199 research outputs found

    Tonal alignment, scaling and slope in Italian question and statement tunes

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    Autorisation No.1359 : TIPA est la revue du Laboratoire Parole et LangageUnlike in languages such as English and Standard Italian, the Italian spoken in Naples shares with other Southern varieties the use of a very similar rising-falling (LHL) tune for both yes/no questions and narrow focus statements (D'Imperio, 2001; Grice et al., to appear). However, it has been claimed that the temporal alignment of the accent peak is later in the pitch accent of yes/no questions (L*+H) than in that of statements (L+H*) and that this alignment difference is employed by native speakers to perceptually identify the two tunes (D'Imperio and House, 1997). This study acoustically tested the hypothesis that all three tonal targets of the rise-fall are timed and scaled differently in questions and statements. Moreover, slope differences for both rise and fall were also tested by employing logistic regression modeling. Two speakers of Neapolitan Italian produced utterances whose target words differed in question/statement modality, syllable structure and segmental environment. The results show that all three targets within the rise-fall are timed later in questions than in statements. By contrast, no systematic difference was found for the slope of the rise nor for the slope of the fall. The exact contribution of F0 height to signaling the contrast could not be determined, though. In fact, while one speaker marked the difference by producing higher peaks for statements, the other did not produce any difference.Contrairement à certaines langues comme l'anglais et l'italien standard, l'italien parlé à Naples partage avec d'autres variétés du Sud de l'Italie un patron mélodique ascendant/descendant (LHL) très similaire pour les questions oui/non et pour les affirmations à focalisation étroite (D'Imperio, 2001 ; Grice et al., à paraître). Néanmoins, il a été proposé que les pics d'accent mélodique des questions oui/non (L*+H) sont alignés temporellement plus tard que ceux des affirmations (L+H*) et que cette différence d'alignement est employée par les auditeurs de langue maternelle napolitaine pour identifier perceptuellement les deux modalités (D'Imperio and House, 1997). Cette étude teste au niveau acoustique l'hypothèse que les trois cibles tonales de la montée/descente sont alignées temporellement différemment et sont produites sur des échelles différentes pour les questions et les affirmations. De plus, les différences de pente des montées et des descentes ont aussi été analysées grâce à un modèle de régression logistique. Deux locuteurs napolitains ont produit des phrases dont les mots cibles, la structure syllabique et l'environnement segmental différaient pour la modalité question et la modalité affirmation. Les résultats montrent que les trois cibles dans les montées/descentes sont alignées plus tard pour les questions que pour les affirmations. Par contre, aucune différence systématique n'a été mise en évidence pour les pentes des montées ou pour les pentes des descentes. La contribution exacte de la hauteur de la F0 au contraste question/affirmation n'a pu être déterminée. En effet, alors qu'un locuteur marquait le contraste en produisant des pics plus élevés pour les affirmations, l'autre locuteur n'a produit aucune différence significative entre les deux modalités

    Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

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    Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

    Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

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    Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

    Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

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    Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

    Fine phonetic detail and intonational meaning

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    International audienceThe development of theories about form-function relations in intonation should be informed by a better understanding of the dependencies that hold among different phonetic parameters. Fine phonetic detail encodes both linguistically structured meaning and paralinguistic meaning. <BR /

    Focus in Italian echo wh-questions : an analysis at syntax-prosody interface

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    In this article, we propose an analysis of the so-called echo wh-questions in situ in Italian at syntax-prosody interface. We conduct a prosodic analysis under an experimental approach, showing that a focalized wh-word in echo wh-questions shows its own peculiar properties, different from informative and corrective focus, so that we can analyze it as an instance of Mirative focus. We demonstrate that the wh-word in echo wh-questions occupies a focus position in the low periphery of the clause. We also argue that this position has syntactic properties that, interlaced together with the prosodic properties, lead us to define the projection as a dedicated focus projection for Mirative focus. Crucially, the focus position within the low periphery activated in an echo wh-question, has different syntactic, prosodic and interpretive properties with respect to the informational focus, and to the corrective focus. Therefore, at a general level, our analysis strengthens the idea that partly different intonations and interpretations are associated to positions within the low periphery as opposed to the positions in the left periphery

    The intonation of interrogation in Palermo Italian: implications for intonation theory

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    In Palernno Italian yes-no interrogatives, if the last syllable of a phrase is unstressed, the nuclear pitch contour is rising-falling, whereas if it is stressed, the contour is simply rising. Such context-dependent variation cannot be adequately accounted for within a British-style approach to intonation. By contrast, autosegmental pitch accent studies of intonation, where nuclear pitch configurations are expressed in terms of H(igh) and L(ow) tones, are shown to offer the flexibility necessary to do so. These tones are incorporated into a hierarchical structure in which they have either an accentual or a primarily delimitative function. In the former case, tones are part of a Pitch Accent which has an association to a syllable; in the latter case, tones are associated to nodes dominating higher prosodic constituents, either the intermediate phrase or the intonation phrase, and are realised as boundary tones. Building on current analyses, a model is proposed in which tones in the Pitch Accent are also hierarchically structured, involving two levels: the Supertone and Tone. This enriched Pitch Accent structure not only explains apparent inconsistencies in phonetic alignment in Palermo Italian, but also accounts for equivalent consistency in alignment in English. In addition it allows leading tones in Palermo Italian to be treated in a qualitatively different way from leading tones in English. The Palermo Italian interrogative marker consists of a L*+H Pitch Accent. There is no paradigmatic contrast on the intermediate phrase boundary tone (it is always L) which means that its function is purely delimitative. This tone is only fully realised when a postaccentual syllable is available to carry it; technically, it requires a secondary attachment to a syllable. The absence of the falling part of the L*+H L (L) configuration in phrases with no postaccentual syllable is thus explained

    Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

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    Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar- based approaches to prosody. Trough four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody. About the Author: Francesco Cangemi Francesco Cangemi (1983) studied Literature and Philology in Naples, completing his undergraduate studies with a published MA dissertation on vowel systems in southern Italian dialects. After receiving his PhD in Linguistics from Aix-Marseille University with a thesis on underspecification in prosodic categories, he is currently working as a post-doc researcher in Cologne, focussing on the encoding and decoding of linguistic prominence, and in ZĂĽrich, focussing on morphosyntactic agreement in Italian dialects

    The Pitch Range of Italians and Americans. A Comparative Study

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    Linguistic experiments have investigated the nature of F0 span and level in cross-linguistic comparisons. However, only few studies have focused on the elaboration of a general-agreed methodology that may provide a unifying approach to the analysis of pitch range (Ladd, 1996; Patterson and Ladd, 1999; Daly and Warren, 2001; Bishop and Keating, 2010; Mennen et al. 2012). Pitch variation is used in different languages to convey different linguistic and paralinguistic meanings that may range from the expression of sentence modality to the marking of emotional and attitudinal nuances (Grice and Baumann, 2007). A number of factors have to be taken into consideration when determining the existence of measurable and reliable differences in pitch values. Daly and Warren (2001) demonstrated the importance of some independent variables such as language, age, body size, speaker sex (female vs. male), socio-cultural background, regional accents, speech task (read sentences vs. spontaneous dialogues), sentence type (questions vs. statements) and measure scales (Hertz, semitones, ERB etc.). Coherently with the model proposed by Mennen et al. (2012), my analysis of pitch range is based on the investigation of LTD (long-term distributional) and linguistic measures. LTD measures deal with the F0 distribution within a speaker’s contour (e.g. F0 minimum, F0 maximum, F0 mean, F0 median, standard deviation, F0 span) while linguistic measures are linked to specific targets within the contour, such as peaks and valleys (e.g. high and low landmarks) and preserve the temporal sequences of pitch contours. This investigation analyzed the characteristics of pitch range production and perception in English sentences uttered by Americans and Italians. Four experiments were conducted to examine different phenomena: i) the contrast between measures of F0 level and span in utterances produced by Americans and Italians (experiments 1-2); ii) the contrast between the pitch range produced by males and females in L1 and L2 (experiment 1); iii) the F0 patterns in different sentence types, that is, yes-no questions, wh-questions, and exclamations (experiment 2); iv) listeners’ evaluations of pitch span in terms of ±interesting, ±excited, ±credible, ±friendly ratings of different sentence types (experiments 3-4); v) the correlation between pitch span of the sentences and the evaluations given by American and Italian listeners (experiment 3); vi) the listeners’ evaluations of pitch span values in manipulated stimuli, whose F0 span was re-synthesized under three conditions: narrow span, original span, and wide span (experiment 4); vii) the different evaluations given to the sentences by male and female listeners. The results of this investigation supported the following generalizations. First, pitch span more than level was found to be a cue for non-nativeness, because L2 speakers of English used a narrower span, compared to the native norm. What is more, the experimental data in the production studies indicated that the mode of sentences was better captured by F0 span than level. Second, the Italian learners of English were influenced by their L1 and transferred L1 pitch range variation into their L2. The English sentences produced by the Italians had overall higher pitch levels and narrower pitch span than those produced by the Americans. In addition, the Italians used overall higher pitch levels when speaking Italian and lower levels when speaking English. Conversely, their pitch span was generally higher in English and lower in Italian. When comparing productions in English, the Italian females used higher F0 levels than the American females; vice versa, the Italian males showed slightly lower F0 levels than the American males. Third, there was a systematic relation between pitch span values and the listeners’ evaluations of the sentences. The two groups of listeners (the Americans and the Italians) rated the stimuli with larger pitch span as more interesting, exciting and credible than the stimuli with narrower pitch span. Thus, the listeners relied on the perceived pitch span to differentiate among the stimuli. Fourth, both the American and the Italian speakers were considered more friendly when the pitch span of their sentences was widened (wide span manipulation) and less friendly when the pitch span was narrowed (narrow span manipulation). This happened in all the stimuli regardless of the native language of the speakers (American vs. Italian)

    The intonation of Lebanese and Egyptian Arabic

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