A Sound Approach to Language Matters: In Honor of Ocke-Schwen Bohn

The contributions in this Festschrift were written by Ocke’s current and former PhD-students, colleagues and research collaborators. The Festschrift is divided into six sections, moving from the smallest building blocks of language, through gradually expanding objects of linguistic inquiry to the highest levels of description - all of which have formed a part of Ocke’s career, in connection with his teaching and/or his academic productions: “Segments”, “Perception of Accent”, “Between Sounds and Graphemes”, “Prosody”, “Morphology and Syntax” and “Second Language Acquisition”. Each one of these illustrates a sound approach to language matters

Peak alignment in Estonian

Earlier studies of Estonian showed that vowel quantity words (i.e. words dif- fering only in vowel quantity) produced with an H*+L pitch accent differed in their peak alignment: While words with a short and a long vowel had a peak late in the vowel of the stressed syllable, words with an overlong vowel were characterised by a peak earlier in the vowel (e.g. Asu et al., 2009; Lippus et al., 2013). The main aim of this dissertation is to shed light on these peak alignment differences: firstly, whether these alignment differences can be ex- plained with the help of a segmental anchor; secondly, whether alignment is similarily affected by quantity differences in consonants and vowels; thirdly, whether such alignment differences are stable in regard to the prosodic con- text, more precisely in regard to the number of post-focal unstressed syllables (i.e. the vicinity to the sentence boundary) and a variation of the speaking rate. Additionally, not only the peak alignment in regard to the vicinity of an upcoming sentence boundary was investigated, but also the influence of the sentence boundary on segment durations (phrase-final lengthening - PFL). Previous studies (e.g. Krull, 1997; Asu et al., 2009) showed that PFL occurs in Estonian, but it was not studied yet whether PFL affects vowel and consonant quantity words differently. Furthermore no attempt made to explain PFL in Estonian with the help of abstract phonological models. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill this gap. This dissertation contains three different experiments which are presented in one chapter each. The first experiment (chapter 2) explored the influence of the upcoming sentence boundary and its interaction with vowel (VQ) and consonant (CQ) quantity on the peak alignment of falling nuclear H*+L pitch accents. Disyllabic target words (C 1 V 1 C 2 V 2 ) only differing in either the quantity of V 1 (VQ-words) or C 2 (CQ-words) were embedded in two different carrier sentences: in one carrier sentence the target word was followed by two unstressed syllables (long tail context) and in the other by none (short tail ixcontext). All target words occured in three quantity degrees: short (Q1), long (Q2) and overlong (Q3). There were two main results: (1) In the short tail context the peak was aligned earlier. (2) The peak alignment of VQ- and CQ-words was similar. Quantity degree differences of both VQ- and CQ- words were cued by the peak alignment in proportion to the V 1 C 2 -duration. The proportional peak alignment had the order Q3 < Q2 < Q1, where < denotes that the peak of Q3-words was proportionally timed earlier than the peak of Q2-words and so on. The second experiment (chapter 3) analysed the influence of the sentence boundary, i.e. phrase-final lengthening (PFL), on the segment durations of VQ- and CQ-words. The data used for the analysis was the same as in the first experiment. There were two main results: (1) The domain of PFL in Estonian was the main bearer of the quantity contrast, i.e. V 1 in VQ-words and C 2 in CQ-words and can be best accounted for in terms of a Structure- based model for explaining PFL (Turk and Shattuck-Hufnagel, 2007). (2) Progressive lengthening, i.e. the nearer a segment is to the final boundary the more it is lengthened, occured in the data if the lengthened segments were not in adjacent word-final position. The third experiment (chapter 4) investigated whether speaking rate in- fluences the alignment of the peak. VQ- and CQ-words were embedded in carrier sentences with one unstressed syllable following the target word. They were read in normal and fast speaking rate. There were two main results: (1) In both VQ- and CQ-words the peak alignment in proportion to the V 1 C 2 -duration had the order Q3 < Q2 < Q1, where < denotes that the peak of Q3-words was aligned earlier than the peak of Q2-words and so on. (2) Speaking rate did not influence the peak alignment in proportion to the V 1 C 2 -duration. The results of this dissertation favour in interpretation in the sense of the segmental anchoring hypothesis (see e.g. Ladd et al., 1999, 2000; Schepman et al., 2006) that tonal targets are anchored with specific points of the seg- mental string. The results of the current dissertation created the impression that in Estonian the offset of the first mora could be the anchorpoint for the peak - regardless of quantity degree and type. Differences in the proportional peak alignment emerge because the anchorpoint interacts with the temporal correlates of the quantity contrast. Compatibly with Ladd (2008), the results of the dissertation also show that peak alignment in Estonian is influenced by phonologically-induced (an increase in the number of post-focal syllables) but not phonetically-induced (faster speaking rate) time pressure

Tone sandhi, prosodic phrasing, and focus marking in Wenzhou Chinese

In most languages, focus (i.e. highlighting information) is marked by modifying the melody of the sentence. But how is focus marked in a Chinese dialect with eight different citation tones and a complex tonal phonology?This thesis investigates the connection between tonal realization and tone change (tone sandhi) in Wenzhou Chinese, and whether and how such a connection is conditioned by prosodic structure and focus marking. Experiments were conducted with young speakers of Wenzhou Chinese, whose speech was acoustically analyzed so as to investigate the application domain of tone sandhi and the influence of focus thereon, the tonal realization on the word and phrase level and its interaction with focus, the pre-planning of sentential pitch, as well as the realization of referents with different information statuses. The experimental findings suggest that the application, but not the implementation, of tone sandhi is independent of focus, and that focus and prosodic structure have similar but independent effects on the realization of lexical tones. It is also shown that pitch scaling is sensitive to syntactic structure and complexity, and that the marking of givenness, broad focus, and narrow focus leads to discrete levels along the same acoustic parameters. These findings are of interest to researchers working on lexical tone, prosodic structure, and how information structure categories such as focus affect tonal realization and prosodic phrasing.LEI Universiteit LeidenNWO VIDI grant 061084338 to dr. Y. ChenLanguage Use in Past and Presen

Swedish word accents in sentence perspective

Abstract is not availabl

Neutral Tone in Mandarin: Representation and Interaction with Utterance-level Prosody

In Standard Mandarin, there are syllables that do not carry any of the four citation tones (T1: High-level tone, T2: Mid-rising tone, T3: Low-convex tone and T4: High-falling tone), and they are said to have a neutral tone (NT). These syllables are usually shorter, lighter, prosodically grouped with the preceding CT-bearing syllables. These characteristics of NT have led to a prevailing view that it has no underlying phonological specification. However, research has focused more on how the surface pitch variations of NT are realized rather than the underlying representation of NT. In contrast, morphological, sociolinguistic and diachronic work on NT has suggested that NT may not be a homogeneous entity. In this thesis, I provide acoustic and psycholinguistic evidence that there are two types of NT, Intrinsic NT and Derived NT. Intrinsic NT refers to morphemes that were lexicalized as tone-deleted, unstressed syllables even before the formation of the four CTs of modern Mandarin. Derived NT refers to morphemes derived from the CTs via stress-related tone-deletion. In Part A, the phonological representation of Intrinsic and Derived NT is explored through two production and two processing experiments. The results show that Intrinsic NT is likely to have an underspecified tonal target while Derived NTs are underlyingly CTs. In addition, both subtypes of NT are metrically light, unlike heavy CTs. Part B explores the interaction between NTs and utterance-level prosody in production and perception experiments. NT-bearing syllables have lengthening patterns under focus similar to CT-bearing syllables, in contrast to the realization of unstressed syllables in English. In perception, the identification of intonation (Statement vs. Question) on Intrinsic NT was similar to Derived NT. When compared to CTs, the NTs elicit less bias towards question than T4, and higher accuracy than T2, which may result from their simpler surface representations.CHINA Scholarship COUNCIL (CSC) and Cambridge Trus

Phonological issues in the production of prosody by francophone and sinophone learners of english as a second language

Un accent de non-natif peut mener à une incompréhension ou à la perception de degrés différents d'accent d'étrangeté. La prosodie, qui est maintenant reconnue comme un élément important de l'impression d'étrangeté, est relativement peu abordée en recherche en acquisition des langues étrangères. Ceci contraste avec l'intérêt grandissant envers la prosodie en tant qu'élément de la langue maternelle. Dans cette thèse, la recherche phonologique est évaluée quant à sa pertinence dans la recherche sur la prosodie des langues étrangères. Deux aspects de la théorie phonologique sont étudiés: la typologie et l'organisation phonologique. Ce choix est justifié par la présomption générale que l'étrangeté prosodique est créée soit par une différence de typologie entre langue maternelle (L1) et langue étrangère (L2) soit par un transfert de traits prosodiques de la L1. La critique de la recherche en typologie phonologique conclut que, à ce stade, aucun modèle de classification prosodique n'est applicable à l'acquisition d'une L2. En particulier, l'étude démontre que certaines typologies, en particulier la théorie de l'isochronie accentuelle/l'isochronie syllabique de Pike, devraient être exclues parce qu'elles entravent les progrès en recherche sur l'acquisition et la production de la prosodie des langues étrangères. Le second aspect de la théorie phonologique étudié dans cette thèse est l'organisation phonologique. La prémisse est que les différences sous-jacentes à l'organisation prosodique plutôt que les différences phonologiques de surface sont transférées de L1 à L2. Les analyses approfondies de l'anglais nord américain, le français et le chinois standard révèlent d'importantes différences phonologiques entre l'anglais nord américain et les deux autres langues. Quatre expériences évaluent certaines de ces différences. La prosodie de l'anglais produite par des locuteurs natifs du français est analysée dans des phrases rythmiquement simples et des phrases rythmiquement plus complexes. Les résultats démontrent que l'accentuation lexicale est moins problématique que l'accentuation prosodique supra-lexicale. En particulier, il est démontré que les montées de fréquence fondamentale (F0) de début et de fin de syntagme accentuel (SA), typiques du français, sont source d'erreur dans la prosodie de l'anglais langue seconde. Il est cependant montré que cette erreur, bien que remarquée par les locuteurs natifs de l'anglais, n'affecte pas la perception de placement d'accentuation par ces derniers. La prosodie de l'anglais produite par des locuteurs natifs du chinois est analysée en termes de transfert de ton et d'alignement de pic de F0. Les résultats indiquent que les locuteurs du chinois utilisent les tons chinois quand ils produisent des tons accentuels de l'anglais; plus spécifiquement, la majorité des locuteurs utilisent le ton 2 (ton montant) quand ils produisent un ton accentuel montant. La dernière expérience révèle que les locuteurs natifs du chinois alignent le ton accentuel avec la syllabe accentuée à laquelle elle correspond de manière plus stricte que les locuteurs natifs de l'anglais nord américain le font. Les résultats de cette thèse génèrent un aperçu de la progression de la performance de la prosodie d'une langue étrangère. Les conclusions comportent des implications sur le contenu pédagogique et le format de l'enseignement de la prononciation. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Phonologie, Phonétique, Phonologie prosodique, Prosodie, Rythme, ESL, Français du Québec, Français de France, Chinois

Eesti välte akustilised tunnused ja taju

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Eesti keele vältesüsteem on maailma keelte hulgas tähelepanuväärne, kuna haruharva leidub kvantiteedisüsteeme, mis ei oleks pelgalt binaarne lühikese ja pika vokaali opositsioon. Kolmevältesüsteeme on teada umbes kümnekonnas keeles ja enamasti eristavad need ainult vokaalide pikkust. Eesti vältesüsteem on osutunud aga oluliselt keerukamaks. Kolmese vastanduse võivad moodustada nii vokaalid (nt sada – saada – saada), konsonandid (nt kada – kata – katta) kui vokaali-konsonandi kombinatsioonid (nt sade – saate – saate). Foneetiliselt antakse väldet edasi aga häälikukestuste suhtega rõhulise ja rõhutu silbi piires. Lisaks temporaalsele struktuurile eristab teist ja kolmandat väldet ka põhitoonikontuur. Doktoritöö keskendub eesti vältesüsteemi kahele peamisele aspektile: esiteks, mis roll on toonikontuuril, ja teiseks, kuidas realiseeruvad erinevad vältega seotud akustilised tunnused spontaankõnes. Nii tajutestid kui akustiline analüüs tõestasid põhitooni olulist rolli eesti vältesüsteemis. Kui arvestada sõnatasandi intonatsiooniga, siis eristab põhitoon teist ja kolmandat väldet ka seotud kõnes, mitte ainult laborikõnes. Vokaalikvaliteedi poolest eristuvad lühike ja pikk, aga mitte pikk ja ülipikk välde. Vokaalikvaliteedi varieerumine ei ole nii suur, et eesti keele lühikesi ja pikki vokaale eri foneemidena peaks käsitlema, kuid siiski piisav, et seda võidaks tajus arvestada vokaali pikkuse hindamisel. Tajutestid näitavad, et põhitoon võib osutuda teise ja kolmanda välte eristamisel määravaks. Ühelt poolt konflikt teise välte põhitooni ja kolmanda välte temporaalse struktuuri vahel takistab kolmanda välte tajumist, teiselt poolt võib kolmanda välte põhitoon esile kutsuda kolmanda välte tajumist ka siis, kui temporaalsed tunnused viitavad teisele vältele. Kuid põhitooni olulisus teise ja kolmanda välte eristamisel on murdeti varieeruv: kui Kesk- ja Lääne-Eestist pärit katseisikud olid põhitooni suhtes tundlikud, siis Ida- ja Lõuna-Eestist pärit katseisikud seda eriti ei olnud.More than binary length oppositions are extremely rare among the world’s languages. Also in the few languages that do exhibit a three-way opposition, it is usually productive only for vowels. The nature of the Estonian quantity system has turned out to be rather complex. In Estonian there can be three-way oppositions of vowels (e.g. sada – saada – saada), consonants (e.g. kada – kata – katta), or sequences of vowels and consonants (e.g. sade – saate – saate). Phonetically the quantity is manifested by the duration ratio of the sounds within a sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. Additionally the long and overlong quantity degrees are also marked by different pitch patterns. The thesis focuses on two main aspects: firstly, what is the role of the tonal component in Estonian quantity system, and secondly, how are the acoustic features of quantity realized in spontaneous Estonian? Both the perception tests and the acoustic study show the importance of the pitch in Estonian word prosody. If the phrase-level intonation is considered, pitch is a decisive factor between long and overlong quantities also in connected speech. The vowel quality distinguishes short from long, but not long from overlong quantity. This variation is not as great as to give a reason to treat short and long vowels as different phonemes, but it is great enough to be evaluated as a cue for the perceived duration. The perception tests show that the pitch is decisive cue for choosing between long and overlong quantity. The conflict between the pitch cue of long and temporal structure of overlong quantity fails the perception of overlong quantity on the one hand, and on the other hand the pitch of overlong quantity can evoke overlong perception also in case of temporal structure of long quantity. And yet the power of the pitch cue varies regionally in Estonian: listeners from Central and Western Estonia are more sensitive to the pitch cue than listeners from Eastern and Southern Estonia