Intonational marking of focus in Torau

Abstract

This paper presents initial findings from first research into the prosodic system of Torau, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. Intonation, the use of pitch over grammatical units larger than the word, may convey distinctions at a number of levels in the grammar of a language. This paper looks at it in relation to the pragmatic categories of focus and topic, using data collected in 2010 and 2012. Taking an Autosegmental-metrical approach, it is argued that intonational prominence in the form of a H* pitch accent is a correlate of focus – pragmatically new or inaccessible information. While prosodic and pragmatic prominence frequently align in Torau, there are some instances where the focus entity is not prosodically marked as expected. These cases are briefly addressed, and some paths for further investigations are suggested. It is hoped that this research can be used in typological work on intonation and the information structure-prosody interface, and encourage research into the intonational systems of lesser described languages.