In the current study, we explore how different information-structural devices affect which referents conversational partners expect in the upcoming discourse. Our main research question is how pitch accents (H*, L+H*) and focus particles (German nur ‘only’ and auch ‘also’) affect speakers’ choices to mention focused referents, previously mentioned alternatives or new, inferable alternatives. Participants in our experiment were presented with short discourses involving two referents and were asked to orally produce two sentences that continue the story. An analysis of speakers’ continuations showed that participants were most likely to mention a contextual alternative in the condition with only and the L+H* conditions, followed by H* conditions. In the condition with also, in turn, participants mentioned both the focused/accented referent and the contextual alternative. Our findings highlight the importance of information structure for discourse management and suggest that speakers take activated alternatives to be relevant for an unfolding discourse.

在当前的研究中，我们探讨了不同的信息结构设备如何影响对话伙伴在即将到来的话语中所期望的所指对象。我们的主要研究问题是音高重音（H*、L+H*）和焦点助词（德语nur ' only ' 和auch 'also'）如何影响说话者提及焦点指示物、先前提到的替代物或新的、可推断的替代物的选择。我们实验的参与者被展示了涉及两个所指对象的简短话语，并被要求口头说出两个句子来继续这个故事。对说话者延续的分析表明，参与者最有可能在只有和 L+H* 条件，然后是 H* 条件。在同样的条件下，参与者又提到了重点/重音所指对象和上下文替代项。我们的研究结果强调了信息结构对话语管理的重要性，并建议说话者采用激活的替代方案与展开的话语相关。