THE DOUBLE MNESIC FUNCTION OF THE PROSODIC PHRASE – EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to theoretically justify and experimentally illustrate the assumed mnesic function of the shift between syntactic and prosodic segmentation of complex sentences. Congruence between prosody and syntax contributes to real-time speech comprehension and thereby facilitates the process of memorizing the speech contents; on the other hand, local occurrences of non-congruence between prosody and syntax may improve mnesic performances by balancing the rhythm and, more interestingly, by creating formal, inter-lexical by nature links between syntactic phrases within the prosodic phrase – a basic brick of verbatim memory.