Korosteta

Korosteta is a term in linguistics referring to a hypothesized prosodic-gestural mechanism by which speakers intensify discourse to signal focus, stance, and discourse boundaries. The concept integrates pitch modulation, tempo variation, voice quality, and co-speech gestures. It is proposed to occur across multiple languages as part of a system of focus marking beyond morphosyntactic devices.

Origin and naming: The term is built from korost- meaning "sharpen" or "accent" in several Slavic languages, with the suffix -eta used to denote a process or phenomenon. It is not widely standardized and remains mainly within speculative, experimental discussions.

Characteristics: includes: a) elevated pitch and widened pitch range on targeted words; b) increased speaking rate or deliberate slowing to mark emphasis; c) heavier articulation or breath exhalation; d) co-speech gestures such as hand shaping and pointing synchronized with the stressed units.

Applications: In theoretical linguistics, korosteta is used to explain patterns of emphasis that are not captured by standard focus-marking strategies. In computational linguistics, researchers test how korosteta cues might be modeled in speech synthesis and automatic prosody.

Criticism: Some researchers argue that korosteta lacks cross-linguistic evidence and may be conflated with broader prosodic emphasis. Others see value in a unified account of multi-modal focus signaling.

See also: prosody, focus, emphasis, gesture, discourse marker.