Major Phrase Research Articles

On Two Sub-projections of the Nominal Extended Projection: Some Romance Evidence

AbstractIf cross-linguistic word order variation is a function of the movement of the head of each (sub)projection of an extended projection (in one of the possible ways movement can take place: with or without pied piping) there will be novel evidence for the correct constituencies of the clause and its major phrases. Here I will try to illustrate this by looking at two specific sub-projections of the nominal extended projection in a number of Romance languages: the sub-projection of locative adverbs and elevation and exteriority/interiority particles, and the sub-projection containing ‘other’, and ordinal and cardinal numerals.

Reading Fluency in Children and Adolescents Who Stutter.

Speech fluency is a major challenge for young persons who stutter. Reading aloud, in particular, puts high demands on fluency, not only regarding online text decoding and articulation, but also in terms of prosodic performance. A written text has to be segmented into a number of prosodic phrases with appropriate breaks. The present study examines to what extent reading fluency (decoding ability, articulation rate, and prosodic phrasing) may be altered in children (9–12 years) and adolescents (13–17 years) who stutter compared to matched control participants. Read speech of 52 children and adolescents who do and do not stutter was analyzed. Children and adolescents who stutter did not differ from their matched control groups regarding reading accuracy and articulation rate. However, children who stutter produced shorter pauses than their matched peers. Results on prosodic phrasing showed that children who stutter produced more major phrases than the control group and more intermediate phrases than adolescents who stutter. Participants who stutter also displayed a higher number of breath pauses. Generally, the number of disfluencies during reading was related to slower articulation rates and more prosodic boundaries. Furthermore, we found age-related changes in general measures of reading fluency (decoding ability and articulation rate), as well as the overall strength of prosodic boundaries and number of breath pauses. This study provides evidence for developmental stages in prosodic phrasing as well as for alterations in reading fluency in children who stutter.

An intonational model of Shanghai Wu: A pitch-accent analysis

This paper presents an intonational model of Shanghai Wu in the Autosegmental-Metrical framework. Shanghai’s peculiar phrasal tonal system, which spreads lexical tones over sandhi domains, is well-discussed in the literature; however, there is no account of the language's contrastive intonational elements and their phonetic realization. Grounded in phonetic data collected from 14 Shanghainese speakers born between 1945 and 1963, the paper analyzes the language as a pitch-accent system rather than a tonal one, with three distinctive accents: L* + H, H* + L, and L*. These pitch accents pair with one of two accentual phrase-like boundary tones, La and LHa with specific tonotactic requirements. Additionally, I will describe the prosodic hierarchy, as determined by the intonation, as having two levels above the accentual phrase, the intonational phrase (marked via initial pitch range expansion and one of three boundary tones: L%, %, and H%) as well as the major phrase. Together with a labelling system, this analysis allows for easy annotation of Shanghainese tonal events, similar to the ToBI-type models for languages such as Japanese and Serbo-Croatian.This paper presents an intonational model of Shanghai Wu in the Autosegmental-Metrical framework. Shanghai’s peculiar phrasal tonal system, which spreads lexical tones over sandhi domains, is well-discussed in the literature; however, there is no account of the language's contrastive intonational elements and their phonetic realization. Grounded in phonetic data collected from 14 Shanghainese speakers born between 1945 and 1963, the paper analyzes the language as a pitch-accent system rather than a tonal one, with three distinctive accents: L* + H, H* + L, and L*. These pitch accents pair with one of two accentual phrase-like boundary tones, La and LHa with specific tonotactic requirements. Additionally, I will describe the prosodic hierarchy, as determined by the intonation, as having two levels above the accentual phrase, the intonational phrase (marked via initial pitch range expansion and one of three boundary tones: L%, %, and H%) as well as the major phrase. Together with a labelling system, this an...

Modeling adnominal possession in multilingual grammar engineering

In this paper we describe insights gained from building an extension to the LinGO Grammar Matrix customization system to cover adnominal possessive phrases. We show how the wide range of such constructions attested in the world's languages can be handled with the typical major phrase types used in HPSG and discuss the value of feature bundling in the multilingual grammar engineering context.

Binarity and Focus in Prosodic Phrasing: New Evidence from Taiwan Mandarin

This paper makes novel claims and presents new evidence for the binarity of prosodic phrases, alignment of focused elements, and their interaction. Several authors have argued that there are binarity restrictions at the level of the prosodic phrase (e.g. Prince 1980, Ito & Mester 1992, Selkirk 2000). In this paper, I provide new support for this claim from Taiwan Mandarin (TM). I argue that prosodic phrases must be decomposed into Minor Phrases (MIPs) and Major Phrases (MAPs) (Selkirk et al. 2004), and that both levels can have minimal and maximal binarity restrictions. Crucially, MAPs must be binary in TM. Moreover, I argue – after Féry (2013) – that focused elements can require both left and right edge alignment of a constituent (in TM, a MIP). Finally, I show that requirements on binarity and focus can interact in striking ways – a binarity restriction on MAPs prevents alignment to the right edge of focused elements in specific environments.

Japanese downstep revisited

This paper presents the results of a production experiment in which downstep in Tokyo Japanese was re-examined. There are three major assumptions that have been widely adopted in the literature: (1) the Major Phrase (MaP) is the domain of downstep; (2) a syntactic boundary blocks downstep, as a result of the insertion of a MaP boundary; and (3) focus blocks downstep, as a result of the insertion of a MaP (left) boundary. The results of the experiment raise questions about these basic assumptions, and call for new theoretical explanations of the data. There are two major findings in the results: (i) no complete register resetting by focus of a syntactic boundary, and (ii) phonetic differences between the effect of focus and that of syntactic boundary. The first finding raises questions as to whether Assumptions 1 and 2 should be maintained, and if so, how they should be modified to capture the results. Recursive prosodic phrasing along the lines of Ito and Mester (2007, 2012, 2013) is adopted to account for the incomplete resetting. The second finding particularly casts doubt on Assumption 3, because the focus effect lacks some of the properties of the boundary effect. The difference between focus and boundary needs to be explained by assuming that the focus effect is independent of MaP-phrasing, as proposed in Ishihara (2011b).

Tipovi struktura premodifikacije imeničke sintagme i njihova raširenost u engleskom jeziku iz oblasti medicine

This paper investigates premodification as one of the major noun phrase components in a specific type of written scientific register. The aim is to investigate and describe the structure and distribution of types of premodification in a corpus of medical English and determine if there are some significant differences among different periods in the last twenty years. Since the corpus comprises medical articles, we set up two hypotheses 1 - types of premodification within the noun phrase appearing in these periods are the same and their complexity and distribution can be conditioned by the level of research complexity described in an article, and 2 - there are new premodifying elements in addition to the typical ones, which are related to medical English, i.e. scientific writing. Using analysis, synthesis and comparative method we managed to confirm our hypotheses, which means that premodification of a noun phrase in medical English is specific and different from other written registers to a certain extent.

Prosodic subcategories in Japanese

Research on Japanese prosody, especially on the pitch accent system of the language, has for a long time found that a single domain “phonological phrase” is not sufficient. Rather, two domains need to be distinguished, which go by various names (Minor vs. Major Phrase, Accentual vs. Intermediate Phrase). While empirically well-founded, these developments, together with similar findings in other languages, have resulted in a dissolution of the originally tightly organized universal prosodic hierarchy into a collection of many prosodic types, each instantiated here and there in different languages, but never simultaneously realized within a single language. Two strands of recent work, that of Selkirk (2009:205–219, 2011a), and of Ito and Mester (2007, 2009a, 2009b) converge on a common theme from different directions. On the one hand, Selkirk has developed a vastly simplified approach to the syntax–prosody mapping which distinguishes only three levels (word, phrase, and clause) where syntactic constituents are systematically made to correspond to phonological domains (“Match Theory”). On the other hand, Ito and Mester have argued that the empirically necessary subcategories (such as Minor vs. Major Phrase) need to be understood not as additional categories existing in their own right, but rather as instances of recursively deployed basic categories. This paper carries forward this line of prosodic hierarchy research and shows that the recursion-based conception implemented within Match Theory allows for a conceptually and empirically cleaner understanding of the phonological facts and generalizations in Japanese as well as for an understanding of the respective roles of syntax and phonology in determining prosodic constituent structure organization, and the limitation in types of distinctions in prosodic category that are made in phonological representation. Finally, a formal constraint-based OT analysis is developed that provides an account of the varying tonal and accentual structures in syntactic collocations of varying sizes and structures.

The Syntax, Semantics, and Prosody of German "VP"-fronting

“VP”-fronting involving an unergative or transitive (agentive) vP depends on a rise-fall, bridge-contour intonation (Büring 1997) in order to be acceptable. (1) [/Ein Außenseiter gewonnen] hat hier noch nie. a.NOM outsider won has here yet never ‘It has never happened here that an outsider won.’ Furthermore, the fronted vP must express partially discourse-old information, have a non-specific/generic subject, and denote a proposition that is quantified over, not asserted. Pitch tracks show the bridge-contour ‘wrapping’ vP into one large prosodic (Intonational) phrase with a high edge tone, reducing vP-contained DPs to major phrases.

A note on phonological phrasing in South Kyungsang

Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 16.3. 371-382. The contrasting tonal profiles of swul (H?L), mwul (HH), and t?n (LH) are used as probes of phonological phrasing. It is shown that monosyllables combine with the following phonological word to form a single Minor Phrase when they appear at the beginning of a Major Phrase in a variety of syntactic constructions.

Intonation in Tongan.

This paper presents a model of the intonational system of Tongan, an Austronesian language, taking the autosegmental‐metrical theory as its framework. Tongan has lexical stress which appears on the penultimate syllable of prosodic words and is marked post‐lexically with one of two bitonal pitch accents—a rise, LH*, or a low‐fall, ML*. Measurements show that the first tone of both pitch accents aligns with the stressed syllable onset, while the second tone aligns with the stressed syllable offset. There is evidence for two tonally marked levels of prosodic phrasing in Tongan, the intonational phrase (IP) and the accentual phrase (AP). The IP is about the size of a full utterance or major phrase and is marked by a final boundary tone and are realized on the IP‐final syllable. Five boundary tones have been observed. The smaller unit, the AP, usually contains one lexical word plus preceding functional elements. Three AP‐final tones have been observed, realized on the final syllable of the phrase. Lastly, focus is only realized intonationally through increased pitch range on the focused element. Tongan is typologically interesting because it provides another case in a growing list of languages that intonationally marks both head and edge prominence.

A Variable Break Prediction Method Using CART in a Japanese Text-to-Speech System

Break prediction is an important step in text-to-speech systems as break indices (BIs) have a great influence on how to correctly represent prosodic phrase boundaries. However, an accurate prediction is difficult since BIs are often chosen according to the meaning of a sentence or the reading style of the speaker. In Japanese, the prediction of an accentual phrase boundary (APB) and major phrase boundary (MPB) is particularly difficult. Thus, this paper presents a method to complement the prediction errors of an APB and MPB. First, we define a subtle BI in which it is difficult to decide between an APB and MPB clearly as a variable break (VB), and an explicit BI as a fixed break (FB). The VB is chosen using the classification and regression tree, and multiple prosodic targets in relation to the pith and duration are then generated. Finally, unit-selection is conducted using multiple prosodic targets. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the naturalness of synthesized speech.

Major Phrase, Focus Intonation, Multiple Spell-Out (MaP, FI, MSO)

The article discusses interactions between syntactic derivation, semantic scopal relations, and prosodic phrasing in Japanese. I claim that the Major Phrase (MaP) is a result of the mapping of Multiple Spell-Out (MSO) domains onto prosody. I also claim that a Focus Intonation (FI), a prosodic domain triggered by focus, is created independently of MaP phrasing, contrary to previously proposed analyses, in which a FI is created by modifying MaP phrasing. The interactions between prosodic phrasing and semantic scope can be better explained by distinguishing between MaP and FI. I claim that quantifiers and their scopes are sensitive to MaP boundaries, while focus-related scope-taking elements such as wh-phrase and negative polarity items are sensitive to FI domains. This generalization is explained under the MSO analysis of MaP/FI formation proposed in this article.

Phase theory and prosodic spellout: The case of verbs

In this article we will explore the consequences of adopting recent proposals by Chomsky, according to which the syntactic derivation proceeds in terms of phases. The notion of phase - through the associated notion ofspellout - allows for an insightful theory of the fact that syntactic constituents receive default phrase stress not across the board, but as a function of yet-to-be-explicated conditions on their syntactic context. We will see that the phonological evidence requires us to modify somewhat the theory of which functional categories actually define a phase. Patterns of default, syntax-determined, phrase stress are argued to result from prosodic spellout requiring the highest phrase in the spellout domain to correspond to a major prosodic phrase in phonological representation, and carry major phrase stress.

Speech synthesis with prosodic phrase boundary information

Text-to-speech conversion uses pattern-matching to predict the position of phrase boundaries in spoken output. Text input to the is analyzed to identify groups of words (known as “chunks”) which are unlikely to contain internal phrase boundaries. Both the chunks and individual words are labeled with their syntactic characteristics. Access is made to a database of sentences which also contains such syntactic labels, together with indications of where a human reader would insert minor and major phrase boundaries. The parts of the database which have the most similar syntactic characteristics are found and phrase boundaries are predicted based on the phrase boundaries found in those parts. Other characteristics may also be used in the pattern-matching process.

Faculty Q&A

<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" width="550"> <tbody><tr> <td> <p></p> <h3>Send in your questions for Faculty Q&A!</h3> <p>We want your questions not only about issues related to how to teach and instructional strategies, but also about other issues faced by faculty (both new and established). Here’s an example: </p> <p>“I was shocked to have a student accuse me of sexism. The student is male and says there is an inherent bias against male students, as I have answered questions posed to me by female students when we were in the change room preparing for a clinical shift. How can I guard against this type of unintentional problem in the future?” </p> <p><b>Here’s what you need to know: </b></p> <ol> <li> Questions need to be short and, preferably, include a specific scenario or examples.</li> <li>Submit questions that address practical issues faced by faculty and can be answered in a few paragraphs (see example above).</li> <li>Avoid broad questions that would require an entire article to answer.</li> <li>E-mail your questions, along with your full name and credentials, to Karen G. Stanwood, ELS, Executive Editor, at <a href="mailto:kstanwood@slackinc.com">kstanwood@slackinc.com</a>.</li> </ol></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <h4>EXCERPT</h4> <P>A student asks if she can do an extra credit assignment so she can improve her grade to keep her scholarship. However, an extra credit option is not part of the syllabus. What should I do?</P> <p>Six nursing students arrive for report at the beginning of the day shift. The nurses are busy admitting patients and transferring others. One student asks the night charge nurse if he can help. The response is, "Just stay out of my way." The day shift nurse is equally unenthusiastic about having students on the unit. How can I, as the instructor, effectively approach this staff team? How can I help the students develop good working relationships in an already stressful situation? </p> <p>My students were assigned a paper to promote critical thinking about evidence-based practice for a specific clinical condition. Written directions and grading guidelines for the paper specified use of evidence-based databases with referenced citations. As I read one student's paper, it become clear that major phrases had been copied from papers found on the Internet. When I met with the student about the paper, the student admitted to using Internet material, saying it was the best source of evidence. The student offered to cite the Internet-accessed sources in her paper, saying, "The Internet is publicly accessible, and I used what is available to anyone who uses the Internet." How can I make it clear that information on the Internet must be carefully scrutinized, and that this information cannot be used without correct citation/permission? </p>

Subjects, objects and intonational phrasing in spanish and portuguese*

Abstract. This article investigates the role of prosodic length and syntactic complexity on intonational phrasing in Spanish and European Portuguese. Spanish presents a clear tendency to divide utterances into (S)(VO) phrasings, depending on branchingness. In EP (SVO) is the predominant phrasing, but a long branching subject can trigger the phrasing (S)(VO). The main differences between the two languages are analyzed as arising from two properties: the different syntactic position of subjects (external or internal to Extended VP) and the different parameters of prosodic weight (number of syllables vs. number of words/branchingness) realized by each language. Constraints of the syntax‐prosody interface and prosodic constraints on the maximum size of major phrases refer to these properties and produce different outcomes. The preference shared by EP and Spanish to have the material in a VP contained in the same major phrase (disallowing (V)(O) phrasings) also stems from a syntax‐phonology constraint.

Freedom from Choice

Freedom from Choice

OCCULT LINKING IN ENGLISH

The paper explores the possibility that English syntax includes a particular sort of non-overt (occult) element, corresponding to the overt links that have been identified as very general elements in the languages of the world, serving the function of connecting elements to the head of the phrase in which they appear. Evidence is presented that occult links are ubiquitous, occurring in all the major phrase types of English, including at least NP, VP, AP, AdvP, PP, and QP, and exerting a strong influence on the form of these phrases. The effects consist of constraints on the types of phrases that can appear in pre-head positions, the frequent need for certain components of pre-head phrases to be extraposed, and the impossibility of extracting items from pre-head positions. These phenomena can be explained if one hypothesizes occult links in the types of positions in which overt links occur, with properties that overt links are known to have.

The Effect of Story Impressions Preview on Learning From Narrative Text

The authors assessed the extent to which a generative prereading activity known as Story Impressions (SI), or composing a guess from clues, influences passage recall relative to a more passive prereading activity of reading a Content Preview (CP). The results from 74 eighth-grade students indicated the CP groups equaled the reading-only control groups in recall of the major phrases of the narrative as well as other passage information. As expected, the SI groups significantly exceeded the CP groups and the control groups on both aspects of passage recall. The authors argued that the SI method could be effective because it induced the three fundamental processes that constitute reading comprehension (M. A. Gernsbacher, 1990) and the concomitant generative learning effect (M. C. Wittrock, 1989).