The Interaction between Information and Intonation Structure: Prosodic Marking of Theme and Rheme

Several studies have investigated the relation between information structure and intonation structure. Few studies however have investigated this relationship empirically using natural face-to-face conversations. The current study explores this relation using a large corpus of face-to-face conversations on a map navigation task. In this task dialogue partners sometimes do and sometimes do not have common ground, depending on the differences between their maps. The corpus is therefore ideal to investigate differences between given (theme) and new information (rheme). The current paper presents a technique of automated speech segmentation and transcript time stamping and applies this technique to determine prosodic differences in information structure. Confirming several theoretical studies it shows that the average pitch of the rheme in a turn is significantly higher than the average pitch of the phrasal theme of that turn, showing the relation between information and intonation structure.