Prosodic boundaries in subordinate syntactic constructions

Lelandais, Manon; Ferré, Gaëlle

doi:10.21437/speechprosody.2016-38

Cited by 9 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In particular, we find strong effects of subject/object function on prosodic features, most prominently pitch and duration. We also find highly significant differences between the functions of verbs in different types of clauses (similarly to [21]). While overall the effect sizes may seem small, most are well above the just noticeable differences for pitch [22] and tempo [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

An Empirical Analysis of the Correlation of Syntax and Prosody

Köhn

Baumann

Dörfler³

2018

Interspeech 2018

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The relation of syntax and prosody (the syntax-prosody interface) has been an active area of research, mostly in linguistics and typically studied under controlled conditions. More recently, prosody has also been successfully used in the data-based training of syntax parsers. However, there is a gap between the controlled and detailed study of the individual effects between syntax and prosody and the large-scale application of prosody in syntactic parsing with only a shallow analysis of the respective influences. In this paper, we close the gap by investigating the significance of correlations of prosodic realization with specific syntactic functions using linear mixed effects models in a very large corpus of read-out German encyclopedic texts. Using this corpus, we are able to analyze prosodic structuring performed by a diverse set of speakers while they try to optimize factual content delivery. After normalization by speaker, we obtain significant effects, e. g. confirming that the subject function, as compared to the object function, has a positive effect on pitch and duration of a word, but a negative effect on loudness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

An Empirical Analysis of the Correlation of Syntax and Prosody

Köhn

Baumann

Dörfler³

2018

Interspeech 2018

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“…However, the significant presence of hand beats and eyebrow rises hint at the prevalent use of prosodic gestures in both types of subordinate constructions. Interestingly, in the vocal modality, rhythmic cues also play a seminal role in the demarcation of both constructions (Lelandais & Ferré, 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Throughout a vocal paragraph, pitch height naturally declines in a progressive manner. A subordinate unit is signalled by downward changes in key (i.e., major levels in a speaker's pitch range) or in pitch height (Lelandais & Ferré, 2016). Intonation can convey subordinating information that is not marked with verbal means.…”

Section: Prosodymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The verbal, vocal, and gestural expression of (in)dependency in two types of subordinate constructions

Lelandais¹,

Ferré

2019

Journal of Corpora and Discourse Studies

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Based on a video recording of conversational British English, this paper tests within the framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis whether two different subordinate structures are integrated to the same degree in their environment. Subordinate constructions have been described in linguistics as dependent forms elaborating on primary elements of discourse. Although their verbal characteristics have been analysed in depth, few studies have focused on the articulation of the different communicative modalities in their production or provided a qualified picture of their integration. The main hypothesis is based on the capacity of subordinate constructions to show distinct forms of autonomy depending on their syntactic type, thus expressing different degrees of break. Beyond showing that subordinate constructions are not dependent to the same degree depending on how speakers use the prosodic and kinetic modalities to express greater (in)dependency, the results suggest that the creation of a break mainly relies on prosodic cues. Changes in the modal configuration throughout the sequence suggest modalities are dynamic and flexible resources for integrating or demarcating subordinate constructions in function of their syntactic type.

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“…Production studies on the prosodic characteristics of syntactic subordination in spontaneous speech have shown that subordinate constructions display different degrees of prosodic autonomy depending on their syntactic type [5]; [6]. This study focuses on adverbial clauses, appositive clauses, and restrictive relative clauses, as illustrated in examples (1)(2)(3).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of prosodic boundaries by naïve listeners in three different types of subordinate syntactic constructions

Lelandais¹,

Ferré²

2018

Speech Prosody 2018

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This paper investigates the use of prosodic and syntactic information in the perception of boundaries in extracts of spontaneous speech. 30 naïve listeners had to measure boundary strength for 52 extracts on a 5-point scale. The stimuli all contained three tone-units, the second being a syntactic subordinate construction, which was established as a variable. The prosodic cues at the boundary between the tone-units were also established as variables, and were subject to manipulation (addition of a single cue associated with the perception of a prosodic boundary). The stimuli were also resynthesized in another set to obliterate lexical and syntactic content while keeping syllabic structure and intonation. Results show that naïve listeners are able to identify different degrees of break, and that the three syntactic types show different interactions with ratings. Although a silent pause is the strongest cue to boundary perception for all three types of subordination, the orders and levels of association with other prosodic cues are not the same across syntactic types.

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Prosodic boundaries in subordinate syntactic constructions

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

An Empirical Analysis of the Correlation of Syntax and Prosody

An Empirical Analysis of the Correlation of Syntax and Prosody

The verbal, vocal, and gestural expression of (in)dependency in two types of subordinate constructions

Perception of prosodic boundaries by naïve listeners in three different types of subordinate syntactic constructions

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