An Acoustic Study of Persian Topic Constructions

The purpose of this research is to compare the prosodic structure of the different types of Persian topic constructions within the framework of the auto-segmental metrical phonology (Ladd, 2008) in order to answer the challenge of whether the initial position in these constructions is the result of base-generation or the result of the movement of the initial element. In this regard, following Cinque(1990), we examine the Persian topic constructions in the three categories of topicalization,  clitic left dislocation (CLLD) and hanging topic left dislocation (HTLD) in order to determine whether the initial element in these constructions forms an independent intonational phrase or is a part of a larger intonational phrase involving the whole sentence. For this purpose, we compare the values of the phonetic parameter of initial element final syllable length and the amount of pause between this element and the continuation of the clause in different types of topic constructions. according to Pierrehumbert (1980: 20), if the lengthening of the final syllable of the target group and the duration of the pause between it and the next words are more than these values in the unmarked construction, that group forms an independent intonational phrase. The results show that in Persian topicalization and CLLD, these values are not significantly different from such values in the unmarked construction; Also, like the unmarked construction, the initial element in topicalization and CLLD is produced with H- boundary tone. These features can be seen as the phonetic correlation of the strong syntactic connection between the initial element and the continuation of the clause in these two constructions; A characteristic that indicates the movement of the element to the beginning of the clause. On the other hand, the more lengthening of the final syllable of the initial element and the greater amount of pause between this element and the continuation of the clause in HTLD compared to the unmarked construction, is evidence that the initial structure in this construction forms an independent intonational phrase; A characteristic that, along with L- boundary tone, is the phonetic representation of weak syntactic connection in this construction. This feature strengthens the assumption that HTLD is the result of the base-generation of the initial element. The results of this research show that the characteristics of topic constructions that affect the subject of sentence follow the same pattern of the characteristics of topic constructions from the object of sentence.