The effect of pitch span on intonational plateaux

Previous research has indicated that the H (high) of a nuclear accent may be realized as a flat stretch of contour rather than as a single turning point. Both the duration of this plateau and its alignment within the accented syllable are affected by the segmental and prosodic structure of the utterance. The present work investigates whether a non-structural variable, namely pitch span, also affects the realization of the plateau. Speakers replicated all-sonorant utterances in different pitch spans. Results show that both the duration and alignment of the plateau vary with pitch span but in ways different from the way they vary with prosodic structure. Importantly, results also indicate that, when using a proportional measure of alignment, the end of the plateau is anchored within the syllable for each speaker and may be a marker of linguistic structure

Playing With Fire Compounds: The Tonal Accents of Compounds in (North) Norwegian Preschoolers’ Role-Play Register

Prosodic features are some of the most salient features of dialect variation in Norway. It is therefore no wonder that the switch in prosodic systems is what is first recognized by caretakers and scholars when Norwegian children code-switch to something resembling the dialect of the capital (henceforth Urban East Norwegian, UEN) in role-play. With a focus on the system of lexical tonal accents, this paper investigates the spontaneous speech of North Norwegian children engaging in peer social role-play. By investigating F0 contours extracted from a corpus of spontaneous peer play, and comparing them with elicited baseline reference contours, this paper makes the case that children fail to apply the target tonal accent consistent with UEN in compounds in role-play, although the production of tonal accents otherwise seems to be phonetically target like UEN. Put in other words, they perform in accordance with UEN phonetics, but not UEN morpho-phonology

Pitch perception of focus and surprise in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence for parallel encoding via additive division of pitch range

This study addressed the question of how multiple layers of meanings can be simultaneously encoded with F0 in speech by assessing pitch perception thresholds of focus and surprise in Mandarin Chinese. We synthetically increased the pitch height of one syllable in a sentence up to 12 semitones from its neutral baseline in one-semitone steps, and asked listeners to judge the strength of focus and surprise conveyed by the manipulated utterances. Results showed that for the perception of focus, at least 4 semitones above the baseline were needed while for surprise, at least 7 semitones above were needed. Despite the threshold difference, there was a downward overlap of surprise with focus, i.e., the range of 7-12 semitones above the baseline signalled both focus and surprise. These results suggest that the pitch perception threshold for focus in Mandarin may be higher than that in non-tonal languages due to the use of F0 for lexical contrast in Mandarin. They also reveal, more intriguingly, an encoding mechanism of additive division of pitch range. That is, a higher-level function such as surprise is encoded by using additional pitch ranges beyond that used by lower-level functions such as focus and lexical tone, without harming the encoding of the lower-level functions

Explaining the PENTA model: a reply to Arvaniti and Ladd

This paper presents an overview of the Parallel Encoding and Target Approximation (PENTA) model of speech prosody, in response to an extensive critique by Arvaniti & Ladd (2009). PENTA is a framework for conceptually and computationally linking communicative meanings to fine-grained prosodic details, based on an articulatory-functional view of speech. Target Approximation simulates the articulatory realisation of underlying pitch targets – the prosodic primitives in the framework. Parallel Encoding provides an operational scheme that enables simultaneous encoding of multiple communicative functions. We also outline how PENTA can be computationally tested with a set of software tools. With the help of one of the tools, we offer a PENTA-based hypothetical account of the Greek intonational patterns reported by Arvaniti & Ladd, showing how it is possible to predict the prosodic shapes of an utterance based on the lexical and postlexical meanings it conveys

Categoriality and continuity in prosodic prominence

Prosody has been characterised as a "half-tamed savage" being shaped by both discrete, categorical aspects as well as gradient, continuous phenomena. This book is concerned with the relation of the "wild" and the "tamed" sides of prosodic prominence. It reviews problems that arise from a strict separation of categorical and continuous representations in models of phonetics and phonology, and it explores the potential role of descriptions aimed at reconciling the two domains. In doing so, the book offers an introduction to dynamical systems, a framework that has been studied extensively in the last decades to model speech production and perception. The reported acoustic and articulatory data presented in this book show that categorical and continuous modulations used to enhance prosodic prominence are deeply intertwined and even exhibit a kind of symbiosis. A multi-dimensional dynamical model of prosodic prominence is sketched, based on the empirical data, combining tonal and articulatory aspects of prosodic focus marking. The model demonstrates how categorical and continuous aspects can be inte- grated in a joint theoretical treatment that overcomes a strict separation of phonetics and phonology

The perception of intonation questions and statements in Cantonese

In tone languages there are potential conflicts in the perception of lexical tone and intonation, as both depend mainly on the differences in fundamental frequency (F0) patterns. The present study investigated the acoustic cues associated with the perception of sentences as questions or statements in Cantonese, as a function of the lexical tone in sentence final position. Cantonese listeners performed intonation identification tasks involving complete sentences, isolated final syllables, and sentences without the final syllable (carriers). Sensitivity (d′ scores) were similar for complete sentences and final syllables but were significantly lower for carriers. Sensitivity was also affected by tone identity. These findings show that the perception of questions and statements relies primarily on the F0 characteristics of the final syllables (local F0 cues). A measure of response bias (c) provided evidence for a general bias toward the perception of statements. Logistic regression analyses showed that utterances were accurately classified as questions or statements by using average F0 and F0 interval. Average F0 of carriers (global F0 cue) was also found to be a reliable secondary cue. These findings suggest that the use of F0 cues for the perception of intonation question in tonal languages is likely to be language-specific. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America.published_or_final_versio

Acoustic Realization and Perception of English Lexical Stress by Mandarin Learners

The acquisition of English lexical stress by Mandarin L2 learners was examined. An acoustic study focusing on the implementation of mean F0, max F0, duration, intensity, and F2 in stressed and unstressed vowels in noun-verb word pairs contrasting in stress location (e.g. object-object) was conducted. The results indicate that native English speakers use all correlates in nouns but rely mostly on duration in verbs. The learners use these cues more consistently across different contexts. A perceptual study utilizing the disyllabic nonword 'dada', with resynthesized max F0, duration, and vowel quality indicates that full vowels induce stronger stress perception in all listener groups. Beginning listeners relied on duration, advanced listeners focused on max F0, while native listeners used both in perception. The similarities and differences in prosodic systems between Mandarin and English, as well as the possible discrepancies in production and perception data from second language learning research were discussed

Semantic features of 'stepped' versus 'continuous' contours in German intonation

This study analyses the meaning spaces of German pitch contours using two modes of melodic movement: continuous or in steps of sustained pitch. Both the continuous and stepped movements are represented by a set of five basic patterns, the latter being derived from the former. Thirty-six German native speakers judged the pattern sets on a 12-scale semantic differential. The semantic profiles confirm that stepped contours can be conceived of as stylized intonation, in a formal as well as in a functional sense. On the one hand, continuous (non-stylized) and stepped (stylized) contours are assigned different overall meanings (especially on the scales astonished - commonplace and interested - not interested). On the other hand, listeners organize the two contour sets in a similar fashion, which speaks in favour of parallel pattern inventories of continuous and stepped movement, respectively. However, the meaning space of the stylized patterns is affected by formal restrictions, for instance in the step transformation of continuous rises