L8-prosody

Question 1

Suprasegmentals

Answer 1

Phonetic units including variations in length, stress and pitch

Question 2

Prosody

Answer 2

=Abstract structure of discrete tonal elements that affects the segmentation of utterances. It organizes the speech stream and helps listeners to identify words and phrases of utterances by making some elements more prominent than others. Prosody uses intonation and rhythm to do so. Prosodic elements also change meaning and interpretations.

Question 3

Intonation

Answer 3

pitch variation (pitch goes up or down)

Question 4

Rhythm

Answer 4

Temporal variation: duration, time, tempo

Question 5

stress

Answer 5

Saying syllables/word parts more strongly to emphasize them

Question 6

Prosodic hierarchy (5)

Answer 6

Prosody operates on different levels: the syllable, foot, phonological word, phonological/intermediate phrase and intonational phrase level. Rhythm and Intonation modify speech on all levels by variations in pitch, duration and intensity.

Question 7

Syllable level

Answer 7

Smallest element, contained in foot (e.g.: pe)

Question 8

Foot level

Answer 8

Combination of 1+ syllables (e.g.: peni), stress is used for syllable prominence

Question 9

Phonological word level

Answer 9

Consists of (several) foot (e.g.: penicillin), rhythm does not interact with this level but pitch does

Question 10

Phonological phrase level

Answer 10

Sequence of elements (e.g.: use penicillin)

Question 11

Intonational phrase level

Answer 11

Several phonological phrases coming together with one single intonation; intonational phrase boundary guides syntactic analysis of sentences (e.g.: Doctors use penicillin)

Question 12

Tone languages

Answer 12

Languages where tone variations on word-level cause different semantics (e.g.: Chinese) –> tonal language speakers are better at perceiving lexical intonation at word level

Question 13

Stress-based languages

Answer 13

Languages where pitch variations cause different pragmatics at sentence level (e.g.: English)–>stress-based language speakers are better at perceiving global intonation at sentence level

Question 14

Where does rythm occur?

Answer 14

Rhythm is more present at lower levels: It occurs at segmental/syllable level, metric foot level, phonological phrase level and sentence/intonational level

Question 15

Where does intonation occur?

Answer 15

Intonation is more present at higher levels: at word level, sentence level

Question 16

ToBI labelling system

Answer 16

“Tone and Boundary Indices”: Used for prosodic analysis in terms of tone variation, intonation and breaks; It consists of pitch accents which indicate the prominence of particular words and prosodic phrases which show the grouping of words

Question 17

Pitch accents

Answer 17

Indicate prominence of particular words in a phrase system (either low or high tone)

Question 18

Mora-timed-languages

Answer 18

consists of Moras (e.g. Japanese); mora is subunit of syllable

Question 19

Stress-timed languages

Answer 19

Germanic languages such as Arabic, English or German that go from stress syllables to less prominent syllables (like Morse-code); short vowels and many consonants; stressed syllables have regular interval

Question 20

Syllable-timed languages

Answer 20

Languages such as French or Italian (like Machine gun) with long vowels and less consonant variation; syllables have equal prominence

Question 21

Syllable/segmental level & Rhythm

Answer 21

Rhythm changes language, duration and timing of vowels and consonants based on segmental information; variation between consonants and vowels help to classify languages

Question 22

Isochrony

Answer 22

Rhythmic division of time into equal portions by language (only theoretical concept)

Question 23

Head-initial languages

Answer 23

English: complement comes after verb (drink milk)

Question 24

Head-final languages

Answer 24

Turkish: complement comes before verb (milk drink)

Question 25

language learning and rhythm

Answer 25

Speaking language with specific rhythm improves rhythmic abilities; whenever you learn a second language, it also shapes rhythmic abilities

Question 26

Foot level & rhythm

Answer 26

Rhythm at metrical foot attributes stress to syllables

Question 27

Iambic trochaic law

Answer 27

variation in pitch and intensity is perceived at trochaic foot;
variation in duration is perceived at iambic foot

Question 28

Trochaic foot

Answer 28

Strong syllable – weak syllable pattern (initial prominence)

Question 29

Iambic foot

Answer 29

Weak syllable – strong syllable (final prominence)

Question 30

Word level & stress

Answer 30

Stress on word level is most prominent one
Is language specific:
Dutch, English, Spanish: prefer Trochees –>focus on first syllable (WATer)
Turkish: prefer Iambs –>focus on second syllable (ProTEST)

Question 31

Phonological phrase level & rhythm

Answer 31

Syntax interacts with prosody for the first time
Subject-object-verb structure languages: stress is marked by initial intensity and pitch variation (head-final-languages: Turkish)
Subject-verb-object languages: stress is marked by final lengthening (head-initial languages: English, Italian)

Question 32

Intonational phrase & rhythm

Answer 32

Rhythmic regularity facilitates sentence comprehension and decreases processing costs if there are syntactic complexities

Question 33

Rational speaker hypothesis

Answer 33

Prosody provides a structure for language comprehension and production: The speaker implements syntactic prosodic constraints (prosody of speaker is informative) and the listener assumes that the speaker uses these constraints