On the Emotional Significance of Lyrics in Vocal Music

The present study examines the relationship between lyrics and the various prosodic elements of melody in the communication of emotion in vocal music. Numerous studies have explored how prosodic elements of speech such as speech rate, voice intensity, pitch variability, and stress compare to their parallel melodic elements – tempo, dynamics, intervals, and articulation, respectively (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Ilie & Thompson, 2006; Curtis & Bharucha, 2010; Coutinho & Dibben, 2013). Ali and Peynircioğlu (2006) found that lyrics are less influential in determining emotional response than the melody as a complete prosodic system. The current study reevaluates this finding by comparing the semantic meaning of the lyrics, not to the melody as a whole, but to the discretely identifiable melodic elements mentioned above. In this controlled perception experiment, participants rated the level of happiness and sadness conveyed by various melodies. While the melody at large was designed to convey sadness, one prosodic or semantic element signaled happiness. By juxtaposing these elements with regards to the emotion they convey, the study isolated each prosodic and semantic variable in order to evaluate which factor is most influential in determining which emotion was conveyed

Kikongo Language Structures

This poster provides a preliminary description of the linguistic features of Kikongo, a major language spoken in southeastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and by at least one refugee in the Boise area. Kikongo is characterized as an Atlantic-Congo, Narrow Bantu, Central language (H.16) within the Niger-Congo language family. Although it is spoken by over 5 million people, it has not yet received extensive attention in the linguistic literature. Over the course of the semester, we have worked with a native speaker of Kikongo to document the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the language, as well as several semantic domains of interest. The archived recordings and analyses resulting from this project will provide the scientific community with new data to promote theoretical linguistic research on Kikongo. Our project will also benefit the Kikongo-speaking community in the diaspora by increasing linguistic awareness and providing documentation, which may be adapted for use in the development of language teaching materials