The filler EH in Swedish

Findings from a pilot study on the distribution, function and phonetic realization of the filler EH in interviews from SweDia2000 interviews are presented. The results show that EH occurs almost exclusively after function words at the beginning of constituents. The phonetic realization of EH was seen to be of three basic forms: a middle-high vowel (e.g. [e], [ɛ], [ə]), a vowel+nasal (e.g. [ɛm], [əm], [ən]), and a vowel with a creaky phonation. The vowel+vowel realization occurs as has been shown for English before other delays and is associated with planning of complex utterances. Since creaky phonation is associated with terminality, the creaky voice realization of EH could be interpreted as signalling the juncture between the filler and an upcoming disfluency

Lexical structure and accenting in English and Swedish restricted texts

The issue of describing identity of sense relations that are used in contexts of anaphora to express contextually given information is discussed. In text-to-speech applictions, it is important to model given information, both linguistically and computationallly, since it is associated with tone accent patterns that differ from those on new information. The anlysis is illustrated using restricted texts (newspapers and stock market reports)

Swedish as a [+Continuity] language : left-edge prosody and right-edge morphosyntax

Abstract in UndeterminedSwedish and French avoid placing focused constituents at the left periphery of sentences. This has previously been suggested to be due to phonological factors. Here, we develop this idea and argue that the reason for avoiding focus at the left edge in these languages is the existence of syntactically related prosodic prominences in the beginning of utterances. Initial focal accents would overlap with the syntactically related accents, forcing a suboptimal prosodic structure. Further, we provide evidence for such a left-edge boundary tone in Swedish main clauses, as well as for a complementary strong tendency in Swedish to associate the right edge of sentences with focus

Grammaticalization of prosody in the brain

Based on the results from three Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies, we show how the de- gree of grammaticalization of prosodic features influences their impact on syntactic and mor- phological processing. Thus, results indicate that only lexicalized word accents influence morphological processing. Furthermore, it is shown how an assumed semi-grammaticalized left-edge boundary tone activates main clause structure without, however, inhibiting subordi- nate clause structure in the presence of compet- ing syntactic cues

Neurophysiology of a left-edge boundary tone using natural and edited F0

The ERP effects of left-edge, sentence-medial boundary tones in East Swedish were examined using synthesized and non-synthesized F0. The perception of the boundary tone gave rise to an N100 effect, reflecting automated processing of the acoustic features of the stimuli, a broadly distributed P200 effect, similar to what has earlier been seen for sentence-initial pitch accents, and an expectancy negativity, previously observed in response to sentence-medial, expected pitch accents. The N100 effect was clear only for the synthesized stimuli, possibly due to their relatively greater salience. The P200 was only seen in the combined results. The expectancy negativity was present in the combined results as well as for the non-edited stimuli. The F0 synthesis in the environment of voiceless obstruents produced a difference in the F0 level before the disambiguation point of the H boundary tone, which led to an anterior negativity starting around 50 ms before the H

The marked status of Accent 2 in Central Swedish

Based on results from psycholinguistic and neuro- linguistic research on the perception of word ac- cents in Central Swedish, we argue that Accent 2 could be seen as “marked,” as opposed to the un- marked Accent 1. The markedness of Accent 2 is assumed to be both phonetic, due to its relatively more complex high tone, and cognitive, due to the fact that the Accent 2 tone activates more word forms and thus increases processing load

Hesitation disfluencies after the clause marker ATT ‘that’ in Swedish

This study aims att developing a methodology for investigating the relationship between the fluent and disfluent productions of the Swedish conjunction ATT ‘that’ and the complexity of speech fragments following them. A study of the syntactic structure of the speech fragments following ATT and their relation to the pragmatic structure of the discourse, in particular the fragments’ role as regards the topic structure of the discourse, was made using data from one speaker. Syntactic word order patterns reveal that the pragmatic coherence between two clauses decreases with the use of disfluent ATT as compared to fluent ATT. Disfluent ATT tends to signal a new topic rather than topic continuation, and an elaboration rather than clarification, where clarification is more strongly bound to the preceding utterance. It was observed that even emotional factors correlate with to the production of disfluent ATT. Before empathetic quotations – fragments that imply recognition or imagination of other’s emotions – disfluent ATT may signal a change in the deictic centre as compared to the preceding discourse. A number of observations regarding the prosodic correlates of disfluent ATT were also made. Disfluent ATT is almost always followed by a clear prosodic boundary. In all cases but one, this boundary was marked by a silent pause, in some cases including inhalation. It was also observed that the only filled pause that occurred after a disfluent ATT was before a fragment introducing a new topic

Final aspiration as a phrase boundary cue in Swedish: the case of att 'that'

The Swedish word att /at/ is associated with two grammatical functions: a) (part of) a subordinate conjunction and b) an infinitive marker. This pilot study, with 5 short spontaneous discourses from 3 male speakers shows a correlation between pauses after att, and aspiration of /t/ in att, where aspiration can be interpreted as a kind of final lengthening involving the release phase of the stop consonant. We also show a tendency for att with aspiration to be associated with the grammatical function of subordinate conjunction. Further, we are able to show a tendency for the infinitive marker to be unaspirated in the normal case, while the subordinate conjunctions are characterized by final aspiration in 40 % of the cases