L8-prosody Flashcards
Suprasegmentals
Phonetic units including variations in length, stress and pitch
Prosody
=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.
Intonation
pitch variation (pitch goes up or down)
Rhythm
Temporal variation: duration, time, tempo
stress
Saying syllables/word parts more strongly to emphasize them
Prosodic hierarchy (5)
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.
Syllable level
Smallest element, contained in foot (e.g.: pe)
Foot level
Combination of 1+ syllables (e.g.: peni), stress is used for syllable prominence
Phonological word level
Consists of (several) foot (e.g.: penicillin), rhythm does not interact with this level but pitch does
Phonological phrase level
Sequence of elements (e.g.: use penicillin)
Intonational phrase level
Several phonological phrases coming together with one single intonation; intonational phrase boundary guides syntactic analysis of sentences (e.g.: Doctors use penicillin)
Tone languages
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
Stress-based languages
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
Where does rythm occur?
Rhythm is more present at lower levels: It occurs at segmental/syllable level, metric foot level, phonological phrase level and sentence/intonational level
Where does intonation occur?
Intonation is more present at higher levels: at word level, sentence level
ToBI labelling system
“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
Pitch accents
Indicate prominence of particular words in a phrase system (either low or high tone)
Mora-timed-languages
consists of Moras (e.g. Japanese); mora is subunit of syllable
Stress-timed languages
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
Syllable-timed languages
Languages such as French or Italian (like Machine gun) with long vowels and less consonant variation; syllables have equal prominence
Syllable/segmental level & Rhythm
Rhythm changes language, duration and timing of vowels and consonants based on segmental information; variation between consonants and vowels help to classify languages
Isochrony
Rhythmic division of time into equal portions by language (only theoretical concept)
Head-initial languages
English: complement comes after verb (drink milk)
Head-final languages
Turkish: complement comes before verb (milk drink)
language learning and rhythm
Speaking language with specific rhythm improves rhythmic abilities; whenever you learn a second language, it also shapes rhythmic abilities
Foot level & rhythm
Rhythm at metrical foot attributes stress to syllables
Iambic trochaic law
variation in pitch and intensity is perceived at trochaic foot;
variation in duration is perceived at iambic foot
Trochaic foot
Strong syllable – weak syllable pattern (initial prominence)
Iambic foot
Weak syllable – strong syllable (final prominence)
Word level & stress
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)
Phonological phrase level & rhythm
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)
Intonational phrase & rhythm
Rhythmic regularity facilitates sentence comprehension and decreases processing costs if there are syntactic complexities
Rational speaker hypothesis
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
