scholarly journals Probabilistic relation between co-speech gestures, pitch accents and information status

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suyeon Im ◽  
Stefan Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Information Status ◽  
Probabilistic Relation ◽  
Pitch Accents

This study investigates the occurrence of co-speech gestures as a function of prosodic prominence (pitch accents) and discourse meaning (information status) in a clear and engaging speech style. Among several types of co-speech gestures, we examine non-referential gestures, which are claimed to be prosodic in nature (Shattuck-Hufnagel & Ren 2018). In particular, we want to find out to what extent these gestures co-occur with specific accent types and whether they are used to encode referential, lexical, or contrastive information. Our results show that the occurrence of gestures was highest for L+H*, followed by H*, !H*, and unaccented words. Gestures were accompanied by L* only in continuations. Also, co-speech gestures were more likely to occur with new or accessible, and especially contrastive, information than with given information. The patterns differed between the referential and lexical level of information status, though. In general, this study suggests that co-speech gestures contribute to the probabilistic encoding of a word’s information status in conjunction with pitch accents.

Pitch accents and information status in a German radio news corpus

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Schweitzer ◽  
Arndt Riester ◽  
Michael Walsh ◽  
Grzegorz Dogil
Keyword(s):  
Information Status ◽  
News Corpus ◽  
Pitch Accents ◽  
Radio News

No stress, no pitch accent, no prosodic focus: the case of Ambonese Malay

Phonology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raechel Maskikit-Essed ◽  
Carlos Gussenhoven
Keyword(s):  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Prosodic Focus ◽  
Pitch Accents ◽  
Minimal Stress

Varieties of Malay, including Indonesian, have been variously described as having word stress on the penultimate syllable, as having variable word stress and as having a phrase-final pitch accent without word stress. In Ambonese Malay, the alignment of sentence-final pitch peaks fails to support the existence of either word stress or phrase-final pitch accents. Also, the shape of its pitch peaks fails to vary systematically with the information status of the phrase-final word. The two intonation melodies of the language include phrase-final boundary-tone complexes which do not associate with any syllables. The declarative rise-fall would appear to be timed so as to occur within the last word of the sentence. Minimal stress pairs presented in earlier descriptions show a contrast between /a/ and a segmentally distinct weak /ă/, a contrast that also appears in positions that have not been claimed to have stress. A preliminary phonological analysis concludes the account.

scholarly journals Focus Triggers and Focus Types from a Corpus Perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arndt Riester ◽  
Stefan Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Single Sentence ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Pitch Accents ◽  
A Current ◽  
Labelling Scheme

The article discusses several issues relevant for the annotation of written and spoken corpus data with information structure. We discuss ways to identify focus top-down (via questions under discussion) or bottom-up (starting from pitch accents). We introduce a two-dimensional labelling scheme for information status and propose a way to distinguish between contrastive and non-contrastive information. Moreover, we take side in a current debate, claiming that focus is triggered by two sources: newness and elicited alternatives (contrast). This may lead to a high number of semantic-pragmatic foci in a single sentence. In each prosodic phrase there can be one primary focus (marked by a nuclear pitch accent) and several secondary foci (marked by weaker prosodic prominence). Second occurrence focus is one instance of secondary focus.

scholarly journals USING PROSODY TO PREDICT UPCOMING REFERENTS IN THE L1 AND THE L2

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Anouschka Foltz
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Exposure Period ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Resource Deficit ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Pitch Accents

Abstract While monolingual speakers can use contrastive pitch accents to predict upcoming referents, bilingual speakers do not always use this cue predictively in their L2. The current study examines the role of recent exposure for predictive processing in native German (L1) second language learners of English (L2). In Experiment 1, participants followed instructions to click on two successive objects, for example, Click on the red carrot/duck. Click on the green/GREEN carrot (where CAPS indicate a contrastive L + H* accent). Participants predicted a repeated noun following a L + H* accent in the L1, but not in the L2, where processing was delayed. Experiment 2 shows that after an exposure period with highly consistent prosodic cues, bilinguals engaged in predictive processing in both their L1 and L2. However, inconsistent prosodic cues showed different effects on bilinguals’ L1 and L2 predictive processing. The results are discussed in terms of exposure-based and resource-deficit models of processing.

Focus Attracts Attachment

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110333
Author(s):  
Katy Carlson ◽  
David Potter
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Focus Position ◽  
Auditory Comprehension ◽  
Perceptual Salience ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Pitch Accents

There is growing evidence that pitch accents as well as prosodic boundaries can affect syntactic attachment. But is this an effect of their perceptual salience (the Salience Hypothesis), or is it because accents mark the position of focus (the Focus Attraction Hypothesis)? A pair of auditory comprehension experiments shows that focus position, as indicated by preceding wh-questions instead of by pitch accents, affects attachment by drawing the ambiguous phrase to the focus. This supports the Focus Attraction Hypothesis (or a pragmatic version of salience) for both these results and previous results of accents on attachment. These experiments show that information structure, as indicated with prosody or other means, influences sentence interpretation, and suggests a view on which modifiers are drawn to the most important information in a sentence.

scholarly journals The Role of Prosodic Breaks and Pitch Accents in Grouping Words during On-line Sentence Processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2447-2467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Bögels ◽  
Herbert Schriefers ◽  
Wietske Vonk ◽  
Dorothee J. Chwilla
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
On Line ◽  
Group Words ◽  
Pitch Accents

The present study addresses the question whether accentuation and prosodic phrasing can have a similar function, namely, to group words in a sentence together. Participants listened to locally ambiguous sentences containing object- and subject-control verbs while ERPs were measured. In Experiment 1, these sentences contained a prosodic break, which can create a certain syntactic grouping of words, or no prosodic break. At the disambiguation, an N400 effect occurred when the disambiguation was in conflict with the syntactic grouping created by the break. We found a similar N400 effect without the break, indicating that the break did not strengthen an already existing preference. This pattern held for both object- and subject-control items. In Experiment 2, the same sentences contained a break and a pitch accent on the noun following the break. We argue that the pitch accent indicates a broad focus covering two words [see Gussenhoven, C. On the limits of focus projection in English. In P. Bosch & R. van der Sandt (Eds.), Focus: Linguistic, cognitive, and computational perspectives. Cambridge: University Press, 1999], thus grouping these words together. For object-control items, this was semantically possible, which led to a “good-enough” interpretation of the sentence. Therefore, both sentences were interpreted equally well and the N400 effect found in Experiment 1 was absent. In contrast, for subject-control items, a corresponding grouping of the words was impossible, both semantically and syntactically, leading to processing difficulty in the form of an N400 effect and a late positivity. In conclusion, accentuation can group words together on the level of information structure, leading to either a semantically “good-enough” interpretation or a processing problem when such a semantic interpretation is not possible.

scholarly journals Investigating hot-Jupiter inflated radii with hierarchical Bayesian modelling

2018 ◽  
Vol 616 ◽  
pp. A76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Sestovic ◽  
Brice-Olivier Demory ◽  
Didier Queloz
Keyword(s):  
Large Fraction ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Mass Range ◽  
Hierarchical Bayesian ◽  
Incident Flux ◽  
Hot Jupiters ◽  
Probabilistic Relation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Level Analysis

Context. As of today, hundreds of hot Jupiters have been found, yet the inflated radii of a large fraction of them remain unexplained. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to explain these anomalous radii, however most of these can only work under certain conditions and may not be sufficient to explain the most extreme cases. It is still unclear whether a single mechanism can sufficiently explain the entire distribution of radii, or whether a combination of these mechanisms is needed. Aims. We seek to understand the relationship of radius with stellar irradiation and mass and to find the range of masses over which hot Jupiters are inflated. We also aim to find the intrinsic physical scatter in their radii, caused by unobservable parameters, and to constrain the fraction of hot Jupiters that exhibit inflation. Methods. By constructing a hierarchical Bayesian model, we inferred the probabilistic relation between planet radius, mass, and incident flux for a sample of 286 gas giants. We separately incorporated the observational uncertainties of the data and the intrinsic physical scatter in the population. This allowed us to treat the intrinsic physical scatter in radii, due to latent parameters such as the heavy element fraction, as a parameter to be inferred. Results. We find that the planetary mass plays a key role in the inflation extent and that planets in the range ~0.37−0.98  MJ show the most inflated radii. At higher masses, the radius response to incident flux begins to decrease. Below a threshold of 0.37 ± 0.03  MJ we find that giant exoplanets as a population are unable to maintain inflated radii ≿1.4  RJ but instead exhibit smaller sizes as the incident flux is increased beyond 106 W m−2. We also find that below 1  MJ, there is a cut-off point at high incident flux beyond which we find no more inflated planets, and that this cut-off point decreases as the mass decreases. At incident fluxes higher than ~1.6 × 106 W m−2 and in a mass range 0.37−0.98  MJ, we find no evidence for a population of non-inflated hot Jupiters. Our study sheds a fresh light on one of the key questions in the field and demonstrates the importance of population-level analysis to grasp the underlying properties of exoplanets.

THE TRANSLATION OF INFORMATION PATTERN FOR I CARE A LOT MOVIE SUBTITLE FROM ENGLISH TO INDONESIAN

Lire Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-213
Author(s):  
Sajarwa Sajarwa ◽  
Aulia Addinillah A ◽  
Nadia Khumairo Mash’umah ◽  
Cynthia Yanda ◽  
Ahmad Khalid M. Al-maziidi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Information Patterns ◽  
Information Pattern ◽  
Pattern Information ◽  
In The Beginning

Movie subtitle translation is the transfer of meaning from source text into target text in the form of text under the screen with limited time and characters. One of the problems in translating movie subtitle is the information pattern. Information patterns are how the information is organized. This information arrangement includes information status and information urgency. This research uses descriptive and comparative methods. The results of the study indicate that (i) there are parallels in information pattern urgency, namely foreground position tends to be in the beginning of the speech; (ii) the misalignment of information status occurs in sentences translation with it subject and that impersonal and in interrogative and imperative sentences translation, as well as in sentences translation with the non-doer subject.

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