Exploring the relationship between intonation and the lexicon: Evidence for lexicalised storage of intonation
Prosodic features are shown to depend on distributional properties at the word level. Increasing frequency of word-accent pairs results in greater accent amplitudes. Increasing relative frequency of word-accent pairs reduces accent variability. Increasing word-in-context frequency reduces variability of prosodic realisation. Findings fit with a usage-based, but not autosegmental, approach to intonation.
intonation exemplar theory frequency effects prosody