Second Occurrence Focus is Prosodically Marked: Results of a production experiment

A second occurrence focus is an expression which is in the scope of a focus sensitive operator, is the semantic focus of that operator, and which is a repeat of an earlier focused occurrence. Second occurrence foci are intonationally distinct from the original occurrence of the material. Indeed, second occurrence foci are often claimed to lack any intonational marking, e.g. pitch accent. This apparent dissociation of semantic and intonational focus is commonly used as an argument against certain theories of focus; e.g., alternative semantics (Rooth, 1985) and structured meaning semantics (Jacobs, 1983; Krifka, 1992; von Stechow, 1989). Here we report on a production experiment designed to test whether second occurrence foci are prosodically marked. We find that while there is no significant pitch accent on second occurrence foci, there are other prosodic effects. In particular, we observe that second occurrence focus is marked by increased duration and intensity. This result is of significance to semanticists interested in the interpretation of focus and to intonational phonologists interested in the acoustic realization of focus