Prosody, polyphony and politeness: A polyphonic approach to prosodic configurations common to French and Spanish

From a theoretical perspective based on the Theory of Argumentation in Language (Théorie de l’Argumentation dans la Langue – TAL) and the Theory of Polyphony (Théorie de la Polyphonie Énonciative – TPE), the present study describes and analyses polyphonic configurations that are disclosed through the use of certain voice traits; configurations which, unmistakably common to both French and Spanish, are manifested by what is said and what is prosodically shown in utterances. Within a French corpus and a Spanish corpus of naturally occurring discourse, the patent polyphonic dimension of intonation has been explored in order to demonstrate that locutors’ utterances themselves reveal the orientation of enunciation through both the marking of the lexical and grammatical components and the prosody within which they are embedded. Through this study, the authors show how the locutor – the discursive character presented by the utterance as responsible for its enunciation – puts on stage a multiplicity of enunciators, or viewpoints, which allow him or her to protect the image of self, i.e., the locutor’s own image, and expose, protect or enhance that of others. Polyphony is materialized in two different ways: one in which the enunciator embodied in the prosody reinforces the locutor’s assimilation to the wording of the utterance and another in which the enunciator corresponding to the intonational feature does not match what is expressed through words.Fil: Garcia Negroni, Maria Marta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Lingüística; ArgentinaFil: Caldiz, Adriana Mabel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Departamento de Lenguas Modernas; Argentin

‘Pitch accent’ and prosodic structure in Scottish Gaelic: Reassessing the role of contact

This paper considers the origin of ‘pitch accents’ in Scottish Gaelic with a view to evaluating the hypothesis that this feature was borrowed from North Germanic varieties spoken by Norse settlers in medieval Scotland. It is shown that the ‘pitch accent’ system in Gaelic is tightly bound with metrical structure (more precisely syllable count), certainly diachronically, and probably (at least in some varieties) synchronically. Gaelic ‘pitch accent’ is argued to be a plausible internal development, parallel to similar phenomena in other branches of Celtic (specifically in Breton), as well as in Germanic. This conclusion may appear to undermine the contact hypothesis, especially in the absence of reliable written sources; nevertheless, a certain role for Norse-Gaelic contact in the appearance of the pitch accent system cannot be completely exclude

Mora stress in Shina as Contrastive Foot Structure

I argue that so-called ‘mora stress’ in Kohistani Shina (spoken in Northern Pakistan, realized as falling vs. rising accent) is best analyzed as a difference in the alignment of a LH* pitch accent to two types of feet (moraic vs. syllabic trochees). This paper offers a formalization of the mapping of (intonational) tones to foot structure and argues that independent evidence for a foot-based approach comes from a process of stress advancement, where stem stress predictably shifts to a following suffix when the final mora of the stem is accented; yet it remains on the stem when the stem accent is on a non-final mora. I end by briefly discussing typological and theoretical implications of our analysis, also drawing on a comparison with a similar advancement pattern in Lithuanian (known as de Saussure’s Law)

Attributive Compounds in Sign Language

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Rhythm and Meaning in Shakespeare

How did Shakespere intend that his plays be read? Rhythm and Meaning in Shakespeare explores the rhythmical organisation of Shakespeare’s verse and how it creates and reinforces meaning both in the theatre and in the mind of the reader. Because metrical form in the pentameter is not passively present in the text but rather something that the performer must co-operatively re-create in speaking it, pentameter is what John Barton calls “stage-direction in shorthand”, a supple instrument through which Shakespeare communicates valuable cues for performance. This book is thus an essential guide for actors wishing to perform in his plays, as well as a valuable resource for anyone wishing to enhance their understanding of and engagement with Shakespeare’s verse. Has supplementary audio files

It´s all about the rhythm - A neurocognitive approach towards the Rhythm Rule in German and English

The aim of the present doctoral thesis is to gain deeper insight into the cognitive processing of rhythmically irregular structures in form of stress clashes and stress lapses in comparison to structures that follow the Rhythm Rule. Although stress clashes and stress lapses are allowed and hence present in speech, they are nonetheless marked as rhythmically ill-formed. Hence, since rhythmically induced stress shifts appear often in languages like German, and especially English, it was decided to investigate how the brain reacts to structures that do not meet with rhythmic expectations but are allowed in the investigated language. In this respect, this rhythmic phenomenon differs from the rhythmic deviation types that have been investigated to date. Four studies comprising five experiments using the ERP technique were conducted within the scope of the present thesis. In order to support and complement the findings of the ERP studies, an additional production and perception study and two reaction time studies were designed and undertaken on German rhythmic irregularities. Three ERP studies were conducted on the cognitive processing of rhythmic irregularities in German phrases and compounds. Due to the given task settings in the ERP studies, measured reaction times were not meaningful. Therefore, independent reaction time studies with the identical set of stimuli were performed and are reported with the corresponding ERP studies. Based on the findings of the first ERP experiment on German phrases, a follow-up study was conducted in which the sensitivity towards attentional and contextual influences was further tested by using modified task settings and adjusted stimuli presentation modalities. The study on German compounds consists of two experiments which tried to shed further light on the task-sensitivity of the ERP components found in the studies on German phrases. A further ERP study was set up in order to compare the influence of the RR on processing in German and English by using similar deviations in English. Therefore, English compounds were tested either obeying or deviating from this rule. Moreover, due to the aforementioned syntactic differences between stress shift targets in German and English, this study allowed for a combined yet disentangled investigation of rhythmical and lexical influences on speech processing. In previous research, the application of the RR in speech production was mainly investigated on English data and exclusively in compound structures in German. Therefore, an additional production and perception study was used as a pre-test for the planned ERP studies on German. Investigating the application and perception of the RR should deliver further insights into its importance in German not only on the word level (in compounds) but also on the phrasal level and therefore complement and extend the findings of previous studies