Prosody – Introductory
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Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: an Annotated Bibliography
Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 11 Prosody and Intonation in Non- Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Article 1 Bibliography 2009 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Green, Christopher R. (2009) "Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 11 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1010 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 11 (2009) Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green, Indiana University Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Atlantic – Ijoid 4 Volta – Congo North 6 Kwa 15 Kru 19 Dogon 20 Benue – Congo Cross River 21 Defoid 23 Edoid 25 Igboid 27 Jukunoid 28 Mande 28 Reference Materials 33 Author Index 40 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages Introduction Most linguists are well aware of the fact that data pertaining to languages spoken in Africa are often less readily available than information on languages spoken in Europe and some parts of Asia. This simple fact is one of the first and largest challenges facing Africanist linguists in their pursuit of preliminary data and references on which to base their research. -
Downstep and Recursive Phonological Phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin
Chapter 9 Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin This paper identifies contexts in which a downstep is realized between consecu- tive H tones in absence of an intervening L tone in Bàsàá (Bantu A43, Cameroon). Based on evidence from simple sentences, we propose that this type of downstep is indicative of recursive prosodic phrasing. In particular, we propose that a down- step occurs between the phonological phrases that are immediately dominated by a maximal phonological phrase (휙max). 1 Introduction In their book on the relation between tone and intonation in African languages, Downing & Rialland (2016) describe the study of downtrends as almost being a field in itself in the field of prosody. In line with the considerable literature on the topic, they offer the following decomposition of downtrends: 1. Declination 2. Downdrift (or ‘automatic downstep’) 3. Downstep (or ‘non-automatic downstep’) 4. Final lowering 5. Register compression/expansion or register lowering/raising Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso. 2019. Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43). In Emily Clem, Peter Jenks & Hannah Sande (eds.), Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 155–175. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3367136 Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso In the present paper, which concentrates on Bàsàá, a Narrow Bantu language (A43 in Guthrie’s classification) spoken in the Centre and Littoral regions of Cameroon by approx. 300,000 speakers (Lewis et al. 2015), we will first briefly define and discuss declination and downdrift, as the language displays bothphe- nomena. -
Morphological Sources of Phonological Length
Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha B.A. (Brown University) 1993 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2004 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Sharon Inkelas (chair) Professor Larry Hyman Professor Keith Johnson Professor Johanna Nichols Spring 2008 Abstract Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair This study presents and defends Resizing Theory, whose claim is that the overall size of a morpheme can serve as a basic unit of analysis for phonological alternations. Morphemes can increase their size by any number of strategies -- epenthesizing new segments, for example, or devoicing an existing segment (and thereby increasing its phonetic duration) -- but it is the fact of an increase, and not the particular strategy used to implement it, which is linguistically significant. Resizing Theory has some overlap with theories of fortition and lenition, but differs in that it uses the independently- verifiable parameter of size in place of an ad-hoc concept of “strength” and thereby encompasses a much greater range of phonological alternations. The theory makes three major predictions, each of which is supported with cross-linguistic evidence. First, seemingly disparate phonological alternations can achieve identical morphological effects, but only if they trigger the same direction of change in a morpheme’s size. Second, morpheme interactions can take complete control over phonological outputs, determining surface outputs when traditional features and segments fail to do so. -
49 Stress-Timed Vs. Syllable- Timed Languages
TBC_049.qxd 7/13/10 19:21 Page 1 49 Stress-timed vs. Syllable- timed Languages Marina Nespor Mohinish Shukla Jacques Mehler 1Introduction Rhythm characterizes most natural phenomena: heartbeats have a rhythmic organization, and so do the waves of the sea, the alternation of day and night, and bird songs. Language is yet another natural phenomenon that is charac- terized by rhythm. What is rhythm? Is it possible to give a general enough definition of rhythm to include all the phenomena we just mentioned? The origin of the word rhythm is the Greek word osh[óp, derived from the verb oeí, which means ‘to flow’. We could say that rhythm determines the flow of different phenomena. Plato (The Laws, book II: 93) gave a very general – and in our opinion the most beautiful – definition of rhythm: “rhythm is order in movement.” In order to under- stand how rhythm is instantiated in different natural phenomena, including language, it is necessary to discover the elements responsible for it in each single case. Thus the question we address is: which elements establish order in linguistic rhythm, i.e. in the flow of speech? 2The rhythmic hierarchy: Rhythm as alternation Rhythm is hierarchical in nature in language, as it is in music. According to the metrical grid theory, i.e. the representation of linguistic rhythm within Generative Grammar (cf., amongst others, Liberman & Prince 1977; Prince 1983; Nespor & Vogel 1989; chapter 43: representations of word stress), the element that “establishes order” in the flow of speech is stress: universally, stressed and unstressed positions alternate at different levels of the hierarchy (see chapter 40: stress: phonotactic and phonetic evidence). -
Contour Tones and Prosodic Structure in Medʉmba
Contour Tones and Prosodic Structure in Med0mba Kathryn H. Franich University of Chicago∗ 1 Introduction This paper investigates the phonetics and phonology of contour tones in Med0mba, a Grass- fields Bantoid language of Cameroon. Not only are contoured syllables shown to be longer in duration than level syllables of all shapes, but the distributions of phonological processes such as High Tone Anticipation (HTA) and sentence initial downdrift are sensitive to the relative positions in which contoured and level syllables appear. Evidence reveals that varia- tion in the application of HTA and downdrift can be attributed to differences in the prosodic positions in which contoured and level syllables occur. Specifically, contoured syllables are preferred in prominent positions over their level-toned counterparts both at the level of the foot and at the level of the intonational phrase. Two possible explanations are considered for the above facts. The first is a tonal promi- nence account similar to de Lacy (2002) whereby contour tones associate to strong positions due to the inherent prominence associated with their tonal properties. The second is a weight-based account whereby contour tones associate to heavy syllables, which are in turn attracted to prominent positions. Though Med0mba does not display a general distinction in vowel length, evidence from some loanwords which can be produced with variable vowel length (and which display concomitant variation in prosodic behavior) supports a weight- based account. An analysis of prominence asymmetries between contoured (heavy) and level (light) syllables is provided within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). 2 Overview of Tone and Contour Formation in Med0mba Med0mba has been analyzed as a 2-level tone system with underlying H and L tones (Voorho- eve 1971). -
The Phonology of Tone and Intonation
This page intentionally left blank The Phonology of Tone and Intonation Tone and Intonation are two types of pitch variation, which are used by speak- ers of many languages in order to give shape to utterances. More specifically, tone encodes morphemes, and intonation gives utterances a further discoursal meaning that is independent of the meanings of the words themselves. In this comprehensive survey, Carlos Gussenhoven provides an up-to-date overview of research into tone and intonation, discussing why speakers vary their pitch, what pitch variations mean, and how they are integrated into our grammars. He also explains why intonation in part appears to be universally understood, while at other times it is language-specific and can lead to misunderstandings. The first eight chapters concern general topics: phonetic aspects of pitch mod- ulation; typological notions (stress, accent, tone, and intonation); the distinction between phonetic implementation and phonological representation; the paralin- guistic meaning of pitch variation; the phonology and phonetics of downtrends; developments from the Pierrehumbert–Beckman model; and tone and intona- tion in Optimality Theory. In chapters 9–15, the book’s central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions – partly in OT – of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, French, and English. Accompanying sound files can be found on the author’s web site: http://www.let.kun.nl/pti Carlos Gussenhoven is Professor and Chair of General and Experimental Phonology at the University of Nijmegen. He has previously published On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents (1994), English Pronunciation for Student Teachers (co-authored with A. -
BOLE INTONATION Russell G. Schuh (University of California, Los Angeles)
UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, No. 108, pp. 226-248 BOLE INTONATION Russell G. Schuh (University of California, Los Angeles), Alhaji Maina Gimba (University of Maiduguri, Nigeria), Amanda Ritchart (University of California, Los Angeles) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: Bole is a Chadic language spoken in Yobe and Gombe States in northeastern Nigeria. The Bole tone system has two contrasting level tones, high (H) and low (L), which may be combined on heavy syllables to produce phonetic rising and falling tones. The prosody of intonation refers to lexical tones and the overall function of the utterance. Bole does not have lexical or phrasal stress, and intonation does not play a pragmatic role typical of stress languages, such as pitch raising to signal focus. The paper discusses intonation patterns of several phrasal types: declarative statements, yes/no questions of two types, WH- questions, vocatives, pleas, and lists. Certain interactions of intonation with tone apply to most of these phrase types: downdrift (esp. of H following L) across a phrase, phrase final tone lowering (extra lowering of phrase final L and plateauing of phrase final H after L), and boosting of H in the first HL sequence of a phrase. Special phrase final pitch phenomena in yes/no questions and pleas are described as appending extra-high (XH) and HL tones respectively. The last section discusses XH associated with ideophonic words, arguing that such words have lexical H tone which is intonationally altered to XH phrase finally. 0. Background Bole is a Chadic language spoken in Yobe and Gombe States in northeastern Nigeria.1 According to the classification of Newman (1977), Bole is a West Chadic language of the “A” subbranch. -
On Stress and Syllabification John J
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series Linguistics January 1979 On stress and syllabification John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs Part of the Morphology Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, and the Phonetics and Phonology Commons Recommended Citation McCarthy, John J., "On stress and syllabification" (1979). Linguistic Inquiry. 53. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs/53 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. On Stress and Syllabification Author(s): John J. McCarthy Source: Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer, 1979), pp. 443-465 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4178121 Accessed: 25/06/2009 16:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mitpress. -
Reading Competency, Speech Rate and Rhythm
Ariel Cuadro, Alvaro Mailhos, Ignacio Estevan, and Francisco Martínez-Sánchez Psicothema 2021, Vol. 33, No. 2, 222-227 ISSN 0214 - 9915 CODEN PSOTEG Copyright © 2021 Psicothema doi: 10.7334/psicothema2020.80 www.psicothema.com Reading Competency, Speech Rate and Rhythm Ariel Cuadro1, Alvaro Mailhos2, Ignacio Estevan2, and Francisco Martínez-Sánchez3 1 Universidad Católica del Uruguay, 2 Universidad de la República, and 3 Universidad de Murcia Abstract Resumen Background: There is increasing evidence defi ning reading competency Competencia Lectora, Fluidez y Ritmo. Antecedentes: cada vez más in terms of accuracy, speed and prosody, as well as interest in gaining evidencias defi ne la competencia lectora en términos de precisión, better understanding of the interrelation as a function of prosodic velocidad y prosodia; así hay interés en comprender esa relación en features. This study aims to analyze the relationship between reading función de los rasgos prosódicos que se consideren. Este estudio analiza competency, in terms of accuracy and speed of written word recognition, la relación entre precisión y velocidad de reconocimiento de la palabra and two attributes related to prosody in oral reading of texts: speech rate escrita y dos atributos relacionados con la prosodia en la lectura oral de and rhythm. Method: Oral reading of a narrative text by 141 third and textos: la velocidad y el ritmo del habla. Método: se analizó la lectura oral fourth grade Spanish-speaking students was analyzed using an automated de un texto narrativo de 141 estudiantes de habla hispana de tercer y cuarto acoustic speech procedure and their reading competency was assessed. grado de primaria mediante un procedimiento acústico automatizado del Results: Reading profi ciency was associated with a lower proportion habla, evaluada su competencia lectora. -
Oirat Tobi Intonational Structure of the Oirat Language a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Division of the University of H
OIRAT TOBI INTONATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE OIRAT LANGUAGE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS FEBRUARY 2009 By Elena Indjieva Dissertation Committee: Kenneth Rehg (UH, Linguistics Department), Co-chairperson Victoria Andersen (UH, Linguistics Department), Co-chairperson Stefan Georg (Bonn University, Germany) William O’Grady (UH, Linguistics Department) Robert Gibson (UH, Department of Second Language Studies) SIGATURE PAGE ii DEDICATIO I humbly dedicate this work to one of the kindest person I ever knew, my mother, who passed away when I was in China collecting data for this dissertation. iii ACKOWLEDGEMET Over several years of my graduate studies at the Linguistics Department of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa my knowledge in various field of linguistics has been enhanced immensely. It has been a great pleasure to interact with my fellow students and professors at this department who have provided me with useful ideas, inspiration, and comments on particular issues and sections of this dissertation. These include Victoria Anderson, Maria Faehndrich, Valerie Guerin, James Crippen, William O’Grady, Kenneth Rehg, and Alexander Vovin. Many thanks to them all, and deepest apologies to anyone whom I may have forgotten to mention. Special thanks to Maria Faehndrich for taking her time to help me with styles and formatting of the text. I also would like to express my special thanks to Laurie Durant for proofreading my dissertation. My sincere gratitude goes to Victoria Anderson, my main supervisor, who always had time to listen to me and comment on almost every chapter of this work. -
Rhythm in Language
Rhythm in Language Patel Chapter 3.3 Rhythm Ch. 3b 1 Introduc;on • In many languages, it is normal to produce the syllables of an u?erance with differing degrees of prominence. x x x x x She wrote her novels with a blue pen she inherited x from her aunt. • The most important physical correlates of prominence are duraon, pitch movement, vowel quality and loudness. • Most sec;ons below will treat prominence as a binary quan;ty referred to as “stress.” • Not all languages have lexical stress. – Tone languages with stress (Mandarin) and without (Cantonese) – Pitch accent languages with stress (Swedish) and without (Japanese) Rhythm Ch. 3b 2 Periodicity and typology • Kenneth Pike 1945 – Syllable-;med languages: e.g. Spanish • Syllables mark off roughly equal temporal intervals – Stress-;med languages: e.g. English • Roughly equal temporal intervals between stresses. x x x x The teacher is interested in buying some books. x x x x Big bales are fought daily. • To achieve evenly ;med feet, speakers would stretch or compress syllables to fit into the typical foot duraon. Rhythm Ch. 3b 3 Periodicity and typology cont. • Abercrombie 1967 – Each syllable is associated with a contrac;on of muscles associated with exhalaon, and some contrac;ons are especially strong (chest pulses, stress pulses). – In each language one or the other occurred rhythmically, and rhythm is equated with periodicity. • Stress-;med languages: English, Russian, Arabic. • Syllable-;med languages: French, Telegu, Yoruba • Mora-;med languages: Japanese – A unit smaller than a syllable, usually consis;ng of a consonant and vowel, but some;mes containing only a consonant. -
A Functional-Load Account of Geminate Contrastiveness: a Meta-Study
A Functional-Load Account of Geminate Contrastiveness: a Meta-Study Kevin Tang John Harris Department of Linguistics Division of Language Sciences University College London 4th September 2014 Linguistics Association of Great Britain 2014 Introduction Hypothesis The size of the duration difference between a singleton and its geminate counterpart reflects the amount of lexical work the contrast has to do Method Method: Examined three languages (and growing) in a meta-study. Phonetic data: Extracted duration measurements from phonetic studies Lexicon data: Data-mined electronic lexicons and quantified functional load Geminate:Non-Geminate Ratios Geminate-Singleton metric Duration: a universal attribute, whereas others (e.g. phonation) may be language–specific (Esposito and Di Benedetto, 1999) Geminate:Non-Geminate Ratio (G:NG) – a durational ratio, used extensively as a (default) metric of geminate-singleton contrasts But which durational attributes should be chosen? Calculation of G:NG ratios Main durational attributes (Ridouane, 2010) 1 Closure duration – all languages (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, p.92) 2 Voice onset time (VOT) – Cypriot Greek, Moroccan Arabic,... 3 Preceding vowel duration – Bengali, Buginese, Italian,... Calculating G:NG ratios All studies use closure duration, some with VOT included Rarely include preceding vowel duration, although there is an a priori reason to do so: quantity/isochrony Indeterminacies G:NG is known to vary considerably, varying from 1.5:1 to 3:1 (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, p.92) What contributes