Phonetic Encoding Contributes to the Processing of Linguistic Prosody at the Word Level: Cross-Linguistic Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

Purpose This study aimed to examine whether abstract knowledge of word-level linguistic prosody is independent of or integrated with phonetic knowledge. Method Event-related potential (ERP) responses were measured from 18 adult listeners while they listened to native and nonnative word-level prosody in speech and in nonspeech. The prosodic phonology (speech) conditions included disyllabic pseudowords spoken in Chinese and in English matched for syllabic structure, duration, and intensity. The prosodic acoustic (nonspeech) conditions were hummed versions of the speech stimuli, which eliminated the phonetic content while preserving the acoustic prosodic features. Results We observed language-specific effects on the ERP that native stimuli elicited larger late negative response (LNR) amplitude than nonnative stimuli in the prosodic phonology conditions. However, no such effect was observed in the phoneme-free prosodic acoustic control conditions. Conclusions The results support the integration view that word-level linguistic prosody likely relies on the phonetic content where the acoustic cues embedded in. It remains to be examined whether the LNR may serve as a neural signature for language-specific processing of prosodic phonology beyond auditory processing of the critical acoustic cues at the suprasyllabic level.

Phase-based Constraints within Match Theory

This paper argues that Match Theory (Selkirk 2011) cannot account for some types of phrasal syntax-prosody correspondence in Blackfoot (Algonquian; Frantz 2017). I focus on the verbal complex and show that the verbal complex contains phrasal syntactic structure all the way up to a CP phrase, and that it contains two distinct prosodic constituents corresponding the vP/VP and the CP, respectively. Since the verbal complex contains phrasal syntax, theories of phrasal syntax-prosody correspondences should apply. I argue that the definitions of the syntactic units which correspond to prosodic constituents must be redefined based on phases, and show how a phase-based revision of Match Theory can account for the syntax-prosody correspondence in Blackfoot verbal complexes. The result is a unified theory of the prosodic phonology of stems and phrases which is built on universal syntactic definitions. Although Match Theory is the theoretical focus of this paper, the evidence from Blackfoot implies that phrasal syntax-prosody correspondences can and should be brought 'below the word' in any theory of prosodic phonology.

Prosodic Characteristics of Metadiscursive Utterances

In this work, we analyze the prosody organization of metadiscursive utterances in speech flow. Based on the theories of prosodic phonology and metric and self-segmentation of intonation, we analyzed seven audio surveys token from the NURC Digital Project data. In general, we found that in the variety of Brazilian Portuguese studied, the metadiscursive statements are produced, prosodically, as an independent structure from those adjacent to them.

Children’s Vowel Spelling in Derived Words: Item-, Word- and Child-Level Predictors

In spelling English words, vowels pose perhaps the greatest difficulty, especially thereduced vowels typically found in unstressed syllables. In morphologically complex words, however, the identity of reduced vowels can often be recovered by considering morphologically-related words. In this brief report, we used item-level analyses to explore predictors of 110 4th and 5th graders’ vowel spelling in derived words (the a and o in majority) as a function of spelling performance on those same vowels in morphologically-related base words (the a and o in major). Variance was partitioned between child and vowel predictors. Significant child predictors were phonemic awareness, prosodic awareness, morphological awareness, and priming by the base word. The significant vowel predictor was syllable stress. Significant interactions were observed between syllable stress and prosodic awareness, and between syllable stress and phonemic awareness. We discuss insights for spelling and reading to be gleaned from linking morphology and prosodic phonology.