Abstract: Three experiments were carried out to investigate the role accentuation plays in spoken discourse comprehension. The first experiment examined how accentuation influenced on-line processing speed during discourse comprehension, using sentence-by-sentence auditory moving window technique. The second and third experiments explored the effect of accentuation on the immediate results of discourse processing (namely the activation of information in discourse representation), using word recognition task. The results showed that: compared to neutral accentuation, appropriate accentuation speeded up discourse processing and inappropriate accentuation slowed discourse processing; compared to neutral accentuation, appropriate accentuation enhanced the activation of new information in discourse representation; however, inappropriate accentuation suppressed the activation of important new information although it enhanced the activation of old information it marked. Therefore, appropriate accenting accelerated discourse comprehension and inappropriate accentuation impeded discourse processing, both were exhibited both in on-line processing time and in immediate result of discourse processing.

Key words: accentuation, spoken discourse, information structure, facilitating effect, inhibiting effect