Extending the Prosodic Hierarchy: Evidence from Lushootseed narrative

Abstract

In the traditional Prosodic Hierarchy, the topmost level is the Utterance. This paper presents evidence from Lushootseed narrative for a higher-level prosodic constituent, the Phonological Paragraph. Phonological Paragraphs are marked by patterns of Utterance-level F0 peaks, which decline over the length of the Paragraph and are reset to mark the beginning of a new discourse-level prosodic unit. Phonetic evidence for Phonological Paragraphs is supported by morphosyntactic data and coincides with components of narrative structure. These patterns, therefore, can not represent a random or involuntary epiphenomenon, but must be considered an integral part of the grammar.