短语切分、重点突出与形态声调学：永宁摩梭话的语句如何形成声调组

International audienceYongning Na is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in an area straddling the border between Yunnan and Sichuan. The Yongning Na tone system is based on three levels: L, M, and H. It comprises a host of rules that are specific to certain morphosyntactic contexts. These rules represent the bulk of what language learners must acquire to master the tone system. Different rules apply in the association of a verb with a subject or an object, the association of two nouns into a compound, that of a numeral and classifier, and that of a word and its affixes, for instance. The domain of tonal computation is referred to here as the tone group; tonal processes never apply across tone-group junctures. The present study investigates how utterances are divided into tone groups in Yongning Na, building on examples from narratives and elicited combinations. There is no hard-and-fast correspondence between syntactic structure and tone group divisions: several options are generally open for the division of an utterance into tone groups. The choice among these options depends on considerations of information structure. This study is intended as a stepping-stone towards the long-term goal of modelling the Na tonal system (its morpho-phonology and its phonetics), and placing the findings in a typological perspective.永宁摩梭话（纳语）是汉藏语族纳语组的一种语言，位于云南跟四川交界地带的永宁坝与泸沽湖地区。永宁纳语的声调系统有高、中、低三个调域。本文介绍和分析纳语中的语句如何被划分为“声调组”。选择何种声调组往往反映了语句不同的信息结构。由于句法结构跟声调组的切分没有硬性直接的对应，说话人可以选择将一个大的组块整合为一个声调组，从而形成强整合，或者也可以把语句分成一些声调组，加强不同成分的风格效应。论文用详细的例子展示了在语句分为声调组的过程中说话人选择某种变调类型的动机。结构越紧密的语句，其可能划分的声调组就越少。而当出现富于表现力的或较生动的某个词时，句子便会用声调来切分

Review of: Pinson, Thomas M. 2012. A Naxi-Chinese-English Dictionary (Naqxi-Habaq-Yiyu Ceeqdiail / 纳西汉英词典)

International audienceThis is a review of: Pinson, Thomas M. 2012. A Naxi-Chinese-English Dictionary (Naqxi-Habaq-Yiyu Ceeqdiail / 纳西汉英词典

Review of: Pinson, Thomas M. 2012. A Naxi-Chinese-English Dictionary (Naqxi-Habaq-Yiyu Ceeqdiail / 纳西汉英词典)

International audienceThis is a review of: Pinson, Thomas M. 2012. A Naxi-Chinese-English Dictionary (Naqxi-Habaq-Yiyu Ceeqdiail / 纳西汉英词典

Pictographs and the language of Naxi rituals

This book chapter, aimed at a broad audience, presents the usefulness of linguistic tools in the study of the Naxi writing systems. In the field of Sino-Tibetan studies, there are few languages with a long-standing written tradition. Of these, the Naxi pictographic tradition encapsulates unique information about the Naxi and their language and holds special promise for research. The language of the Naxi rituals raises a range of issues, such as: How old are the characters of the Naxi script? What is the origin of the seemingly strange words and turns of phrase found in the rituals? The philological study of the Naxi tradition is greatly complicated by the fact that Naxi books were passed from one generation to the next as mnemonic summaries of the rituals rather than complete transcriptions, unlike Tibetan or Chinese texts. The absence of standardization of Naxi texts allowed the Naxi priests some freedom when copying books; this resulted in great diversification. The field of linguistics can contribute some evidence and provide some tools to address these complex topics. The approach adopted here consists in looking at the Naxi facts in the light of a comparison between several dialects of the Naxi language and, beyond Naxi proper, a comparison with other Sino-Tibetan languages that are closely related to Naxi

A first approach to the prosodic system of Laze: fieldwork data and cross-language perspectives

International audienceThis is a preliminary study of the tone system of the Laze language as spoken in the township of Xiangjiao, Muli county, Sichuan (四川省木里县项脚乡). Its tonal system is here described as being structured in terms of H(igh), M(id) and L(ow) levels, like that of the closely related languages Naxi and Na. There exist four lexical tones for Laze monosyllables; in theory, this could yield as many as sixteen tone patterns over disyllables, but only six are observed. The present research aims to bring out the synchronic principles which perpetuate this restriction over lexical tonal patterns: the tonal changes that occur in the creation of disyllabic entities. Special attention is paid to the tonal changes observed in compounds and in object+verb constructions. It appears that not all synchronic processes of tonal change can be explained as the reduction of 'illicit' patterns to 'licit' ones: for instance, L+L combinations undergo a change (to [H.H] or [L.H]) in various cases, despite the fact that [L.L] is a licit pattern for disyllables. The Laze data are here presented in cross-language perspective, with extensive developments about the Na language (a.k.a. “Eastern dialect of Naxi”) as spoken in the plain of Yongning

香格里拉县次恩丁村纳西语音系研究

International audienceThis is a phonemic analysis of the Naxi dialect of Ciending hamlet (Sanba township, Zhongdian prefecture; now renamed 'Shangri-la prefecture'). An appendix offers a word list. Among other uses for further research, this article provides useful information for the historical reconstruction of the Naxi language.本文依据第一手调查介绍云南省香格里拉县（前中甸县）三坝乡东坝村次恩丁自然村纳西语的音系。通过对这个方言的研究，可以得到关于纳西语比较构拟的新知识

香格里拉县次恩丁村纳西语音系研究

International audienceThis is a phonemic analysis of the Naxi dialect of Ciending hamlet (Sanba township, Zhongdian prefecture; now renamed 'Shangri-la prefecture'). An appendix offers a word list. Among other uses for further research, this article provides useful information for the historical reconstruction of the Naxi language.本文依据第一手调查介绍云南省香格里拉县（前中甸县）三坝乡东坝村次恩丁自然村纳西语的音系。通过对这个方言的研究，可以得到关于纳西语比较构拟的新知识

Speech data acquisition: the underestimated challenge

(This version makes 1 correction to the references: BARBOSA 2012 was cited in the text but missing from the list of references.)International audienceThe second half of the 20th century was the dawn of information technology; and we now live in the digital age. Experimental studies of prosody develop at a fast pace, in the context of an "explosion of evidence" (Janet Pierrehumbert, Speech Prosody 2010, Chicago). The ease with which anyone can now do recordings should not veil the complexity of the data collection process, however. This article aims at sensitizing students and scientists from the various fields of speech and language research to the fact that speech-data acquisition is an underestimated challenge. Eliciting data that reflect the communicative processes at play in language requires special precautions in devising experimental procedures and a fundamental understanding of both ends of the elicitation process: speaker and recording facilities. The article compiles basic information on each of these requirements and recapitulates some pieces of practical advice, drawing many examples from prosody studies, a field where the thoughtful conception of experimental protocols is especially crucial

Information Structure in Asia: Yongning Na (Sino-Tibetan) and Vietnamese (Austroasiatic)

International audienceLanguages of Asia are highly diverse. Rather than attempting a review of the literature about information structure in this huge linguistic area, this chapter provides observations about two languages that differ sharply in terms of how they convey information structure. Yongning Na (Sino-Tibetan) is an example of a language with abundant morphemes expressing information structure, whereas Vietnamese (Austroasiatic) makes little use of such morphemes. Along with key morphosyntactic facts, this chapter presents the role played by intonation in conveying information structure in these two tonal languages

Tone and intonation: introductory notes and practical recommendations

International audienceThe present article aims to propose a simple introduction to the topics of (i) lexical tone, (ii) intonation, and (iii) tone-intonation interactions, with practical recommendations for students. It builds on the authors' observations on various languages, tonal and non-tonal; much of the evidence reviewed concerns tonal languages of Asia. With a view to providing beginners with an adequate methodological apparatus for studying tone and intonation, the present notes emphasize two salient dimensions of linguistic diversity. The first is the nature of the lexical tones: we review the classical distinction between (i) contour tones that can be analyzed into sequences of level tones, and (ii) contour tones that are non-decomposable (phonetically complex). A second dimension of diversity is the presence or absence of intonational tones: tones of intonational origin that are formally identical with lexical (and morphological) tones