The role of topic shift and conversation turn in the intonation of Italian wh-questions

The aim of this study is to analyse the intonation patterns of Italian wh-questions in relation to epistemic orientation, topic shift and turn organisation. The research conducted so far has shown that wh-questions have both falling and rising final contours. Linguistic, sociolinguis-tic, and pragmatic factors are recognised to affect intonation patterns. Nevertheless, the influ-ence of conversational elements on intonation contours remains unclear and requires further research. This study analyses a corpus of unplanned conversations to evaluate how the retention/change of topic and the maintenance/transfer of dialogic turn affect the intonation of questions. The research revealed two significant findings. Firstly, wh-question categorisation shows that the degree of epistemic certainty has a profound impact on topic shift and floor passing. Sec-ondly, the results suggest that conversational aspects do not significantly affect the final into-nation patterns. However, they do have a relevant effect on the initial pitch level of the ques-tions, leading to an increase in the onset and overall pitch range.