Intonation Patterns Research Articles

Poly-Connexivity: Connexive Conjunction and Disjunction

This paper motivates the logic PCON, an extension of connexivity to conjunction and disjunction, called poly-connexivity. The motivation arises from differences in intonational stress patterns due to focus, where PCON turns out to be a logic of intentionally stressed connectives in focus.

Discourse markers and turn-planning at the pragmatics–prosody interface: The case of allora in spoken Italian

In recent research on discourse markers (DMs), it has been shown that these elements collaborate with prosody to convey crucial information about the organization of the discourse, both at the level of a single turn and the level of the overall conversation.In this article, we analyze the DM allora ‘then’, occurring in turn-initial position and followed by a silent pause in spontaneous monolingual dialogues between Italian native speakers. Various prosodic measures are taken comparing allora with the following intonational phrase (IP), to investigate the discursive relationship between the DM and the rest of the turn.The results show that the DM is peripheric as opposed to the general turn’s prosodic planning: it is produced at a higher articulation rate and with a narrower range of pitch values than the following IP, and a pitch reset is visible between the two.The data suggest that allora and the following IP constitute two distinct units in the turn’s planning. We argue that as much as speakers manipulate their pitch range on the recursive side of the utterance to convey syntactic dependencies, they produce higher or lower turn onset, to express discursive-pragmatics relations between intonation units.

Phonetic Realizations of Metrical Structure in Tone Languages: Evidence From Chinese Dialects.

In tone languages, some case studies showed that the word-level tonal representation was closely related to the underlying metrical pattern. Based on different tonal patterns in prosodic units, the metrical structures could generally be divided into the left- and right-dominant types in Chinese dialects. Yet the cross-dialectal phonetic realizations (e.g., duration and pitch) between or within these two metrical structures were still unrevealed. The current study investigated the duration and pitch realizations of disyllabic prosodic words in Changsha and Chengdu dialects (the left-dominant structure), and in Fuzhou and Xiamen dialects (the right-dominant structure). Results showed that not all the duration patterns across four Chinese dialects were sensitive to different metrical structures, indicating that the duration might not be the universal cue for metrical prominence in Chinese dialects. In terms of pitch realization across all the four Chinese dialects, level tones (sometimes falling tones) generally appeared in the metrically weak unit, while underlying pitch forms appeared in the metrically strong unit. Compared with duration, pitch might be more robust for prosodic realizations of metrical structures in Chinese dialects. Furthermore, there was an interaction between duration and pitch patterns in Chinese dialects, which could shed new light on the phenomenon of “metrical tone sandhi”. Meanwhile, this study also provides some references for the judgment of the metrical stress and prosodic realizations in other Chinese dialects.

Observations on Basic Intonational Patterns of Questions and Statements in Standard Lithuanian

This paper discusses the results of the pilot study on intonational patterns of questions and statements in Lithuanian. Special attention is devoted to the tone changes at the end of the intonational phrase, i.e. to the boundary tone and the pitch accent of the last word. In order to identify the main patterns, a corpus of 96 tokens (statements, questions with wh-word ‘kada’ and yes/no questions with and without interrogative word ‘ar’ read by four speakers) has been examined. F0 measurements were extracted using Praat. The audio files were annotated based on the main principles of the autosegmental-metrical phonology: high tone is marked with H, low tone – L, pitch accent – ‘*’ and boundary tone – ‘%.’ In the perception experiment, the participants were asked to identify the statements and questions (the interrogative words were removed). 21 native speakers participated in the experiment.The results have shown that the end of the statements in Standard Lithuanian is described by low tones (L* L%), whereas questions can have tones as follows: high-low (HL* L%), low (L* L%) and low-high (LH* H%). The tone patterns at the end of the questions depend on the presence or absence of the interrogation word: wh- questions are characterized by low tones at the end of phrase (L *L%), yes/no questions with an interrogative word ‘ar’ may have low (L* L%) or rising tones (LH* H%), and yes/no questions without an interrogative word end in rising (LH* H%) or falling (HL* L%) tones. The patterns with low or falling tones are common for the questions with an interrogative word and (or) focus word in a non-final position of the phrase. The results of the perception experiment allow us to draw preliminary conclusions that the high boundary tone, the interrogative word and the pitch accent of the focused word are equivalent markers of a question in Lithuanian.

The evolution of tonally conditioned allomorphy in Triqui: evidence from spontaneous speech corpora

Abstract One of the defining characteristics of tonal systems in phonological theory is the notion of tonal stability (Goldsmith, John. 1990. Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Oxford: Blackwell; Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Tones remain stable even if their tone-bearing unit changes or is deleted. In the context of historical sound change, tones may either persist as floating tones (from an autosegmental-metrical perspective) or fuse with adjacent syllables and give rise to more complex tonal inventories. However, the process of segmental loss which ultimately conditions historical tonal change is gradual in nature. Tone-bearing units may lenite or they may be optionally realized, leading listeners to rely on coarticulatory cues or phonetic information on adjacent syllables. In the current paper, I examine how variation in the realization of clitic pronouns is conditioned by adjacent tonal cues in Itunyoso Triqui (Otomanguean) within a corpus of spontaneous speech recordings. This research examines and provides evidence for the hypothesis that tonally conditioned allomorphy arises specifically when two conditions are met: (a) there is a morphological context where prosodic units are likely to lenite (highly redundant contexts); and (b) adjacent tonal cues are most informative at this morphophonological boundary. The findings shed light not only on how phonologically conditioned allomorphy arises but also on how variable deletion is sensitive to patterns of multiple exponence during language use.

Maternal Aerobic Exercise, but Not Blood Docosahexaenoic Acid and Eicosapentaenoic Acid Concentrations, during Pregnancy Influence Infant Body Composition.

Although discrete maternal exercise and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation individually are beneficial for infant body composition, the effects of exercise and PUFA during pregnancy on infant body composition have not been studied. This study evaluated the body composition of infants born to women participating in a randomized control exercise intervention study. Participants were randomized to aerobic exercise (n = 25) or control (stretching and breathing) groups (n = 10). From 16 weeks of gestation until delivery, the groups met 3×/week. At 16 and 36 weeks of gestation, maternal blood was collected and analyzed for Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) and Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA). At 1 month postnatal, infant body composition was assessed via skinfolds (SFs) and circumferences. Data from 35 pregnant women and infants were analyzed via t-tests, correlations, and regression. In a per protocol analysis, infants born to aerobic exercisers exhibited lower SF thicknesses of triceps (p = 0.008), subscapular (p = 0.04), SF sum (p = 0.01), and body fat (BF) percentage (%) (p = 0.006) compared with controls. After controlling for 36-week DHA and EPA levels, exercise dose was determined to be a negative predictor for infant skinfolds of triceps (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.27), subscapular (p = 0.008, r2 = 0.19), SF sum (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.28), mid-upper arm circumference (p = 0.049, r2 = 0.11), and BF% (p = 0.001, r2 = 0.32). There were no significant findings for PUFAs and infant measures: during pregnancy, exercise dose, but not blood DHA or EPA levels, reduces infant adiposity.

Effect of aerobic exercise versus device-guided breathing on gestational hypertension hypertension

IntroductionGestational hypertension is a prevalent condition, occurring in 10% of pregnancies. Physical exercise has a valuable effect on lowering blood pressure. Device-guided breathing is a beneficial strategy for treating high blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to compare aerobic exercise vs. device-guided breathing in gestational hypertension.MethodsThe study included 90 singleton pregnant women (at the 21st week of gestation) diagnosed with gestational hypertension. They were randomly divided into 3 groups. The aerobic exercise group (<i>n</i> = 30) received aerobic exercise until the 36th week of gestation. The device-guided breathing group (<i>n</i> = 30) received device-guided breathing until the 36th week of gestation. The third group was a control group. All groups received the same antihypertensive medications. They were assessed before and after treatment with a mercury column sphygmomanometer to measure systolic and diastolic blood pressure.ResultsAll groups showed a significant reduction in their systolic and diastolic blood pressure values after the end of the training program. However, the comparison with the corresponding values measured before treatment revealed that the participants in the device-guided breathing group exhibited a greater reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure values than those in the aerobic exercise and control groups.ConclusionsDevice-guided breathing is more effective than aerobic exercise in decreasing systolic and diastolic blood pressure in gestational hypertensive women.

Greetings in Iraqi Arabic: An Auditory Study

Iraqi Arabic includes the use of different types of politeness, such as greetings. Greetings are essential parts of everyday interaction. These polite sayings are produced on different intonational patterns. The speech of 48 Iraqi Arabic speakers is recorded to examine the intonational patterns of greetings. The participants are divided into three groups: educated, partly educated and uneducated participants. Each group includes eight men and eight women. The intonational system of Halliday and Greaves (2008) is adopted to describe the intonational patterns used. study concludes that greetings in Iraqi Arabic are formal or informal depending on the relationship between the speaker and addressee in addition to the context of the situation. In respect to intonation, men use falling tones more than women do on formal and informal greetings. The study requires a modification of Halliday and Greaves’ system of intonation (2008) by adding new symbols to account for the intonational patterns observed in Iraqi Arabic.

An Analysis of Intonation Patterns of English Interrogative Sentences Produced by Undergraduate Students in District Mansehra

This research intends to discover the tonal configurations of English Interrogative sentences used by undergraduate students of English in District Mansehra. The intonation patterns of English interrogative sentences used by undergraduate students were compared with those of native speakers of English. An experimental design was used to collect data from a sample of eighteen students (nine female and nine male) in the form of recordings and was run on PRAAT software to identify the intonation configuration of the recorded utterances. The analysis showed that non-native speakers used a variety of intonation patterns in the utterances of English language. In the comparison with the results of utterances by native speakers, it was observed that in yes/no questions, there was a slight difference between the percentages. Contrastively, in wh-questions, a significant difference was observed, as native speakers used a High-Low pattern whereas non-native speakers used the opposite one.

РИТМИЧНО-ИНТОНАЦИОННИ МОДЕЛИ НА ПРИКОПУЛНИТЕ ПОДЧИНЕНИ ИЗРЕЧЕНИЯ

The paper presents the results of parallel observations on the structurography and the rhythmic-intonational patterns of subordinate clauses attached to copular main clauses in the Bulgarian language. It focuses on complex sentences, whose intonation contours are almost unexplored. One exception is the study of the intonation in com-plex sentences with a subordinate subject clause by Vladislav Marinov. The aim of this paper is to describe the structure of complex-compound sentences by examining a selection from a small corpus of sentences with copular main clauses. Using acoustic analysis programmes, I observe the intonation curves of these sentences and attempt at identifying intonational patterns associated with the variations of the basic sentence model NP cop NP in which the left and/or the right-hand noun group is substituted by a main or a subordinate clause (S): S1 cop S2, NP cop S, S cop NP. The main goal is to identify the characteristic features of the intonational connectivity within the complex-compound sentence and to study whether predicatives and their constituents are associated with particular intonational patterns. The object of study is predicative connectivity in complex-compound sentences and its reflection in their intonation contours. In particular, I observe subordinate clauses attached to copular main clauses, traditionally divided into subject clauses and subject complement clauses. An important prerequisite for this work is a previous pilot study on a corpus of complex-compound sentences, which has shown that subject complement clauses are characterised by extremely low frequency. Keywords: rhythmic-intonational patterns, subordinate clauses attached to copular main clauses, complex sentences

ИЗСЛЕДВАНЕ НА КАЗУС: РИТЪМ И ИНТОНАЦИЯ НА КОПУЛАТИВЕН ТИП ПРОСТИ ИЗРЕЧЕНИЯ

The study is focused on the rhythmic and intonational characteristics of simple sentences with the copulative verb to be. The adopted experimental protocol consists of the processing of a corpus of simple sentences collected under the project Rhythm and Intonation of the Bulgarian Sentence (МУ21-ФлФ-013), using Speech Analyzer 3.1, followed by analysis of their melodic graphs and spectrograms with a focus on the pro-sodic grouping of the phrases. The number and type of prosodic units are studied, as well as the type of prosodic grouping in the verb phrase of the copulative verb to be. Keywords: rhythm, intonation, prosody, copulative verb, simple sentences

Gender specific syntagmatic peculiarities of phrasal rhythm in the course of extemporaneous reading aloud (American English)

The article considers the methods, the major stages and results of the study of how gender influences the syntagmatic properties of phrasal rhythm in the course of extemporaneous reading aloud in contemporary American English. The given description is the second stage of the study focusing on the influence of gender on phrasal rhythm in the type of language activity being considered. Previously, gender specific male and female “repertoires” of statistically valid types of rhythmical groups (i.e. the paradigmatic properties of rhythmical groups) were determined. A rhythmical group is understood as a suprasyllabic prosodic unit comprising one stressed and a number of unstressed syllables adjacent to it. The position and the number of the unstressed syllables in the rhythmical group determine its type. At this stage of the study, the peculiarities of the combinability of different types of rhythmical groups and their valency are being scrutinized. In the realm of combinability peculiarities of rhythmical groups, the statistics of the types and kinds of observed contacts are being analyzed: contrastive/non-contrastive increase/decrease of rhythm, the rate of rhythm changes as well as cases of unchanged rhythm. Statistically valid genderfactored differences are being determined. Among the statistical tools the following were mostly employed: measures of central tendency (the mean value), measures of variability (dispersion) and the probability theory (to determine the valency). It has been established that the type of the language activity, which is being considered here, allowing almost no freedom of the speakers to organize the phrasal rhythm at their own discretion, greatly influences the results. Thus, male and female manifestations in a vast number of indicators show no statistically relevant differences, especially when group mean values are considered. The majority of statistically valid gender specific differences are observed only in the values of dispersion, which show the degree of uniformity, immutability of the events. The discussion section of the article represents the author’s speculation about the accuracy and efficiency of the auditory-functional method that is being employed to determine the contrastive/non-contrastive rhythm modulation: by the difference in the number of unstressed syllables between the adjacent rhythmical groups without regard given to their positions relevant to the stressed syllable. Eventually the author concludes that the controversy of the method is to be smoothed out by the acoustic analysis of the actual data.

Perception of Intonation on Neutral Tone in Mandarin

In Mandarin, lexical tone has been found to interact with intonational tone to influence intonation perception, with the falling T4 facilitating the perception of the statement/question contrast the most, and the rising T2 the least. However, in addition to the four citation tones T1-T4, Mandarin has “neutral tone” which marks weak, non-initial syllables that do not carry a citation tone. The prevailing view is that neutral tone is, in fact, phonologically toneless. It is unknown whether neutral tone can also affect intonation perception. However, it is reasonable to hypothesize that if neutral tone is indeed toneless, it cannot interact with intonational tone in the same way as citation tones do. We investigated this novel hypothesis with a perception experiment in which 22 Mandarin speakers had to determine whether disyllabic citation tone and neutral tone words were a question or statement. Results show that the identification of intonation contours is more accurate for neutral tone than for T2, and similarly accurate for neutral tone and T4, regardless of whether the neutral tone is intrinsic or derived. Furthermore, both T4 and neutral tone are realized with a reduced pitch range at a higher pitch level in questions, unlike T2, which is characterized by a slightly expanded pitch range and a higher pitch level. It is possible that intonation perception in Mandarin is facilitated by changes in the phonetic shapes of lexical tones brought by intonation rather than the phonological interaction between lexical tones and intonation. The importance of pitch changes to the intonation perception in Mandarin was further tested in a second perception experiment with the same 22 participants and disyllabic stimuli with manipulated pitch level and range. Results indicate that the use of pitch cues in intonation perception shows tone-specific differences, namely, pitch range is more important in signaling the question/statement contrast in utterances ending with T4 or neutral tone, while pitch level is the only perceptual cue to interrogativity for utterances ending in T2.

Word stress at utterance-final position

Abstract This study investigates the realization of the two most common word-level stress patterns in Hebrew, final and penultimate, at utterance-final position. Twenty-six disyllabic words that form minimal pairs, which differ only in their stress pattern, were embedded in 52 sentences. The mean values of three acoustic parameters—duration, F0, and intensity—were measured for vowels of the target words. Findings show that duration is significantly longer at stressed vowels, similar to previous findings on words at utterance-mid position. Lower intensity is assigned to the utterance-final vowels regardless of the stress pattern, but the degree of lowering does depend on the stress pattern. Finally, lower F0 values are found in the utterance-final vowels, but the degree of lowering is similar to both stress patterns. We conclude that duration is the main cue at the prosodic word level, while F0 is used by Hebrew speakers to cue higher prosodic units.

Nuclear accent placement in broad focus intransitives in native and non-native English: an investigation of syntactic and pragmatic factors

Simple broad focus intransitives in English have been observed to occur with variable nuclear accent (NA) placement on either the subject or verb. This variability can be difficult to acquire in a second language (L2), especially when the speaker’s first language (L1), such as Spanish, has less flexible NA placement. Learners tend to transfer L1 intonational patterns into their L2, but there is still more to understand about the learning trajectory. Furthermore, the factors driving the NA placement alternation in intransitives are not yet fully understood for L1 speakers; there is a debate about whether NA placement is driven by syntactic factors, pragmatic factors, or a combination of the two. The study reported in this paper used an oral production task to elicit broad focus intransitives from both L1 English speakers and L1 Spanish L2 English learners. Verb type and expectedness were crossed in stimuli construction in order to test the effects of both syntactic and pragmatic factors on NA placement for both speaker groups. The results indicate that L1 speakers are most likely to produce NA on the subject of expected unaccusative verbs, and to produce NA on the verb in all other conditions. L2 speakers show a stronger preference for utterance-final NA placement on the verb, which is likely transferred from the preferred pattern of their L1. At the same time, L2 learners of higher proficiency do show evidence of acquiring the target NA placement pattern.

Prenatal fluoxetine has long-lasting, differential effects on respiratory control in male and female rats.

Serotonin (5-HT) is an important modulator of brain networks that control breathing. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (FLX) is the first-line antidepressant drug prescribed during pregnancy. We investigated the effects of prenatal FLX exposure on baseline breathing, ventilatory and metabolic responses to hypercapnia and hypoxia as well as number of brainstem 5-HT and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) neurons of rats during postnatal development (P0-82). Prenatal FLX exposure of males showed a lower baseline V̇e that appeared in juveniles and remained in adulthood, with no sleep-wake state dependency. Prenatal FLX exposure of females did not affect baseline breathing. Juvenile male FLX showed increased CO2 and hypoxic ventilatory responses, normalizing by adulthood. Alterations in juvenile FLX-treated males were associated with a greater number of 5-HT neurons in the raphe obscurus (ROB) and raphe magnus (RMAG). Adult FLX-exposed males showed greater number of 5-HT neurons in the raphe pallidus (RPA) and TH neurons in the A5, whereas reduced number of TH neurons in A7. Prenatal FLX exposure of female rats was associated with greater hyperventilation induced by hypercapnia at P0-2 and juveniles, whereas P12-14 and adult FLX (non-rapid eye movement, NREM sleep) rats showed an attenuation of the hyperventilation induced by CO2. FLX-exposed females had fewer 5-HT neurons in the RPA and reduced TH A6 density at P0-2; and greater number of TH neurons in the A7 at P12-14. These data indicate that prenatal FLX exposure affects the number of some monoaminergic regions in the brain and results in long-lasting, sex-specific changes in baseline breathing pattern and ventilatory responses to respiratory challenges.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) readily cross the placental and the fetal blood-brain barrier where it will affect 5-HT levels in the developing brain. Although SSRI is used during pregnancy, there are no studies showing SSRI exposure during late pregnancy and postnatal effects on breathing control in males and females. We demonstrated that fluoxetine exposure during late pregnancy in rats was associated with long-lasting, sex-specific effects on breathing and brainstem monoaminergic groups.

Prominence marking in an edge-prominent language - the case of Drehu

This study investigates prosodic correlates of phrasing in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. The analysis is concerned with the demarcation of prosodic levels in the language, namely the Accentual Phrase and the Intonation Phrase. First impressionistic descriptions of Drehu state there is fixed word initial stress, however recent experimental evidence does not support this claim. Instead, it has been suggested that Drehu could be an edge-marking language which relies on right boundary marking. To determine whether the patterns recorded in the literature are borne out, the phonological and phonetic realisation of post-lexical word level prosody is investigated. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) and duration contribute to boundary marking in Drehu. The results show that F0 cues mark the right boundary of two prosodic levels, the AP and IP, and that the strength of the boundary is related to its level in the prosodic hierarchy. Preboundary lengthening also cues IP boundaries but not AP boundaries.

A Sociophonetic Investigation of Chinese Gay Couples' Variability of Pitch Properties in Vlogs

Despite the accumulating body of research in sociophonetics exploring gay men’s pitch characteristics (i.e., mean vocal pitch and pitch range), previous studies usually investigate a uniform concept of ‘gay men’s speech’ by comparing heterosexual and gay men’s pitch properties. However, results were contesting and inconsistent across various studies regarding the pitch properties (pitch ranges or mean voice pitch) of gay men. Instead of treating gay men’s speech as a unified speaking style, this paper investigates the multiplicity of gay speaking styles by exploring the intra-group pitch variations among 20 pairs of Chinese gay couples in their self-shot videos. Specifically, the present study compares the pitch properties, including the mean vocal pitch, pitch range, and pitch variability, between those Chinese gay men who selfposition as ‘lao gong’ (husband) and those who self-identify as ‘lao po’ (wife) in their love vlogs (video blogs). These videos normally last from 5 to 10 minutes on a Chinese online video sharing platform - ‘Bilibili.’ After dividing these gay couples’ utterances into intonational phrases, I used the speech analysis software named Praat to measure the average pitch, pitch range (the maximum pitch value minus minimum pitch value), and pitch variability (the standard deviation of pitch values) on each intonational phrase. Compared with those ‘gay husbands,’ results showed that those ‘gay wives’ would speak with higherpitched voices (p < 0.05), wider pitch ranges (p < 0.0001), and more variable pitch values (p < 0.0001). When locating the discourse functions of these pitch characteristics in their vlogs, I argue that those ‘gay wives’ frequently utilize the so-called ‘pitch dynamism’ to construct an expressive and cute ‘wife’ persona in intimate discourse.

발화 속도와 말차례 교체 빈도에 따른 운율 단위 변화에 관한 연구

This study aimed to analyze the speech appearing in the National Institute of Korean Language’s Daily Conversation Speech Corpus (2020) and reveal how the speech rate and the frequency of turn-taking affect the change in prosody units. The analysis results showed a positive correlation between intonation phrase, word phrase frequency, and speaking duration as the speech speed increased; however, the correlation was low, and the suitability of the regression model of the speech rate was 3%–11%, which was weak in explanatory power. There was a significant difference in the mean speech rate according to the frequency of the turn-taking, and the speech rate decreased as the frequency of the turn-taking increased. In addition, as the frequency of turn-taking increased, the frequency of intonation phrases, the frequency of word phrases, and the speaking duration decreased; there was a high negative correlation. The suitability of the regression model of the turn-taking frequency was calculated as 27%–32%. The frequency of turn-taking functions as a factor in changing the speech rate and prosodic units. It is presumed that this can be influenced by the disfluency of the dialogue, the characteristics of turn-taking, and the active interaction between the speakers.

한국어 낭독과 자유 발화의 운율적 특성*

This study aims to clarify the prosodic differences in speech types by examining the Korean read speech and spontaneous speech in the Korean part of the L2 Korean Speech Corpus (speech corpus for Korean as a foreign language). To this end, the articulation length, articulation speed, pause length and frequency, and the average fundamental frequency values of sentences were set as variables and analyzed via statistical methodologies (<italic>t</italic>-test, correlation analysis, and regression analysis). The results found that read speech and spontaneous speech were structurally different in the form of prosodic phrases constituting each sentence and that the prosodic elements differentiating each speech type were articulation length, pause length, and pause frequency. The statistical results show that the correlation between articulation speed and articulation length was highest in read speech, explaining that the longer a given sentence is, the faster the speaker speaks. In spontaneous speech, however, the relationship between the articulation length and the pause frequency in a sentence was high. Overall, spontaneous speech produces more pauses because short intonation phrases are continuously built to make a sentence, and as a result, the sentence gets lengthened.