The first example is a Wh-question, in which we can see two H* pitch accents. The first pitch accent is aligned to the Wh-word què: the F0 is constant during this syllable and stays on a high plateau. The nuclear pitch accent is also H*: there is a high plateau during almost the whole syllable, and a fall occurs in the postaccented syllable.
The second sentence is a statement with a narrow focus on melmelada. The F0 is low in the syllable previous to the accented one, there is a F0 turning point at the beginning of the accented syllable and the pitch rises to a high target at the end of this syllable: this pitch accent is L+H*.
The difference between H* and L+H* is basically the direction of the pitch movement during the accented syllable: H* is a plateau with no initial dip, whereas L+H* is a rise from a low level to a high one. |
