The dynamics of prosodic adaptation between Italian conversational partners

This paper explores the dynamics of prosodic adaptation between speakers of Bari (BI) and Lecce (BI) varieties of Italian, in which polar question intonation contour is different as to the assignment of the rise for marking questioning: on the nuclear syllable in BI, on the phrase boundary in LI. Intonation analysis and distribution of contour types produced by BI-LI speaker pairs in a game-based interaction revealed that only BI speakers tended to accommodate their question intonation to their LI partners’. Dynamics of adaptation varied across BI speakers, hinting to different accommodation strategies which not necessarily entail overriding the rule of their native variety intonational grammar in spontaneous imitation.