8. Phonological and grammatical informative value in an intonation unit 79

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intonation Unit

Intonation unit boundaries and the storage of bigrams

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Wahl
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Effects ◽  
Psychological Status ◽  
Statistical Association ◽  
High Association ◽  
Intonation Units ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Statistical Metrics ◽  
Intonation Unit

Much recent work on language and cognition has examined the psychological status of collocations/formulas/multi-word expressions as mentally stored units. These studies have used a variety of statistical metrics to quantify the degree of strength or association of these sequences, and then they have correlated these strengths with particular behavioral effects that evidence mental storage. However, the relationship between intonational prosody and storage of collocations has received little attention. Through a corpus-based approach, this study examines the hypothesis that boundaries between successive intonation units avoid splitting word bigrams that exhibit high statistical association, with such high association taken to be an index of mental storage of these bigrams. Conversely, bigrams exhibiting lower statistical association ought to be more likely to be split by intonation unit boundaries under this hypothesis.

(Inter)subjectification and unidirectionality

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Keyword(s):  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Semantic Function ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Intonation Unit

In this paper the importance of distinguishing synchronic (inter)subjectivity and diachronic (inter)subjectification is stressed. Questions are posed concerning the robustness of hypotheses about matches between semantic function and syntactic position at the left or right periphery of the clause in Japanese, the extent to which subtypes of (inter)subjective function constrain the direction of shift over time, and the optimal unit of analysis (sentence, clause, or intonation unit).

scholarly journals Short information units

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 03-35
Author(s):  
Tommaso Raso ◽  
Saulo Santos
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Information Unit ◽  
Specific Circumstance ◽  
Linguistic Functions ◽  
Prosodic Boundary ◽  
Intonation Unit

Our main goal is to show that short information units (one phonological word immediately preceded and followed by a prosodic boundary, at least one of which with non-terminal value) can be classified only on the basis of their formal prosodic characteristics. That is to say that lexicon and syntax may vary with respect to the informational function, while what formally marks the informational function is the regularity of the prosodic profile of the lexical item. We also maintain that an information unit corresponds to an intonation unit (except in one specific circumstance). We use just one lexeme for the analysis, the Brazilian Portuguese ASSIM, and extract all the occurrences where this lexeme is found in a dedicated prosodic unit in the C-ORAL-BRASIL corpus. According to our analysis, this lexeme can fulfill at least five different information units, i.e. it can fulfill at least five different linguistic functions, recognizable by their prosodic regularities.

scholarly journals What do subject pronouns do in discourse? Cognitive, mechanical and constructional factors in variation

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Travis, ◽  
Rena Torres Cacoullos,
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Mechanical Effect ◽  
First Person ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Expression ◽  
Intonation Unit

AbstractIn languages with variable subject expression, or “pro-drop” languages, when do speakers use subject pronouns? We address this question by investigating the linguistic conditioning of Spanish first-person singular pronoun yo in conversational data, testing hypotheses about speakers' choice of an expressed subject as factors in multivariate analysis. Our results indicate that, despite a widely held understanding of a contrastive role for subject pronouns, yo expression is primarily driven by cognitive, mechanical and constructional factors. In cognitive terms, we find that yo is favored in the presence of human subjects intervening between coreferential 1sg subjects (a refined measure of the well-described phenomenon of “switch-reference”). A mechanical effect is observed in two distinct manifestations of priming: the increased rate of yo when the previous coreferential first singular subject was realized as yo and when the subject of the immediately preceding clause was realized pronominally. And evidence for a particular yo + cognitive verb construction is provided by a speaker-turn effect, the favoring of yo in a turn-initial Intonation Unit, that is observed with cognitive (but not other) verbs, which form a category centered around high frequency yo creo ‘I think’.

scholarly journals Het modern taalkundig concept van de intonatie-eenheid in de Laat Middeleeuws Griekse πολιτικος στιχος poëzie

1970 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Jorie Soltic
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Intonation Units ◽  
Intonation Unit

In this article, I hope to strengthen the case that the study of so-called dead languages canbenefit from modern linguistic theory. More concretely, I show that we can apply themodem linguistic concept of the intonation unit, which is a theoretical notion fully developedon the basis of contemporary spoken (!) languages, to the Late Medieval Greekπολιτικος στιχος poetry (12th - 15th century). This type of poetry is conceptually made upof short, simple, "chunks" of information. More precisely, each verse consists of two(stylized) intonation units, demarcated by the fixed caesura, which can thus be equatedwith an Intonation Unit boundary. This thesis is supported by various arguments, both ofa metrical (e.g. avoidance of elision) and of a syntactico-semantic nature (e.g. position ofthe P2 particles).

Some parallels between language and music from a cognitive and evolutionary perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 201-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon ◽  
August Fenk
Keyword(s):  
Online Control ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Simple Explanation ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Frequency Peak ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Intonation Units ◽  
Evolutionary Pathways ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Intonation Unit

Parallels between language and music are considered as a useful basis for examining possible evolutionary pathways of these achievements. Such parallels become apparent if we compare clauses and syllables in language with phrases and notes in music: Clauses as well as musical phrases typically span about 2 sec and about 5 to 10 pulses, i.e. syllables or notes. The n of syllables per clause or intonation unit also can be used as a measure of tempo across languages and thus also as a means for a better understanding of typological co-variations in the rhythm of speech and music. Further correspondences were found between the size of the sound-relevant inventories, i.e. vowels and musical intervals: a minimum of roughly 3 and a maximum of roughly 12 elements as well as a frequency peak at 5 elements. A link between vowels and musical intervals is also indicated by our findings that in Alpine yodellers the vowels are highly correlated to melodic direction according to their F2 ordering. These parallels are discussed from an evolutionary perspective that either sees music as a precursor of language or both language and music as descendents of a common, “half-musical” precursor (Jespersen, 1895; Brown, 2000). A rather simple explanation of the parallels is reported: If singing in a broader sense of the word is the most original form of music, then the functionality of any mechanism involved in the programming and the online-control of intonation units will be reflected in language as well as in music.

On Wallace Chafe's "How consciousness shapes language"

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Allwood
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Intonation Unit ◽  
The Way

It is argued that Wallace Chafe's approach of relating studies of mind and consciousness to studies of real spoken language interaction is precisely what is needed in linguistics and psycholinguistics. However, the way Chafe attempts to establish the link between spoken language and consciousness is, in several respects, in need of clarification. The paper critically examines several of Chafe's claims and points to areas — e.g., the notions of 'consciousness', 'intonation unit', and 'new idea' — where clarification or possible revision is needed.

Oral Composition in the Medieval Spanish Epic

PMLA ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Literary Creation ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
The Social ◽  
Oral Composition ◽  
Intonation Unit

This essay addresses the question of whether the Spanish epic was composed orally or was a literary creation using the oral techniques of bards but composed in writing. Oral dictation played an important role in even the most literate works of the time. Theme was an important compositional aid employed by bards during performance, and its presence is evident in passages of the Cantar de Mio Cid and the Mocedades de Rodrigo. A new tool of analysis is introduced, the intonation unit, which leads to an understanding of Spanish epic narrative as orally composed and governed by the cognitive constraints of speech. Oral composition eventually included literate individuals whose contributions are linked to the social and political circumstances under which these poems were preserved on parchment.

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