PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

In languages with flexible word order, multiple wh-questions allow us to investigate the relationship between word order and prosodic phrasing. This study analyzes the prosodic phrasing of wh-questions in Urdu, a language with variable word order. We investigate if multiple wh-questions in Urdu pattern with single wh-questions or narrow focus in terms of word order and prosodic phrasing. We analyze word order variation in wh-questions, the prosody of in-situ wh-phrases compared with their scrambled counterparts, and the prosodic phrasing of wh-questions produced in semi-spontaneous speech. The GAMM analysis of time-normalized F0 showed that the intonation of wh-phrases differed in single and multiple questions. While no difference was found in the F0 of sentence initial wh-phrases in single and multiple questions, the F0 of wh-phrases scrambled to the sentence medial position in multiple questions was similar to that of narrow focus. Based on this, we provide a differential analysis of in-situ and scrambled wh-phrases in multiple wh-questions and compare it with the prosodic phrasing in single questions. Our data provides evidence for the interplay between word order and prosodic phrasing and contributes to the discussion regarding the analysis of wh-phrases as focused entities.