Pitch accents, boundary tones and turn-taking in dutch map task dialogues

The present paper reports on an investigation of Dutch Map Task dialogues, looking for specific melodic turn-keeping cues. The materials were divided into so-called Inter Pausal Units (cf. [1]), and all IPU boundaries were labeled as instances of either turn-keeping or turn-changing. The pitch accents and boundary tones preceding the IPU boundaries were labeled in the ToDI system [2]. Results indicate one particular melodic configuration that seems typically associated with turn-keeping: an accent-lending rise followed by level high pitch (H* %). But also the level boundary tone (%) in itself and – to a lesser extent – the rising pitch accent (H*) seem to function as melodic turn-keeping cues.