Prosody

tutorial 7

Coarticulatory effects have a temporal order to them If the temporal order of these effects is changed, our perception of the linguistic content is affected This means that we use the presence of coarticulatory effects in our processing of linguistic content The use of entire phrases (“slot-and-filler grammar”) makes for more successful concatenation because the effects that are present within phrase boundaries are maintained

Prosody

• rosody refers to the suprasegmental aspects of speech, which are features that go beyond individual sound segments (phonemes). These include rhythm, stress, intonation, and timing.

• Key Concepts:

  • Suprasegmental: Effects that occur above the level of individual sounds (e.g., pitch, rhythm, stress).

  • Segmental vs. Suprasegmental: Segmental refers to individual sounds (phonemes), while suprasegmental refers to features like pitch and rhythm that span multiple sounds.

Prosody and Punctuation

• Punctuation in written language can indicate some aspects of prosody, but it is not precise or detailed enough to capture all nuances.

  • Examples:

    • It’s raining. (statement) vs. It’s raining? (question)

    • Hello. (neutral) vs. Hello! (emphatic)

    • She dressed and fed the baby. vs. She dressed, and fed the baby. (comma changes meaning)

  • Limitations: Punctuation cannot fully capture prosodic features like sarcasm, emphasis, or subtle intonation changes.

Form and Function of Prosody

• Form:

  • Rhythm: The timing and pattern of speech.

  • Stress: The prominence given to certain syllables or words.

  • Intonation: The variation in pitch across a phrase or sentence.

• Function:

  • Phrasing: How speech is divided into chunks or phrases.

  • Focus: Emphasizing certain words or syllables to convey importance or contrast.

  • Sentence Function: Using prosody to indicate whether a sentence is a statement, question, command, etc.

Prosodic Phrasing (Chunking)

Definition: The way speech is divided into meaningful chunks or phrases.

• Example:

  • I went to the store where I bought fruit then I went home. (unnatural)

  • I went to the store, where I bought fruit. Then I went home. (natural)

• Phonetic Characteristics of Phrase Boundaries:

  • Slower speaking rate before the boundary.

  • Lengthening of final syllables.

  • Possible insertion of a pause.

  • Change in pitch on the last stressed syllable (nuclear tone).

  • Change in voice quality (e.g., creaky voice).

Prosodic phrasing can change the meaning of an utterance

Focus

• Functions of Focus:

  • Importance: Emphasizing a word to show its significance (e.g., It was an unusually dark night).

  • Contrast: Highlighting a word to show contrast (e.g., I want the purple pen).

  • Given/New Information: Using focus to indicate new information (e.g., Your new phone?).

• Phonetic Characteristics of Focus:

  • Words in focus are spoken more slowly and prominently.

  • Increased modal voicing and louder volume.

  • Associated with pitch changes (e.g., rising or falling pitch).

Sentence Function and Intonation

• Sentence Function: Prosody can indicate the communicative function of an utterance, such as whether it is a statement, question, command, or contradiction.

  • Nuclear Tone: The pitch movement on the last stressed syllable of a phrase, which indicates the sentence function.

    • Falling Tone: Indicates completeness or definiteness (e.g., She lent him her car.).

    • Rising Tone: Indicates openness or uncertainty (e.g., *She lent him her car?).

  • Combining Tones: Rising and falling tones can be combined to create more nuanced meanings (e.g., She doesn’t lend her car to anyone. vs. *She doesn’t lend her car to anyone?).

Lexical Tone

7. Lexical Tone

• Definition: In some languages (e.g., Mandarin Chinese), pitch changes can alter the meaning of a word.

  • Mandarin Tones:

    • Tone 1 (High Level): mā (mother)

    • Tone 2 (Rising): má (hemp)

    • Tone 3 (Falling-Rising): mǎ (horse)

    • Tone 4 (Falling): mà (scold)

  • Lexical Tone vs. Intonation: Lexical tone changes the meaning of individual words, while intonation changes the meaning of entire phrases or sentences.

Experimental Methods for Studying Prosody

Experimental Methods for Studying Prosody

• Annotation/Segmentation: Speech is first segmented into smaller units (e.g., syllables, words, phrases) to analyze prosodic features.

• Pitch Estimation: Creating a "pitch track" to visualize how pitch changes over time.

  • Example: Comparing pitch tracks for statements vs. questions.

    • Statement: Pitch falls at the end (e.g., They saw twenty snowmen.).

    • Question: Pitch rises at the end (e.g., They saw twenty snowmen?).

• Fundamental Frequency (F0) Statistics:

  • Mean, Median, Mode: Measures of average pitch.

  • Range: The breadth of pitch variation.

  • Percentage Regularity: The proportion of time spent in regular phonation (related to jitter).

Itonantion

Although the nuclear tone is often associated with the last lexical stress in the prosodic phrase, its execution can continue across any subsequent unstressed syllables (the tail) She doesn’t lend her car to ↘any↗one She doesn’t lend her car to ↘a↗nyone Although the default location for the nuclear tone is on the last lexical stress, it can move if earlier elements are put into focus: I have ↘two brothers in Canada Imposed on the general pitch contour is an expectation that the pitch will slowly decline anyway while speaking, this is called “declination

Summary

Prosody is the study of suprasegmental effects: those that are above the level of individual sound segments Prosody is marked by punctuation to a certain extent in English writing, but not all aspects of prosody can be characterized The form of prosody relates to timing, prominence, and pitch The functions of prosody relate to phrasing, focus, and sentence function, and sometimes even lexical choice Sentence function is denoted primarily through intonation using nuclear tones Prosodic functions have notable phonetic characteristics, and experimental methods exist for us to study the phonetic form of prosody