The intonation of right-dislocated constituents in French

In French, the intonation of post-focus items is not clearly determined. Traditional descriptions claim that post-focus intonation entirely depends on that of the focus via a process of tonal copy; other accounts argue for either autonomous patterns or a binary independent choice between a high and a low tone. To clarify this issue, this paper investigates the melodic patterns of right-dislocated constituents after eight different contours associated with the focus. Results confirm that post-focus phrases are characterized by an iterative and reduced copy of the focal tones; it is also shown that a mid or downstepped high tone is needed to describe intonation in French and that we must posit contours that constitute single complex units.