The Prosody of English Since-When Questions

^{- Youngdong Cho, Fengyue Lisa Zhao, & Chloe Dokyung Kwon. The prosodic realization of English since-when questions. Proc. Speech Prosody 2026, 564–568. May 26 – 29, 2026. Philadelphia, PA, USA. doi:10.21437/SpeechProsody.2026-114}

^{- Youngdong Cho, Fengyue Lisa Zhao, & Chloe Dokyung Kwon. The role of prosody in distinguishing meaning in English since-when questions. LabPhon 20. June 26 – 28, 2026. Montréal, Québec, Canada.}

Motivation

Prosody signals context-dependent interpretations of string-identical sentences, but only a few acoustic studies tested for a systematic association between interpretation and prosodic realization. This study examines English since-when questions, which can be used to ask for the time reference of an event (information-seeking) or express speaker’s incredulity toward the preceding utterance. These interpretations have been suggested to exhibit distinct prosodic patterns: incredulous since-when questions carry emphatic stress on when and a low utterance-final boundary tone. However, no experimental work has examined their acoustic realization yet. The present study addresses this gap by testing whether speakers reliably produce distinct prosodic patterns for these interpretations.

Results

Regression results showed that in incredulous since-when questions, prominence falls on when, realized with significantly lower F0 mean, wider F0 range, and longer duration compared to information-seeking since-when questions. In addition, we fitted generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) to capture the dynamic realization of F0 over time, further revealing distinct F0 contour shapes for the two interpretations: Incredulous since-when questions showed steeper F0 valley on when and the strong syllable of the final noun, and lower overall F0 levels, especially on the utterance-final word. Our findings thus suggest that speakers clearly distinguish two interpretations of English since-when questions prosodically.