Frequenza d'uso e realizzazione fonica dei segnali discorsivi

The study explores the phonetic realizations of discourse markers in spoken Italian in relation to factors such as frequency of occurrence, prosodic features, and syntactic and interactional position. In particular, the work aims at examining whether and how such variables influence phonetic specification evaluated on the basis of speech rate and level of erosion. For the purposes of the study, a three-hour dataset of Italian spoken by tourist guides in museum contexts was employed. Results show that a less specified phonic realization of discourse markers, in terms of, for example, lenition and centralization, and a higher speech rate, depends on their frequency of occurrence; the more frequent the discourse marker, the more hypospecified its realization. Other factors of position, initial, and pragmatic functions, for reformulations and inference markers, impact phonic specification.