Yes-No and WH Questions Read Aloud by Japanese 3^rd -Grade Elementary School Children and Advanced Chinese Learners of Japanese

DATE Hiroko / HANAZONO Satoru

We compared the pitch patterns of Yes-No and WH questions read aloud by two Japanese 3rd-grade elementary school children and two advanced Chinese learners of Japanese. We found that the elementary school children expressed the pitch patterns of two kinds of sentences with a clear distinction in the pitch rise or suppression in their predicates. On the other hand, the advanced Chinese learners of Japanese expressed the pitch patterns with almost the same pattern, and no distinction was observed. In the case of two Japanese language teachers, whose pitch patterns were also analyzed as a reference, in addition to the distinction in their predicates, distinction was also observed in the degree of pitch rise in their WH-phrases.