Prosodic Form Research Articles

Moving Beyond the Plateau with Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Mediation

This paper examines the plateau effect and the role of Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) in enabling learners to move beyond the plateau. Specifically, the samples and empirical evidence for this study is provided by StudyIntonation, a top-down CAPT environment supporting visual display of phrasal intonation in the form of pitch graphs presented for both the model pitch of native speakers and attempts of learners. Utterances of model speakers are grouped by situational context, prosodic forms and mode of feedback. The system largely relies upon concepts of sociocultural theory, such as mediation through the zone of proximal development. With the help of an experimental group of high school students, we use mathematical models to pinpoint the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), allowing for delivery of tailored task classification based on syntax and discourse tags. Longitudinal pronunciation assessment supported by dynamic time warping and cross-recurrence quantification analysis is used to locate the ZPD, and provide personalized practice. Preliminary experiments for the current study demonstrate that this approach can help learners in overcoming the plateau effect experienced during the learning process. The reported new findings create further grounds for improving and targeting the CAPT system feedback to learners with respect to their individual achievements and differences in learning styles.

Prosodic skills in Spanish-speaking adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome.

Down syndrome (DS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origin with a cognitive-behavioural profile that distinguishes it from other syndromes. Within this profile, language difficulties are particularly marked, having been more studied in childhood than in adulthood. More generally, there is a paucity of research on the prosodic skills of individuals with DS, despite the relevance of this linguistic component for effective communication. This study aimed to analyse, for the first time, the prosodic profile of Spanish-speaking teenagers and young adults with DS. We hypothesized that participants with DS would show significantly lower skills for the perception and production of prosodic functions and forms when compared to peers with intellectual disability (ID) of unknown origin. We also hypothesized that teenagers and young adults with DS would have better prosody perception than prosody production. The final sample included in the study comprised 28 Spanish-speaking teenagers and young adults with DS and 29 teenagers and young adults with other ID matched on chronological age and nonverbal cognition. Their prosodic skills were tested by means of the Profiling Elements of Prosody for Speech and Communication battery. This battery allows for the separate evaluation of the comprehension and expression of the communicative functions of prosody and the discrimination and production of the forms that carry out such functions. In the prosody function tasks, which are the most adaptive tasks for the communicative process, we found, as expected, significantly lower scores on the turn-end, chunking, and focus tasks in the group with DS. However, no significant between-group differences were found for the affect tasks. Participants with DS also had significantly lower scores on the prosodic form tasks than participants with other ID. The results of the comparison between prosodic perception and production skills showed that a generalization about a better profile in comprehension versus production is not possible and that there is a dependence on the demands of the prosodic task undertaken. The findings contribute to the ongoing development of the language profile of teenagers and young adults with DS and imply the need to design prosodic intervention programs based on their specific profile. What is already known on the subject Prosody is a fundamental element of language, and its mastery affects the effectiveness of communication. However, research on prosody in Down syndrome (DS) that offers a holistic view from a psycholinguistic approach is still scarce. To date, studies focused on providing a detailed profile of prosodic skills in individuals with DS have been mainly conducted with a few English-speaking children. These studies have shown that the comprehension and production of prosody is severely impaired, especially when considering affect and focus production, as well as the perception and production of prosodic forms. During childhood, greater efficacy is found in prosody comprehension than in prosody expression. What this study adds This is the first study analysing the prosodic profile of a large group of Spanish-speaking teenagers and young adults with DS. Poorer performance in the perception and production of both prosodic functions and forms was observed in participants with DS compared to participants with intellectual disability of unknown origin matched on chronological age and nonverbal cognition. Unlike what has been previously found in children, teenagers and young adults with DS performed at the same level as the control group on the understanding and expression of affect through prosodic cues. Results also showed that a generalization about a better prosody profile in comprehension versus production is not possible. What are the clinical implications of this work? This study provides new data on the prosodic skills of Spanish-speaking teenagers and young adults with DS. Given the impact of prosody on effective communication and the pattern of difficulties found in this study, speech and language therapists working with individuals with DS should consider including prosodic skills in interventions not only in childhood but also in adolescence and adulthood. Therefore, the prosodic profile of strengths and weaknesses in individuals with DS found in this research has direct implications for clinical practice.

DIFFERENTIATION OF ONE-WAY SPEECH ACTS OF REQUEST AND ENTREATY AT THE PROSODIC LEVEL

Statement of the problem. This article is aimed at identifying the distinctive features of such one-way speech acts related to the directive as request and entreaty at the tonal, dynamic and temporal levels based on the modern German language. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that each speech situation has its own prosodic form, which, consequently, leads to the need to identify more detailed distinguishing features of each speech act. So, within the framework of the directive, one can single out illocutions that are similar in the induced effect, but differ in the nature of the implementation of the action. Results. As a result of an experimental and phonetic research, it was found that, despite all the identified distinctive features, the greatest differentiation between a request and an entreaty is observed at the level of intensity. However, there is a tendency to distinguish the two illocutionaries at the melodic level as well. The most differentiated part of the delimitation of the speech flow is a post-beat, namely the completion of the phonation. This section captures the differences at all prosodic levels. At the level of duration, the differentiation between the entreaty and request is not statistically confirmed. Conclusion. Entreaty, being a less calm statement than request, reflects its emotional component in the prosodic picture. This is expressed in the allocation of key semantic syllables by loudness, frequent and sharp acceleration and deceleration of speech throughout the entire utterance. However, the same illocutionary of the entreaty is dynamically expressed less than the request. All identified distinctive characteristics of the two illocutives may indicate different communication strategies that interactants use in the course of communication in order to achieve the maximum perlocutionary effect, which presumably will minimize or completely eliminate the likelihood of misunderstanding between interactants.

‘God send vs þe dew of heuene’ in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 172: A new edition of a Middle English-Latin lyric, with commentary

ABSTRACT This article presents a new and extended edition of ‘God send vs þe dew of heuene’, with a full translation and commentary. This Middle English-Latin bilingual lyric of the fourteenth century is written haphazardly in the upper margin of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 172, fol. 55 r, and is annotated with alterations and variants indicative of compositional and perhaps compilational activity. Through literary analysis of the lyric’s prosodic form and homiletic context, and through a careful assessment of its mise-en-page and palaeographic features, this article produces a dynamic edition which preserves the layers of accretion and revision present in the manuscript text.

The acquisition of contrastive focus during online sentence-comprehension by children learning mandarin Chinese.

Contrastive focus, conveyed by prosodic cues, marks important information. Studies have shown that 6-year-olds learning English and Japanese can use contrastive focus during online sentence comprehension: focus used in a contrastive context facilitates the identification of a target referent (speeding up processing), whereas focus used inappropriately in a noncontrastive context misleads listeners to predict an incorrect referent, hindering the identification process (Ito et al., 2012, 2014). In Mandarin Chinese, the mapping between prosodic form and contrastive focus is less transparent, potentially delaying the acquisition of contrastive focus. This study assessed the online processing of contrastive focus by 196 Mandarin-speaking 4-10-year-olds and 34 adults in China, using the visual world paradigm. Stimuli contained a target NP in a mini discourse, with focus being used in contrastive (Experiment 1) versus Noncontrastive contexts (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed that the appropriate use of prosodic form for contrastive focus facilitated the identification of a target referent for 7-10-year-olds and adults, though not younger children. Experiment 2 showed that the inappropriate use of prosodic form for contrastive focus slowed the identification process only for 10-year-olds and adults. Thus, whereas 7-10-year-olds are sensitive to prosodic form for contrastive focus, only 10-year-olds use it as a primary cue to predict an upcoming referent like adults. The acquisition of contrastive focus in Mandarin is therefore a gradual process, with children showing sensitivity to contrastive focus during the early school years, and developing adult-like form-function mapping between prosody and focus until the end of primary school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

About This Issue

We are pleased to present The Elusive Progress of Prosodical Study: Essays in Honor of Thomas Cable, a special issue organized by guest editor Nicholas Myklebust. Taken together, the articles of this issue celebrate Professor Thomas Cable as impactful scholar, teacher, mentor, and friend. For over five decades, Cable’s precise analyses have guided and refined the development of English metrical studies, adding to our knowledge of medieval poetics and authorial practice, particularly as regards historical linguistics and grammar, and the prosodics of alliterative meter from Old English to Middle English.The subjects chosen by the contributors to this issue testify to the energetic scope and influence of Cable’s scholarship. R. D. Fulk analyzes “the aesthetics of metrical usage” in some striking lines of “aural punctuation” (Eduard Sievers’s type A) that show up in Beowulf and other Old English poems. Eric Weiskott pursues four grammatical arguments that could underlie the direct evolution of Old English meter into Middle English alliterative meter; his chief examples are drawn from Exodus and Patience. Nicholas Myklebust examines the afterlife of Chaucer’s decasyllabic meter as it was consciously adapted in John Walton’s fifteenth-century translation of Boethius. Delving into the intricacies of alliterative meter in the poems of MS Cotton Nero A.x, and especially in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Noriko Inoue shows how the rules governing an “extra-long” dip in the a-verse can be further elucidated beyond the analysis of Judith Jefferson and Ad Putter. This special issue’s fifth contributor, Ian Cornelius, addresses the metrics of Piers Plowman, widely recognized to be the utmost alliterative outlier; assessing the vocalic quality of syllables and the placement of word divisions in final dips, he concludes that “Langland allows semantic and expository priorities to override prosodic form.”The range of prosodical study inspired here by Thomas Cable is self-evidently expansive, with the collective authors’ explorations roving through the Old English Beowulf and Exodus, as well as through the Middle English canon of Chaucer, the Gawain poet, and Langland. This special issue’s articles exemplify the patient, focused intricacy needed for successful metrical analysis. They also display the incremental steps forward in our understanding of medieval poetical forms and rythymic styles that continue to follow in the wake of Cable’s pioneering work.

It’s Complicated: Some Irregular Line-Ending Morphosyllabic Sequences in Piers Plowman B

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship on the meter of fourteenth-century English alliterative verse demonstrates that lines end with a trochaic constituent. Piers Plowman is a recognized anomaly, yet there is disagreement about the extent of the differences. In this article, I examine long final dips, the vocalic quality of syllables in the final dip, and the placement of word divisions. Throughout, my focus is on the B version of the poem. I make a survey of lines with a word division after the final lift and of lines ending in -ly adverbs, compounds in -man, compounds in -nesse, nouns in -(i)oun, and gerunds. I compare the frequency of each sequence at the close of the a-verse and b-verse, observing that many individual items skew towards the norms of usage observed in other alliterative poems. Yet, more than other alliterative poets, Langland allows semantic and expository priorities to override prosodic form.

Дуудах тийн ялгалын асуудалд олон хэлний хэвшинж судлалын үүднээс хандах нь

This article considers morphological forms of addressing and calling as vocative cases. The research is focused on previous cross-linguistic studies on the vocative case, theoretical backround of the vocative case, marking of the vocative case in languages, vocative syntax of languages and some issues of vocative syntax of Modern Mongolian. Theoretical part includes evolution of case systems, marking of cases in languages, morphological and prosodic forms of vocative cases. Although some Indo-European languages lost their vocative case forms, Baltic languages, Slavonic languages, Indo-Iranian languages of Indo- European family and Georgian language of Iberian-Caucasian family have vocative cases. At the end of the article addressing and calling forms in modern Mongolian are considered in the framework of vocative syntax. We agree that vocative cases in languages exist between system and performance.

Are prosodic effects on sentence comprehension dependent on age?

to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective. Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH. Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms. Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.

Prosodic Morphology of Verb and Adjective Syllables in Yi

Prosodic morphology is an important research object of prosodic typology, and also one of the important elements of prosody and morphology. This paper briefly discusses the prosodic form of the Yi language in terms of the number of syllables in verbs and adjectives. Pure verbs in Yi language usually appear in the form of single syllables. When restricted in grammatical activities, they are always flexibly used by adding the number of syllables, the most obvious one being nominalization. There are two types of adjectives in the Yi language, namely property adjective and state adjective. They can be mainly differentiated in terms of the syllable numbers of a word: the property adjectives are often monosyllabic, while the state adjectives are polysyllabic. The category of level is also expressed by adjusting the number of syllables. The more syllables, the greater the category of level change.

Semantic focus mediates pitch auditory feedback control in phrasal prosody

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effect of semantic focus on pitch auditory feedback control in the production of phrasal prosody through an experiment using pitch-shifted auditory feedback. We hypothesized that pitch-shift responses would be mediated by semantic focus because highly informative focus types, such as corrective focus, impose more specific constraints on the prosodic form of a phrase and require greater consistency in the production of pitch excursions compared to sentences with no such focus elements. Twenty-eight participants produced sentences with and without corrective focus while their auditory feedback was briefly and unexpectedly perturbed in pitch by +/−200 cents at the start of the sentence. The magnitude and latency of the reflexive pitch-shift responses were measured as a reflection of auditory feedback control. Our results matched our prediction that corrective focus would elicit larger pitch-shift responses, supporting our hypothesis that auditory feedback control is mediated by semantic focus.

The influence of informativeness on the prosody of sentence topics

In a production experiment on German we investigated the prosodic effects of informativeness (comprising information status and contrast) on sentence-initial referents, i.e. sentence topics. While referents in sentence-final position usually receive the nuclear accent of the utterance, commonly defined as the last and information-structurally crucial pitch accent in an intonation unit, sentence topics in German often carry a prenuclear accent. However, the status of prenuclear accents is still unclear: are they just “ornamental” or do they express meaning differences? We expected to find a direct relationship between the informativeness of a sentence topic and its prosodic prominence but the hypothesis could only be confirmed to a very limited extent. Results show that informativeness does not affect the accent type of sentence-initial referents, as they are consistently marked by rising prenuclear accents, even on given items. Only the parameter duration shows a main effect of informativeness in the expected direction, since contrastive referents proved to be longer than given ones. In general, and surprisingly, however, contrastive topics are mostly produced as prosodically less prominent than non-contrastive items that are either given, accessible or new. An explanation that holds for our data set may be that the contrast is already expressed by a parallel syntactic structure, which speakers often realize prosodically by a flat hat pattern. We conclude that prenuclear accents on sentence- initial referents are consistently placed for rhythmic reasons in German and that their prosodic form is only slightly influenced by a referent’s level of informativeness.

A study on the perception of prosodic cues to focus by Egyptian listeners: Some make use of them, but most of them don't

The role of prosody in the encoding of information structure in Egyptian Arabic is not yet fully understood. A recent production study found significant acoustic differences between morpho-syntactically identical utterances expressing a topic-comment and a focus-background structure. This paper presents the results from two perception experiments testing Egyptian Arabic listeners’ ability to infer the two pragmatically different structures from acoustically different prosodic realizations. In the first experiment, naturalistic stimuli were used while in the second experiment, the stimuli were gated after the first target word whose pitch contour was manipulated. In addition, the first experiment was repeated with German-speaking listeners to compare their performance to that of the Egyptian listeners. The results suggest that Egyptian listeners perform only slightly above chance-level in both conditions, while the German-speaking listeners were more successful (75% correct). We interpret the results as a difference in conventionalization of the mapping between prosodic form and pragmatic meaning. This difference may be due to the non-categorical character of post-focus compression and the strong variation within and across speakers in Egyptian Arabic. Thus, the results lend some support to the distinction between ‘deaccenting’ and ‘non-deaccenting’ languages in terms of the conventionalization of a prosodic structure.

Recursive Prosody and the Prosodic Form of Compounds

This paper investigates the role recursive structures play in prosody. In current understanding, phonological phrasing is computed by a general syntax–prosody mapping algorithm. Here, we are interested in recursive structure that arises in response to morphosyntactic structure that needs to be mapped. We investigate the types of recursive structures found in prosody, specifically: For a prosodic category κ, besides the adjunctive type of recursion κ[κ x], κ[x κ], is there also the coordinative type κ[κ κ]? Focusing on the prosodic forms of compounds in two typologically rather different languages, Danish and Japanese, we encounter three types of recursive word structures: coordinative ω[ω ω], left-adjunctive ω[f ω], right-adjunctive ω[ω f] and the strictly layered compound structure ω[f f]. In addition, two kinds of coordinative φ-compounds are found in Japanese, one with a non-recursive (strictly layered) structure φ[ω ω], a mono-phrasal compound consisting of two words, and one with coordinative recursion φ[φ φ], a bi-phrasal compound. A cross-linguistically rare type of post-syntactic compound has this biphrasal structure, a fact to be explained by its sentential origin.

Illocution and attitude

This paper aims at investigating the prosodic relations between the category of illocution and that of attitude, the latter defined as the way the illocution (verbal action) is performed (Modis on Actum). We set three experiments and relative perception tests seeking to understand: (i) how different attitudes of the same illocution (Order) are perceived in different contexts; (ii) whether the illocutions of Order and Instruction are conveyed by the same prosodic form; (iii) how pragmatic/cognitive parameters work to accommodate a different prosodic form, using the illocutions of Offer and Question of Confirmation. We conclude that the methodology for the study of the illocutionary prosodic forms must pay close attention to the prosodic aspects of attitude, since they are always present when an illocution is performed, superposing their features over those of the illocution. We also claim that the identification of a specific illocution must consider some pragmatic and cognitive parameters, and not only prosody, since different illocutions can be prosodically performed with the same form. This becomes clear if we look for data in spontaneous speech corpora, where the pragmatic conditions can be at least partially reconstructed.

Irish English PEPS-C (2015 edition) and Learners of ESL

Introduction: Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) is a computerised test for assessing the abilities to understand and use speech prosody in communication. It has been used to obtain a profile of strengths and weaknesses in different prosodic forms and functions for different clinical populations (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome) and second language learners. The 2015 edition of PEPS-C incorporates four new subtests addressing the understanding and production of lexical stress and phrasal stress, and collapses four form subtests (Intonation/Short-Item Input and Output, Prosody/Long-Item Input and Output) into two (Discrimination, Imitation). However, the suitability of these new tasks has not been reported in any published studies, although they are likely to be relevant for learners of English. Moreover, the present authors update the Irish English (IE) version of PEPS-C to the 2015 edition for another research project on prosodic skills in children with spina bifida. Hence, this paper reports the making of PEPS-C 2015 (IE) and examines the usefulness of this test in assessing a group of non-native speakers of English, as compared to a group of native speakers of IE. Methods: PEPS-C 2015 for Irish English was developed by adapting the test items of the UK English version of the test. The PEPS-C 2015 (IE) was then trialled on 25 native speakers of Irish English and 10 Spanish speakers who speak English as a second language (ESL). Results: All native speakers of Irish English showed competence (scored ≥75% correct) in the comprehension and expression of prosodic form and functions assessed. For the ESL speakers, the test identified two areas of possible difficulty for this group: Phrase Stress Comprehension and Expression, and Contrastive Stress Comprehension. Conclusion: The PEPS-C 2015, with its extra stress tasks, might therefore be useful as a prosody assessment tool for ESL speakers, particularly those with a Romance first language or at an early stage of learning, but further research is needed.

A meta-analysis of prosody in autism, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome

Prosody, the rhythm and melody of speech, is an important component of effective communication, and it is an area of difficulty for many populations who struggle with communication. This paper is a meta-analysis of nine studies (and two sets of unpublished data) that assessed prosody using the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C; Peppé & McCann, 2003) in autism spectrum disorder, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome. Our original goal was to include studies involving any neurodevelopmental disorder that is commonly associated with intellectual disability, yet our systematic search, which included three databases (i.e., PsychInfo, ERIC, and PubMed), only identified studies involving these three groups. To be included in the meta-analysis, studies had to include a group (n ≥ 3 participants) with a neurodevelopmental disorder commonly associated with intellectual disability and a typically developing comparison group matched on chronological age, nonverbal abilities, or verbal abilities. Studies also needed to report original data using the PEPS-C and be available in English. Study quality was assessed using a checklist adapted from Downes et al. (2016). Results revealed that prosodic form was a weakness for each etiology, while unique patterns of strengths and weaknesses were evident for prosodic functions. Groups with autism (n = 5), all classified as high-functioning or with Asperger’s syndrome, exhibited weakness in emotional affect but some relative strengths with turn-end and focus tasks. Groups with Williams syndrome (n = 4) demonstrated weaknesses on phrase/sentence-level tasks and relative strengths on word-level tasks. Groups with Down syndrome (n = 2) had the greatest difficulty overall, though performance was better on receptive (vs. expressive) function tasks. By combining studies and related subtasks of the PEPS-C, we are able to more confidently generalize findings for each population and identify targets for intervention. However, given the limited number of studies identified, this paper also highlights the need for more research on prosody in intellectual disability.

Prosody transfer failure despite cross-language similarities

Abstract This study investigates how English and Mandarin speakers (1) use pitch resets and pauses to signal discourse boundaries, and (2) use pitch, duration, and intensity to indicate contrastive stress in their L1s. This study also explores how Mandarin-speaking English learners use prosodic features in L1 Mandarin and L2 English. Linear mixed-effects models showed that Mandarin and English share similarities in the forms and functions of prosody. However, Mandarin-speaking English learners did not transfer prosody usage to L2 English despite these similarities. These findings suggest that L2 prosody learning is not a typological transfer between two static language systems. Rather, it involves the interaction between two complex and dynamic prosody systems, each with its own mapping between prosodic forms and functions. Prosody teaching, therefore, should take into account the dynamic nature of prosody and compare L1 and L2 prosody in forms, meanings, and functions.

Génération automatique de la structure prosodique en français

An automated process for building a prosodic structure form transcribed speech recordings in French is presented, based on the incremental prosodic model [1, 2, 3]. In this model, the prosodic structure is defined incrementally by dependency relations instantiated by melodic contours located on the last syllable of the last word of stress groups, subject to a rhythmic constrain limiting the gap between successive stressed syllable to a 250-1250 ms range. Although they frequently contain lexical words (noun, verb, adverb, adjective), stress groups in French can also include only grammatical words (pronoun, conjunction, preposition). Melodic contours are phonologically defined from their melodic rise or fall and their glissando value ensuring their function as dependency markers between stress groups. The algorithm proceeds from an orthographic transcription as follows: 1. Automatic segmentation of the orthographic text into IPA and word tiers 2. Automatic annotation of stressed vowels in three classes (followed by 250 ms silence, above the glissando threshold and lexical category based) 3. Assignment of melodic contours from fundamental frequency values at stressed vowels boundaries. Comparisons with automatic and manual stressed syllable annotation on existing corpora are given, showing the validity of the phonological rules implemented in the algorithm.

Mapping prosody onto meaning – the case of information structure in American English

ABSTRACTProsody is a central part of human speech, with prosodic modulations of the signal expressing important communicative functions. Yet, the exact mechanisms of how listeners map prosodic aspects of the speech signal onto speaker-intended discourse functions are only poorly understood. Here we present three perception experiments that test the mapping between the prosodic form of a heard utterance and possible information structural categories (here: focus and givenness) determined by a discourse context. Results suggest varying degrees of accuracy dependent on the specific information structure categories that are presented to the listener in the experiment (the target and the competitor). Moreover, listeners are sometimes biased towards or against certain discourse contexts. These biases are compatible with the idea that listeners infer speaker intentions based not only on bottom-up processing of acoustic cues but also on probabilistic knowledge about how likely prosodic forms co-occur with specific discourse contexts.