scholarly journals There is no Post-focal De-phrasing in English

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danfeng Wu
Keyword(s):  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Theoretical Possibility ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
The Relationship

This paper studies the relationship between prosodic phrasing and prominence by addressing the questions of whether every prosodic phrase must have a head (a most prominent sub-constituent), and if so, how the head is marked. I study these questions by examining the intermediate phrase (iP) in English. If every iP must have a head, and this head must be marked by a pitch accent, then in an environment without any pitch accent, there should be no head/non-head distinction. And if there is no head, there should be no iP in this context either. I conducted a production study in English, and found durational evidence suggesting the presence of iP boundaries in an accent-less context. I also searched for durational evidence for iP-level prominence distinctions in this context, but here my results are mixed. One theoretical possibility that is compatible with my findings is that every phrase must have a head, but the head of an iP can be marked by something other than pitch accent, for example by phrasal stress.

scholarly journals Some properties of prosodic phrasing in Thompson Salish

2010 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Karsten A. Koch
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Prosodic Phrase

In Nłeʔkepmxcin, consonant-heavy inventories, lengthy obstruent clusters and widespread glottalization can make potential F0 cues to prosodic phrase boundaries (e.g. boundary tones or declination reset) difficult to observe phonetically. In this paper, I explore a test that exploits one behaviour of phrasefinal consonant clusters to test for prosodic phrasing in Nłeʔkepmxcin clauses. Final /t/ of the 1pl marker kt is aspirated when phrase-final, but not phraseinternally. Use of this test suggests that Thompson Salish speakers parse verbs, arguments and adjuncts into separate phonological phrases. However, complex verbal predicates and complex noun phrases are parsed as single phonological phrases. Implications are discussed, especially in regards to findings that (absence of) pitch accent is not employed to signal the informational categories of Focus and Givenness, even though Nłeʔkepmxcin is a stress language.  

Prosodic phrasing of relative clauses with two possible antecedents in Spanish: A comparison of Spanish native speakers and L1 Basque bilingual speakers

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene de la Cruz-Pavía ◽  
Gorka Elordieta
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
First Language ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries

AbstractThe present production study investigates the prosodic phrasing characteristic of sentences containing a relative clause with two possible noun phrase antecedents [Noun Phrase 1 Noun Phrase 2 Relative Clause] in the variety of Spanish spoken in the Basque Country. It aims to establish the default prosodic phrasing of these structures, as well as whether differences are found in phrasing between native and non-native speakers. Additionally, it examines the effect on prosodic phrasing of constituent length and familiarity with the sentences (skimming the sentences prior to reading them aloud). To do that, the productions of 8 Spanish monolinguals, 8 first language (L1) Spanish/second language (L2) Basque bilinguals, and 8 L1Basque/L2Spanish bilinguals are examined. A default phrasing consisting of the prevalence of a prosodic break after NP2 ([NP1 NP2/RC]) is obtained, and differences are found between the prosodic contours of native and non-native speakers. Additionally, a constituent length effect is found, with a higher frequency of prosodic boundaries after NP2 as RC length increases, as predicted by Fodor’s Same Size Sister Constraint. Last, familiarity with the sentences was found to increase the frequency of occurrence of the default phrasing.

scholarly journals Binarity and Focus in Prosodic Phrasing: New Evidence from Taiwan Mandarin

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-hao Shih
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Taiwan Mandarin ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
New Evidence

This paper makes novel claims and presents new evidence for the binarity of prosodic phrases, alignment of focused elements, and their interaction. Several authors have argued that there are binarity restrictions at the level of the prosodic phrase (e.g. Prince 1980, Ito & Mester 1992, Selkirk 2000). In this paper, I provide new support for this claim from Taiwan Mandarin (TM). I argue that prosodic phrases must be decomposed into Minor Phrases (MIPs) and Major Phrases (MAPs) (Selkirk et al. 2004), and that both levels can have minimal and maximal binarity restrictions. Crucially, MAPs must be binary in TM. Moreover, I argue – after Féry (2013) – that focused elements can require both left and right edge alignment of a constituent (in TM, a MIP). Finally, I show that requirements on binarity and focus can interact in striking ways – a binarity restriction on MAPs prevents alignment to the right edge of focused elements in specific environments.

scholarly journals prosody of Símákonde relative clauses

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 159-185
Author(s):  
Sophie Manus
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Final Stress ◽  
The Relationship

Símákonde is an Eastern Bantu language (P23) spoken by immigrant Mozambican communities in Zanzibar and on the Tanzanian mainland. Like other Makonde dialects and other Eastern and Southern Bantu languages (Hyman 2009), it has lost the historical Proto-Bantu vowel length contrast and now has a regular phrase-final stress rule, which causes a predictable bimoraic lengthening of the penultimate syllable of every Prosodic Phrase. The study of the prosody / syntax interface in Símákonde Relative Clauses requires to take into account the following elements: the relationship between the head and the relative verb, the conjoint / disjoint verbal distinction and the various phrasing patterns of Noun Phrases. Within Símákonde noun phrases, depending on the nature of the modifier, three different phrasing situations are observed: a modifier or modifiers may (i) be required to phrase with the head noun, (ii) be required to phrase separately, or (iii) optionally phrase with the head noun.  

Exploring the Similarity Between Implicit and Explicit Prosody: Prosodic Phrasing and Individual Differences

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092097273
Author(s):  
Jason Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Silent Reading ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Implicit Prosody ◽  
Implicit Prosody Hypothesis

In recent years, work carried out in the context of the implicit prosody hypothesis (IPH) has called into question the assumption that implicit (i.e., silently generated) prosody and explicit (overtly produced) prosody are similar in form. Focusing on prosodic phrasing, the present study explored this issue using an individual differences approach, and using methods that do not rely on the sentence comprehension tests characteristic of work within the IPH program. A large group of native English speakers participated in a production experiment intended to identify individual differences in average prosodic phrase length, phonologically defined. We then explored whether these (explicit) prosodic differences were related to two other kinds of variation, each with a connection to implicit prosody. First, we tested whether individual differences in explicit prosodic phrase length were predicted by individual differences in working memory capacity, a relationship that has been established for implicit prosody. Second, we explored whether participants’ explicit prosodic phrase lengths were predictive of their behavior in a silent-reading task in which they had to identify their own implicit prosodic groupings. In both cases, the findings are argued to be consistent with a similarity between explicit and implicit prosody. First, participants with higher working memory capacity (as estimated by reading spans) were associated with longer prosodic phrases. Second, participants who produced longer explicit prosodic phrases in speech tended to report generating longer prosodic phrases in silent reading. Implications for the nature of implicit prosody, and how it can be studied, are discussed.

The Intonation of Information-Seeking and Rhetorical Questions in Icelandic

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Nicole Dehé ◽  
Bettina Braun
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Question Types ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
The Relationship

We investigate the intonation of information-seeking and rhetorical questions in Icelandic. The results for the information-seeking questions largely confirm observations in previous literature based mostly on introspective data: Polar questions are mostly realized with late rise nuclear accents where the peak aligns after a stressed syllable (L*+H), wh-questions with peak accents (H*); wh-questions often start high (%H, H*). Illocution types (that is, information-seeking versus rhetorical questions) differ in nuclear pitch accent types and in the type and frequency of prenuclear accents. The default boundary tone is low (L%) across question types and illocution types. The results are discussed against the background of previous findings with respect to the relationship between question and illocution type, and prosody.*

F2 variation in Newcastle and Leeds English liquid systems

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Carter ◽  
John Local
Keyword(s):  
British English ◽  
Phonetic Transcription ◽  
Reverse Pattern ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Liquid Systems ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

In this paper we present a production study designed to explore the relationship between three observations which have previously been made about liquids in British English: first, that laterals have prosodically-determined ‘clear’ (syllable-initial) and ‘dark’ (syllable-final) variants; second, that some varieties of English have either clear [1] in all positions or dark [l] in all positions; third, that some varieties with clear [1] have dark [r] while some varieties with dark [1] have clear [r] (in broad phonetic transcription). We take F2 as an acoustic correlate of clearness/darkness and report on F2 variation in two representative varieties of British English, one which has clear initial [1] (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and one with dark initial [1] (Leeds). We show that Newcastle English has higher F2 frequencies in [1] than in [r] and that the reverse pattern is found in Leeds English. These patterns can also be found in adjacent unstressed vowels but not in adjacent stressed vowels. Final [1] in both varieties has a lower F2 than initial [1]. In intervocalic contexts, these F2 distinctions in the liquids are observed in iambic words for both varieties. In trochaic words they are observed for Leeds only, though the vowel effects can be observed in both varieties. We discuss some phonological consequences of these findings.

‘Racial differences have to be considered’: Lauretta Bender, Bellevue Hospital, and the African American psyche, 1936-52

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223
Author(s):  
Dennis Doyle
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Bellevue Hospital ◽  
Theoretical Possibility ◽  
Active Factor ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines one US psychiatrist’s engagement between 1936 and 1952 with a racialist strain of evolutionary thought. When Lauretta Bender began working with Bellevue Hospital’s disproportionately black population, the psychiatric literature still circulated the crude evolutionary proposition that blacks remained stuck at a more primitive stage of development. In the 1930s, drawing insights from holistic, mechanistic and environmentalist thinking on the relationship between mind and body, Bender developed her own more circumspect racialist position. Although she largely abandoned her underdetermined version of racialism in the 1940s for an approach that left out race as an active factor of analysis, this paper contends that she probably never wrote off black primitivity as a theoretical possibility.

Pragmatics and Prosody

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Hirschberg
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Reference Resolution ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Pragmatic Interpretation ◽  
The Relationship

Variation in prosody can influence the interpretation of linguistic phenomena in many languages. Type and location of prosodic prominence and prosodic phrase boundaries, differences in overall fundamental frequency (f0) contours, and changes in intensity, duration, and speaking rate can serve to inform hearers about syntactic attachment, disambiguate scope of modifiers and negation, signal information status, indicate type of speech act or propositional attitude, and contribute to the licensing of implicatures and to reference resolution. This chapter discusses aspects of prosodic variation and pragmatic meaning which have been explored in linguistics, computational linguistics, and psycholinguistics. It begins by describing some commonly used frameworks for representing prosody, including the ToBI framework, which is used to identify prosodic variation throughout. The pragmatic influence of prosody on the interpretation of syntactic, semantic, and discourse phenomena is then examined. It concludes by suggesting new avenues for research in the relationship between prosody and pragmatic interpretation.

Differences in prosodic phrasing in marking syntax vs. focus: Data from Yanbian Korean

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-150
Author(s):  
Sun-Ah Jun ◽  
Xiannu Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Dual Function ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Northeastern Part ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Word Prosody ◽  
Prosodic Boundary

Abstract In studying the effect of syntax and focus on prosodic phrasing, the main issue of investigation has been to explain and predict the location of a prosodic boundary, and not much attention has been given to the nature of prosodic phrasing. In this paper, we offer evidence from intonation patterns of utterances that prosodic phrasing can be formed differently phonologically and phonetically due to its function of marking syntactic structure vs. focus (prominence) in Yanbian Korean, a lexical pitch accent dialect of Korean spoken in the northeastern part of China, just above North Korea. We show that the location of a H tone in syntax-marking Accentual Phrase (AP) is determined by the type of syntactic head, noun or verb (a VP is marked by an AP-initial H while an NP is marked by an AP-final H), while prominence-marking accentual phrasing is cued by AP-initial H. The difference in prosodic phrasing due to its dual function in Yanbian Korean is compared with that of Seoul Korean, and a prediction is made on the possibility of finding such difference in other languages based on the prosodic typology proposed in (Jun, Sun-Ah. 2014b. Prosodic typology: by prominence type, word prosody, and macro-rhythm. In Sun-Ah Jun (ed.), Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. 520–539. Oxford: Oxford University Press).

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