile of two RFR-shaped tunes: H*L-H% leads to additional facilitation of the higher alternative, while L*+HL-H% leads to less facilitation. We describe these results in relation to differences in pitch range and discuss how they relate to ongoing debates about RFR.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Thomas Sostarics, Eszter Ronai, Jennifer Cole

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