Download or read book Categoriality and continuity in prosodic prominence written by Simon Roessig and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prosody has been characterised as a "half-tamed savage" being shaped by both discrete, categorical aspects as well as gradient, continuous phenomena. This book is concerned with the relation of the "wild" and the "tamed" sides of prosodic prominence. It reviews problems that arise from a strict separation of categorical and continuous representations in models of phonetics and phonology, and it explores the potential role of descriptions aimed at reconciling the two domains. In doing so, the book offers an introduction to dynamical systems, a framework that has been studied extensively in the last decades to model speech production and perception. The reported acoustic and articulatory data presented in this book show that categorical and continuous modulations used to enhance prosodic prominence are deeply intertwined and even exhibit a kind of symbiosis. A multi-dimensional dynamical model of prosodic prominence is sketched, based on the empirical data, combining tonal and articulatory aspects of prosodic focus marking. The model demonstrates how categorical and continuous aspects can be integrated in a joint theoretical treatment that overcomes a strict separation of phonetics and phonology.
Download or read book Prosodic boundary phenomena written by Fabian Schubö and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-05-05 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spoken language comprehension, the hearer is faced with a more or less continuous stream of auditory information. Prosodic cues, such as pitch movement, pre-boundary lengthening, and pauses, incrementally help to organize the incoming stream of information into prosodic phrases, which often coincide with syntactic units. Prosody is hence central to spoken language comprehension and some models assume that the speaker produces prosody in a consistent and hierarchical fashion. While there is manifold empirical evidence that prosodic boundary cues are reliably and robustly produced and effectively guide spoken sentence comprehension across different populations and languages, the underlying mechanisms and the nature of the prosody-syntax interface still have not been identified sufficiently. This is also reflected in the fact that most models on sentence processing completely lack prosodic information. This edited book volume is grounded in a workshop that was held in 2021 at the annual conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS). The five chapters cover selected topics on the production and comprehension of prosodic cues in various populations and languages, all focusing in particular on processing of prosody at structurally relevant prosodic boundaries. Specifically, the book comprises cross-linguistic evidence as well as evidence from non-native listeners, infants, adults, and elderly speakers, highlighting the important role of prosody in both language production and comprehension.
Download or read book Compound Intonation Units in Totoli written by Christoph Bracks and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-02-14 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an investigation into aspects of prosody, intonation and the prosody-syntax interface in Totoli, an endangered Austronesian language. With a strongly data-driven approach, the study integrates a combination of experimental evidence from both production and perception with corpus-based evidence through descriptive and inferential statistics. The study takes the prime structuring unit of speech – the Intonation Unit – as its principal unit of investigation. It presents a thorough description of the IU, develops an intonational model of it, and investigates the syntactic units it contains. The author argues that the data is best analysed by assuming recursive embedding of Intonation Units into Compound Intonation Units. This research represents a significant advancement in our understanding of the nature of prosodic systems found in the languages of the region and in intonational systems in general. It is one of the few investigations into the intonation of Austronesian languages and its analytical proposals are relevant both to prosodic theory and to phonological typology.
Download or read book Production perception and comprehension of subphonemic detail Word Final s in English written by Dominic Schmitz and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complexities of speech production, perception, and comprehension are enormous. Theoretical approaches of these complexities most recently face the challenge of accounting for findings on subphonemic differences. The aim of the present dissertation is to establish a robust foundation of findings on such subphonemic differences. One rather popular case for differences in subphonemic detail is word-final /s/ and /z/ in English (henceforth S) as it constitutes a number of morphological functions. Using word-final S, three general issues are investigated. First, are there subphonemic durational differences between different types of word-final S? If there are such differences, how can they be accounted for? Second, can such subphonemic durational differences be perceived? Third, do such subphonemic durational differences influence the comprehension of S? These questions are investigated by five highly controlled studies: a production task, an implementation of Linear Discriminative Learning, a same-different task, and two number-decision tasks. Using not only real words but also pseudowords as target items, potentially confounding effects of lexical storage are controlled for. Concerning the first issue, the results show that there are indeed durational differences between different types of word-final S. Non-morphemic S is longest in duration, clitic S is shortest in duration, and plural S duration is in-between non-morphemic S and clitic S durations. It appears that the durational differences are connected to a word’s semantic activation diversity and its phonological certainty. Regarding the second issue, subphonemic durational differences in word-final S can be perceived, with higher levels of perceptibility for differences of 35 ms and higher. In regard to the third issue, subphonemic durational differences are found not to influence the speed of comprehension, but show a significant effect on the process of comprehension. The overall results give raise to a revision of various extant models of speech production, perception, and comprehension.
Download or read book Conversation and intonation in autism A multi dimensional analysis written by Simon Wehrle and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis of conversations between autistic adults. The investigation is focussed on intonation style, turn-taking and the use of backchannels, filled pauses and silent pauses. Previous findings on intonation style in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are contradictory, with claims ranging from characteristically monotonous to characteristically melodic intonation. A novel methodology for quantifying intonation style is used, and it is revealed that autistic speakers tended towards a more melodic intonation style compared to control speakers in the data set under investigation. Research on turn-taking (the organisation of who speaks when in conversation) in ASD is limited, with most studies claiming a tendency for longer silent gaps in ASD. No clear overall difference in turn-timing between the ASD and the control group was found in the data under study. There was, however, a clear difference between groups specifically in the earliest stages of dialogue, where ASD dyads produced considerably longer silent gaps than controls. Backchannels (listener signals such as mmhm or okay) have barely been investigated in ASD to date. The current analysis shows that autistic speakers produced fewer backchannels per minute (particularly in the early stages of dialogue), and that backchannels were less diverse prosodically and lexically. Filled pauses (hesitation signals such as uhm and uh) in ASD have been the subject of a handful of previous studies, most of which claim that autistic speakers produced fewer uhm tokens (specifically). It is shown that filled pauses were produced at an identical rate in both groups and that there was an equivalent preference of uhm over uh. ASD speakers differed only in the prosodic realisation of filled pauses. It is further shown that autistic speakers produced more long silent (within-speaker) pauses than controls. The analyses presented in this book provide new insights into conversation strategies and intonation styles in ASD, as reviewed in a summary analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research, general characteristics of cognition in ASD, and the importance of studying communication in interaction and across neurotypes.
Download or read book A model of sonority based on pitch intelligibility written by Aviad Albert and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2023-06-10 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sonority is a central notion in phonetics and phonology and it is essential for generalizations related to syllabic organization. However, to date there is no clear consensus on the phonetic basis of sonority, neither in perception nor in production. The widely used Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) represents the speech signal as a sequence of discrete units, where phonological processes are modeled as symbol manipulating rules that lack a temporal dimension and are devoid of inherent links to perceptual, motoric or cognitive processes. The current work aims to change this by outlining a novel approach for the extraction of continuous entities from acoustic space in order to model dynamic aspects of phonological perception. It is used here to advance a functional understanding of sonority as a universal aspect of prosody that requires pitch-bearing syllables as the building blocks of speech.This book argues that sonority is best understood as a measurement of pitch intelligibility in perception, which is closely linked to periodic energy in acoustics. It presents a novel principle for sonority-based determinations of well-formedness – the Nucleus Attraction Principle (NAP). Two complementary NAP models independently account for symbolic and continuous representations and they mostly outperform SSP-based models, demonstrated here with experimental perception studies and with a corpus study of Modern Hebrew nouns. This work also includes a description of ProPer (Prosodic Analysis with Periodic Energy). The ProPer toolbox further exploits the proposal that periodic energy reflects sonority in order to cover major topics in prosodic research, such as prominence, intonation and speech rate. The book is finally concluded with brief discussions on selected topics: (i) the phonotactic division of labor with respect to /s/-stop clusters; (ii) the debate about the universality of sonority; and (iii) the fate of the classic phonetics–phonology dichotomy as it relates to continuity and dynamics in phonology.
Download or read book Intonation between phrasing and accent written by Timo Buchholz and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fuzzy boundaries Ambiguity in speech production and comprehension written by Christopher Carignan and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2023-04-20 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Phonology of Tone and Intonation written by Carlos Gussenhoven and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-07 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax written by Marcel den Dikken and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.
Download or read book An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory written by Dominique Sportiche and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offersbeginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction toour current understanding of the rules and principles that governthe syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as‘practice’ boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitateunderstanding of both the ‘hows’ and the‘whys’ of sentence structure Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structuresin a progressive manner Takes the mystery out of one of the most crucial aspects of theworkings of language – the principles and processes behindthe structure of sentences Ideal for students with minimal knowledge of current syntacticresearch, it progresses in theoretical difficulty from basic ideasand theories to more complex and advanced, up to date concepts insyntactic theory
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Japanese Linguistics written by Yoko Hasegawa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 1146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The linguistic study of Japanese, with its rich syntactic and phonological structure, complex writing system, and diverse sociohistorical context, is a rapidly growing research area. This book, designed to serve as a concise reference for researchers interested in the Japanese language and in typological studies of language in general, explores diverse characteristics of Japanese that are particularly intriguing when compared with English and other European languages. It pays equal attention to the theoretical aspects and empirical phenomena from theory-neutral perspectives, and presents necessary theoretical terms in clear and easy language. It consists of five thematic parts including sound system and lexicon, grammatical foundation and constructions, and pragmatics/sociolinguistics topics, with chapters that survey critical discussions arising in Japanese linguistics. The Cambridge Handbook of Japanese Linguistics will be welcomed by general linguists, and students and scholars working in linguistic typology, Japanese language, Japanese linguistics and Asian Studies.
Download or read book Aspects of English Prosody written by Janet Mueller Bing and published by Dissertations-G. This book was released on 1985 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ancient Texts and Modern Readers written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-06-07 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of articles by an international group of specialists presents original research, new lines of inquiry, and novel insights on subjects related to ancient Hebrew linguistics, Bible translation, and biblical interpretation.
Download or read book The Domain of Language written by Michael D. Fortescue and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended as counter-evidence to the perception of Linguistics as the domain of dusty schoolroom grammar, where proponents of one theoretical orientation or the other spend their brief breaks in the playground bashing the others over the head with their favorite abstractions. The discipline may appear to outsiders as fragmented and, worse still, lacking in relevance to the real world outside its gates. The purpose is to show that Linguistics, in all its varied branches, can be entertaining as well as thought-provoking, and that its domain is indeed a coherent one despite all the internecine squabbling. The subject is introduced in an unconventional way as a kind of fable with an historical moral that professional linguists, as well as students, should enjoy as a commentary on the state of the discipline today.
Download or read book Heritage Languages and Their Speakers written by Maria Polinsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering study of heritage languages, from a leading scholar in this area of study world-wide.
Download or read book Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog written by Paul Kroeger and published by Center for the Study of Language (CSLI). This book was released on 1993-07-30 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last twenty years or so, most of the work on the syntax of Philippine languages has been focused on the question of whether or not these languages can be said to have grammatical subjects, and if so which argument of a basic transitive clause should be analysed as being the subject. Paul Kroeger's contribution to this debate asserts that grammatical relations such as subject and object are syntactic notions, and must be identified on the basis of syntactic properties, rather than by semantic roles or discourse functions. A large number of syntactic processes in Tagalog uniquely select the argument which bears the nominative case. On the other hand, the data which have been used in the debate to assert the ambiguity of subjecthood are best analysed in terms of semantic rather than syntactic constraints. Together these facts support an analysis that takes the nominative argument as the subject. Kroeger examines the history of the subjecthood debate and uses data from Tagalog to test the theories that have been put forth. His conclusions entail consequences for certain linguistic concepts and theories, and lead Kroeger to assert that grammatical relations are not defined in terms of surface phrase structure configurations, contrary to the assumptions of many approaches to syntax including the Government-Binding theory. Paul Kroeger is presently doing fieldwork in Austronesian languages and teaching linguistics to fieldworkers from around the world.
