Prosodic Structure Research Articles

Same same but different: The graded influence of vowel quality and prosodic prominence on letter detection.

This study investigates the impact of phonetic realisation and prosodic prominence on visual letter identification, focusing on the letter <e> in German bisyllabic words. Building upon previous research, a computerised letter search task was conducted with 78 skilled adult readers. Words featuring different phonetic realisations of <e > (/eː, ɛ, e, l̩, n̩, ɐ/) in stressed and unstressed first and second syllables were systematically included. Analyses of error rates and response times revealed a graded pattern in the detection of <e>, with the closed long (/eː/) and closed short (/e/) realisations being easiest to detect, open (/ɛ/) and near-open central (/ɐ/) vowels becoming incrementally harder, and silent vowels in syllabic consonants (/n̩/) being the most challenging. Results divided by position and stress of the syllable containing the target letter further indicated influences of prosodic prominence. The findings contribute to understanding the intricate interplay of grapheme-phoneme correspondences and prosodic structure in skilled readers' visual letter recognition.

Complex weight distinctions in Harmonic Serialism

Abstract A number of the quantity-sensitive stress systems which are characterised by complex weight distinctions have often proven challenging for parallel constraint-based metrical frameworks. A number of parallel-OT accounts are proposed to explain stress systems with multi-level weight hierarchies, in which syllables with long vowels (CVV) are more prominent than closed syllables (CVC), and closed syllables are more prominent than short open syllables (CV). The majority of these accounts are either inadequate or implausible. This paper seeks to provide an alternative account of stress systems with complex weight distinctions. Gradual prosodification, as an application of Harmonic Serialism, is the proposed framework for analysis. Maintaining gradualness and harmonic improvement in prosodic structure across the different steps of the derivation is deemed to be sufficient to achieve the required effects. The realisation of the various prominence relations illustrated in those multi-level weight hierarchies is considered to be an epiphenomenon of the sequential application of independently motivated prosodification processes, such as coda consonant moraification and foot construction. The proposed gradual prosodification model is applied to the stress systems of Kashmiri and Pulaar, that have identical algorithms for primary stress assignment, in addition to the secondary stress patten attested in Pulaar.

Issues in systematizing the elicitation and analysis of syllable structure

Abstract This reply explores issues with documenting prosodic structures given their unique relationship with metalinguistic knowledge. New evidence and perspectives are incorporated into a deeper investigation of Budai Rukai and the analytical decisions that underlie its reanalyzed prosodic system. This case study is then taken as a basis for discussion of a possible standardized protocol for the documentation of prosodic structures, in which diverse types of phonological evidence are integrated and contextualized.

Localization and pauses duration in Russian iambic tetrameter in the poetry of A. S. Pushkin

This article is a continuation of a study dedicated to the role of pauses in the prosodic structure of the Russian iambic tetrameter. New data on the localization and duration of the pauses in Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” as voiced by three speakers, corroborate previously identified patterns in the organization of poetic lines at the prosodic level. Pauses of varying durations, occurring with different frequencies at various junctures, emphasize the depth of the varying degree of internal division within a line. The method of multidimensional classification revealed five groups of pause durations, ranging from ultra-short to super-long. It was found that within a line, ultra-short and short pauses predominate, while longer pauses tend to occur more towards the middle and less towards the beginning. The absence or brevity of pauses near the end of a line highlights a more prolonged inter-line pause. Individual pause strategies manifest in the observance or omission of inter-line pauses, their duration, the frequency of prosodic breaks within a line, and the frequency of using pauses of a particular duration group. High correlation coefficients indicate a consistent use of pauses among the three speakers.

Unfolding Prosody Guides the Development of Word Segmentation

Prosody is known to scaffold the learning of language, and thus understanding prosodic development is vital for language acquisition. The present study explored the unfolding prosody model of prosodic development (proposed in Frota’s et al. study in 2016) beyond early production data, to examine whether it predicted the development of early segmentation abilities. European Portuguese-learning infants aged between 5 and 17 months were tested in a series of word segmentation experiments. Developing prosodic structure was evidenced in word segmentation as proposed by the unfolding model: (i) a simple monosyllabic word shape crucially placed at a major prosodic edge was segmented first, before more complex word shapes under similar prosodic conditions; (ii) the segmentation of more complex words was easier at a major prosodic edge than in phrase-medial position; and (iii) the segmentation of complex words with an iambic pattern preceded the segmentation of words with a trochaic pattern. These findings demonstrated that word segmentation evolved with unfolding prosody, suggesting that the prosodic units developed in the unfolding process are used both as speech production planning units and to extract word-forms from continuous speech. Therefore, our study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying word segmentation, and to a better understanding of early prosodic development, a cornerstone of language acquisition.

Co-speech head nods are used to enhance prosodic prominence at different levels of narrow focus in French.

Previous research has shown that prosodic structure can regulate the relationship between co-speech gestures and speech itself. Most co-speech studies have focused on manual gestures, but head movements have also been observed to accompany speech events by Munhall, Jones, Callan, Kuratate, and Vatikiotis-Bateson [(2004). Psychol. Sci. 15(2), 133-137], and these co-verbal gestures may be linked to prosodic prominence, as shown by Esteve-Gibert, Borrás-Comes, Asor, Swerts, and Prieto [(2017). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 141(6), 4727-4739], Hadar, Steiner, Grant, and Rose [(1984). Hum. Mov. Sci. 3, 237-245], and House, Beskow, and Granström [(2001). Lang. Speech 26(2), 117-129]. This study examines how the timing and magnitude of head nods may be related to degrees of prosodic prominence connected to different focus conditions. Using electromagnetic articulometry, a time-varying signal of vertical head movement for 12 native French speakers was generated to examine the relationship between head nod gestures and F0 peaks. The results suggest that speakers use two different alignment strategies, which integrate both temporal and magnitudinal aspects of the gesture. Some evidence of inter-speaker preferences in the use of the two strategies was observed, although the inter-speaker variability is not categorical. Importantly, prosodic prominence itself is not the cause of the difference between the two strategies, but instead magnifies their inherent differences. In this way, the use of co-speech head nod gestures under French focus conditions can be considered as a method of prosodic enhancement.

Prosody matters: Preserved prominence marking strategies in people with Parkinson's disease independent of motor status.

While many studies focus on segmental variation in Parkinsonian speech, little is known about prosodic modulations reflecting the ability to adapt to communicative demands in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). This type of prosodic modulation is important for social interaction, and it involves modifications in speech melody (intonational level) and articulation of consonants and vowels (segmental level). The present study investigates phonetic cues of prosodic modulations with respect to different focus structures in mild dysarthric PwPD as a function of levodopa. Acoustic and kinematic speech parameters of 25 PwPD were assessed in two motor conditions. Speech production data from PwPD were collected before (medication-OFF) and after levodopa intake (medication-ON) by means of 3-D electromagnetic articulography. On the acoustic level, intensity, pitch, and syllable durations were analyzed. On the kinematic level, movement duration and amplitude were investigated. Spatio-temporal modulations of speech parameters were examined and compared across three different prosodic focus structures (out-of-focus, broad focus, contrastive focus) to display varying speech demands. Overall, levodopa had beneficial effects on motor performance, speech loudness, and pitch modulation. Acoustic syllable durations and kinematic movement durations did not change, revealing no systematic effects of motor status on the temporal domain. In contrast, there were spatial modulations of the oral articulators: tongue tip movements were smaller and lower lip movements were larger in amplitude under levodopa, reflecting a more agile and efficient articulatory movement under levodopa. Thus, respiratory-phonatory functions and consonant production improved, while syllable duration and tongue body kinematics did not change. Interestingly, prominence marking strategies were comparable between the medication conditions under investigation, and in fact, appear to be preserved in mild dysarthric PwPD.

Phrase prosody of a southern Russian dialect: Rogovatoe

This paper deals with the phrase intonation of the Southern Russian dialect spoken in the village of Rogovatoe, in the Starooskol’sky district of the Belgorod region. The study is devoted to the analysis of the prosodic structure of various communicative categories: statements, yes-no questions, wh-questions, non-finality, imperative, and vocative. Based on the examination of more than 7000 sentences, I argue that the dialect of Rogovatoe uses only two monotonal pitch accents — H* and L* — as opposed to three bitonal accents of Modern Standard Russian. I also postulate two final boundary tones — H% and L% — for this dialect, while no proof of a phonological distinction between the high and the low phrase accents was found. Finally, the idiom of Rogovatoe employs the phonological distinction between the high and the low initial boundary tone — %H and %L. Therefore, the prosodic system of this Southern Russian dialect is much more focused on the level tones than Modern Standard Russian utilizing predominantly contour (rising and falling) tones.

Cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation by Chinese speakers: Effects of linguistic experience and prosodic features

This study aims to explore the cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation patterns and the role of linguistic experience and prosodic features in identifying the question-statement contrasts. To this end, 43 Spanish native listeners and 75 Chinese learners of Spanish were presented with auditory stimuli in a gating paradigm for the recognition of sentence types. The results showed that listeners’ perception of target intonational contours was highly dependent on their language experience. Although Spanish listeners outperformed Chinese learners in perceiving different intonational cues, most Chinese learners were able to correctly identify sentence types after hearing the initial F0 peak due to the positive transfer of their tonal processing ability in their native language. In addition, our data revealed that the position of the final stressed syllable might also be a relevant factor for discriminating the sentence type depending on the length of the utterance. Overall, the findings seem to suggest a complex integration mechanism for cross-linguistic intonation perception, in which listeners’ language specificity and the prosodic structures of the materials should be accounted for evaluating non-native auditory performance.

Auditory Processing of Intonational Rises and Falls in German: Rises Are Special in Attention Orienting.

This article investigates the processing of intonational rises and falls when presented unexpectedly in a stream of repetitive auditory stimuli. It examines the neurophysiological correlates (ERPs) of attention to these unexpected stimuli through the use of an oddball paradigm where sequences of repetitive stimuli are occasionally interspersed with a deviant stimulus, allowing for elicitation of an MMN. Whereas previous oddball studies on attention toward unexpected sounds involving pitch rises were conducted on nonlinguistic stimuli, the present study uses as stimuli lexical items in German with naturalistic intonation contours. Results indicate that rising intonation plays a special role in attention orienting at a pre-attentive processing stage, whereas contextual meaning (here a list of items) is essential for activating attentional resources at a conscious processing stage. This is reflected in the activation of distinct brain responses: Rising intonation evokes the largest MMN, whereas falling intonation elicits a less pronounced MMN followed by a P3 (reflecting a conscious processing stage). Subsequently, we also find a complex interplay between the phonological status (i.e., accent/head marking vs. boundary/edge marking) and the direction of pitch change in their contribution to attention orienting: Attention is not oriented necessarily toward a specific position in prosodic structure (head or edge). Rather, we find that the intonation contour itself and the appropriateness of the contour in the linguistic context are the primary cues to two core mechanisms of attention orienting, pre-attentive and conscious orientation respectively, whereas the phonological status of the pitch event plays only a supplementary role.

Stress deletion or stress demotion? An acoustic study of stress in Spanish lexical compounds

Abstract In Spanish lexical compounds, stress on the final constituent is consistently preserved; however, it is uncertain whether stress on the initial constituent is preserved as well. Some linguists claim that stress is deleted from the initial constituent, whereas a few argue, instead, that it is demoted from primary to secondary. Given that empirical evidence has been scarce, this issue remains unresolved. To inform the debate, the present study examines all known phonetic correlates of stress in both accented and unaccented contexts. The acoustic measures of lexical compounds are compared to those of non-compound words and phrases that have a similar segmental structure. The results demonstrate that the initial constituent of lexical compounds bears secondary stress. This secondary stress, as a result of stress demotion, differs from rhetorical secondary stress both phonetically and phonologically. These findings provide fresh insights into the definitional properties as well as the prosodic structure of Spanish compounds.

Prosodic features of polite speech

Abstract This paper uses interactional data to investigate the acoustic characteristics of polite or deferential speech in Korean. We asked fourteen Korean speakers to perform two tasks with two different interlocutors: a status superior and a friend. Consistent with previous studies of non-interactional data, deferential speech has lower pitch and shimmer, and quieter final syllables. However, divergent from previous studies, deferential speech featured higher jitter (in some locations), higher shimmer and higher H1-H2 (on one task). Through analysis of different locations in prosodic structure, we found that females used more pitch variation on final syllables in deferential speech. We argue that these mixed results show the importance of context in signalling vocal politeness, and also complexities of using interactional data. The findings advance the study of multimodal politeness beyond the analysis of experimental data.

Does Native Language Matter in Perceptual Ratings of Dysarthria?

Despite the general agreement that dysarthria characteristics are largely language-independent, few efforts have attempted a systematic comparison across languages. To examine the role of native languages in the perception of speech characteristics of dysarthria secondary to Parkinson's disease (PD), auditory-perceptual ratings of dysarthria, and confidence level of the judgments were compared between two listener groups: language-matched and language-crossed. A total of 60 listeners (35 native speakers of Korean and 25 native speakers of American English) estimated speech abnormality for 20 speech dimensions using a visual analog scale method for both language-matched and language-crossed speech stimuli. Speech stimuli were passage readings of the respective languages obtained from individuals with and without PD. For speech dimension ratings, eight of 20 speech dimensions revealed significant differences in response to PD speech between the two listener groups, for most of which, language-crossed listeners' estimation was lower (i.e., more impaired) than language-matched listeners. For confidence-level ratings, language-matched listeners were less confident in the ratings of speakers with PD compared to the language-crossed listeners. The data support both language-universal and language-specific aspects in perceiving dysarthria characteristics, such that native language plays a role, especially when rating articulatory- and rhythmic-related characteristics. The findings are discussed with respect to the role of linguistic information, such as phonetic inventories and prosodic structures, in perceiving dysarthria characteristics.

Frequency effects can modulate the neural correlates of prosodic processing in Mandarin.

In tonal languages, tone perception involves the processing of both acoustic and phonological information conveyed by tonal signals. In Mandarin, in addition to four canonical full tones, there exists a group of weak syllables known as neutral tones. This study aims to investigate the impact of lexical frequency effects and prosodic information associated with neutral tones on the auditory representation of Mandarin compounds. We initially selected disyllabic compounds as targets, manipulating their lexical frequencies and prosodic structures. Subsequently, these target compounds were embedded into selected sentences and auditorily presented to native speakers. During the experiments, participants engaged in lexical decision tasks while their event-related potentials were recorded. The results showed that the auditory lexical representation of disyllabic compounds was modulated by lexical frequency effects. Rare compounds and compounds with rare first constituents elicited larger N400 effects compared to frequent compounds. Furthermore, neutral tones were found to play a role in the processing, resulting in larger N400 effects. Our findings showed significantly increased amplitudes of the N400 component, suggesting that the processing of rare compounds and compounds with neutral tones may require more cognitive resources. Additionally, we observed an interaction effect between lexical frequency and neutral tones, indicating that they could serve as determining cues in the auditory processing of disyllabic compounds.

Portuguese and German Intonation Contours in a Two-Way Immersion School

This study investigates the intonation contours of neutral yes–no interrogatives produced by simultaneous bilingual children in their two native languages. Previous studies have shown prosodic transfer from one language to another, either from the dominant into the non-dominant language or vice versa, but little is known about what specifically triggers this behaviour. This study explores how bilingual children make use of phonetic–phonological resources while interacting with peers. Three child speakers of German (ambient language) and Portuguese (heritage language) were recorded as they performed a modified version of a map task. Natural and spontaneous data were collected and the speech was analysed. The results indicate that to some degree, bilingual children produce all intonational contours specific to their language variety. When speaking German, they produced the syntax and contour consistent with the structure of yes–no interrogatives in German. When speaking Portuguese, the children displayed variation in their choice of tune, depending on the variety of Portuguese and the language proficiency of their interlocutor. This behaviour is interpreted as prosodic convergence resulting from the high variability of prosodic structures in the different varieties of Portuguese present in the classroom.

A pedagogical note on teaching L2 prosody and speech sounds using hand gestures

Abstract This paper reports the pedagogical decisions in Li et al. (2023) “The effectiveness of embodied prosodic training in L2 accentedness and vowel accuracy” published in Second Language Research. The study revealed that embodied prosodic training improved the overall pronunciation skills of Catalan-speaking learners of French and the pronunciation accuracy of front rounded vowels more than training without hand gestures. Three main pedagogical innovations were key in obtaining the positive results. First, the hand gestures performed by the instructor closely mimicked the prosodic structure (i.e., the melodic and rhythmic features) of the target sentences. Second, the sentences used for training were embedded in meaningful communicative dialogues. Third, the challenging L2 sounds were embedded in multiple occasions and in various prosodic positions. Therefore, in the hope of encouraging L2 teachers to incorporate such techniques in teaching practice, we provide a full description of the materials and procedures in Li et al. (2023).

Spelling out the Kirundi augment

&#x0D; The Kirundi augment is a vowel found before noun class prefixes. I argue that the augment is an epenthetic vowel whose surface characteristics, including deletion, retention and weight, are conditioned by prosodic structure. While the augments of different noun classes present apparent asymmetries, my account unifies all surface representations under a single underlying structure. My arguments mainly focus on three nominal structures: simple nominals (syntactically φP), locative phrases (PP) and linker phrases (KP). I draw on the argument that both nP and DP are syntactic phases that correspond to prosodic words, as well as the observation that epenthetic vowels commonly pattern as weightless to quantity-sensitive phonological processes.&#x0D;

TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION OF ORAL ENGLISH AND GERMAN RELIGIOUS SERMONS (THEOLINGUISTIC APPROACH)

The article is dedicated to exploring the temporal organization of texts in Anglican and Lutheran sermons, which are an integral part of worship in their respective churches. The study of homiletic and theolinguistic literature, along with an examination of the compositional features of the analysed sermons, has allowed for the identification of four compositional parts present in both types of sermons (theme manifestation, citation, interpretation, conclusion). Each part is characterized by relative semantic and structural autonomy, serving specific pragmatic purposes. The research material, consisting of oral English and German sermons, underwent perceptual, auditory, and instrumental analysis. A comprehensive auditory and instrumental analysis of the temporal characteristics of the preachers’ speech allows the conclusion that there is unity not only in the pragmatic directives of preachers in the two most widespread Protestant traditions but also in the prosodic structure of oral sermons. Among the integral temporal parameters at the perceptual level, pauses and contrasting tempo play a leading role in creating the influential effect of sermons. Regarding integral objective temporal parameters, common patterns in the temporal organization of the introductory and main parts of the text are identified. Differentiating features include significant differences between Anglican and Lutheran sermons in the concluding part. Lutheran sermons demonstrate relatively stable use of a normal tempo with a tendency toward slowing down, while Anglican sermons exhibit contrasting use of both slowed and accelerated tempo, creating a “broken” rhythm of articulation that enhances the influential effect of this part of the sermon. Based on the identified integral temporal means involved in the construction of the analysed texts, it can be stated that Anglican and Lutheran sermons belong to the same type of homiletic discourse.

Plurale stedsnavn, genusskiftet og forklaringsproblemet

The article discusses an unsolved problem in Nordic name research, namely the reason monosyllabic nouns in neuter take the plural suffix -ar or -ir in the nominative and accusative when they appear as topographical words in uncompounded place-names, which implies a transition to feminine or masculine inflection. Most scholars who have tried to explain this phenomenon have pointed to various analogies at the morpholog-ical level. In this article, it is suggested that such a morphological change can best be explained as a prosodic analogy, as a transition from a monosyllabic to a multisyllabic form is taking place, and this is a prosodic structure that, for a place-name, is much more functional and natural.

Refusal Act Prosody in Oosama no Resutoran Drama by Koki Mitani

The refusal act is one of the essential speech acts in the linguistic realm. Refusal is not confined to verbal action; it also has physical properties, exhibited by its prosodic structure. The present study discusses the prosody of the refusal act in the Oosama no Resutoran drama and employs a qualitative descriptive method. The refusal act that was taken from the drama is used as the data. The Praat application is utilized in the analysis stage. The findings show that intonation and pitch are intertwined. A further discovery is that emotion influences the realization of the refusal act, which is manifested by thelingual markers.