1 / 45

Introduction to Intonation

Jennifer J. Venditti www.cs.rutgers.edu/~venditti Cognitive Science 201 29 March 2001. Introduction to Intonation. Intonation makes the difference. A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins.

Pat_Xavi
Télécharger la présentation

Introduction to Intonation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Jennifer J. Venditti www.cs.rutgers.edu/~venditti Cognitive Science 201 29 March 2001 Introduction to Intonation

  2. Intonation makes the difference A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... B1: They fly to Des Moines. B2: They fly to Des Moines. A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

  3. Speech production oral & nasal cavities larynx lungs air

  4. Speech production oral & nasal cavities larynx lungs The vocal folds may be held wide open, or may vibrate.

  5. Speech production oral & nasal cavities larynx lungs Positioning of the tongue, lips, etc. acoustically ‘shapes’ the air.

  6. Vocal fold vibration Physical: Fundamental frequency (F0) rate of vibration of the vocal folds Perceptual: Pitch fundamental freq. perceived pitch [UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

  7. Graphic representation of F0 F0 (in Hertz) legumes are a good source of VITAMINS time

  8. The ‘ripples’ [ t ] [ s ] [ s ] legumes are a good source of VITAMINS F0 is not defined for consonants without vocal fold vibration.

  9. The ‘ripples’ [ v ] [ g ] [ z ] [ g ] legumes are a good source of VITAMINS ... and F0 can be perturbed by consonants with an extreme constriction in the vocal tract.

  10. Abstraction of the F0 contour legumes are a good source of VITAMINS Our perception of the intonation contour abstracts away from these perturbations.

  11. The ‘waves’ and the ‘swells’ ‘wave’ = accent ‘swell’ = phrase legumes are a good source of VITAMINS

  12. TOPIC #1 Accent Placement and Intonational Tunes

  13. Stress vs. accent • Stress is a structural property of a word — it marks a potential (arbitrary) location for an accent to occur, if there is one. • Accent is a property of a word in context — it is a way to mark intonational prominence in order to ‘highlight’ important words in the discourse.

  14. Which word receives an accent? • It depends on the context. For example, the ‘new’ information in the answer to a question is often accented, while the ‘old’ information usually is not. • Q1: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? • A1: LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins. • Q2: Are legumes a source of vitamins? • A2: Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins. • Q3: I’ve heard that legumes are healthy, but what are they a good source of ? • A3: Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.

  15. Intonation makes the difference A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... B1: They fly into Des Moines. B2: They fly into Des Moines. A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

  16. Same ‘tune’, different alignment LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins The main rise-fallaccent (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  17. Same ‘tune’, different alignment Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins The main rise-fallaccent (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  18. Same ‘tune’, different alignment legumes are a good source of VITAMINS The main rise-fallaccent (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  19. Broad focus “Tell me something about the world.” legumes are a good source of vitamins In the absence of narrow focus, English tends to mark the first and last ‘content’ words with perceptually prominent accents.

  20. Yes-No question tune are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins Rise from the main accent to the end of the sentence.

  21. Yes-No question tune are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins Rise from the main accent to the end of the sentence.

  22. Yes-No question tune are legumes a good source of VITAMINS Rise from the main accent to the end of the sentence.

  23. WH-questions [I know that many natural foods are healthy, but ...] WHAT are a good source of vitamins WH-questions typically have falling contours, like statements.

  24. Broad focus “Tell me something about the world.” legumes are a good source of vitamins

  25. Rising statements “Tell me something I didn’t already know.” legumes are a good source of vitamins [... does this statement qualify?] High-rising statements can signal that the speaker is seeking approval.

  26. Yes-No question are legumes a good source of VITAMINS Rise from the main accent to the end of the sentence.

  27. ‘Surprise-redundancy’ tune [How many times do I have to tell you ...] legumes are a good source of vitamins Low beginning followed by a gradual rise to a high at the end.

  28. ‘Contradiction’ tune “I’ve heard that linguini is a good source of vitamins.” linguini isn’t a good source of vitamins [... how could you think that?] Sharp fall at the beginning, flat and low, then rising at the end.

  29. TOPIC #2 Alignment of Accent with Stressed Syllable

  30. Alignment with syllable matters [TWA doesn’t fly there ...] they fly to Des Moines Rise right at start of stressed syllable cues statement of fact.

  31. Alignment with syllable matters [TWA doesn’t fly there ...] they fly to Des Moines Rise which is delayed somewhat cues suggestion, or uncertainty about whether the statement qualifies as relevant.

  32. Two distinct alignment categories • Pierrehumbert & Steele (1989) synthesized many intonation contours with varying degrees of peak delay, and asked speakers to imitate what they heard. • Peak delay of speakers’ responses patterned in two categories: early (‘assertion’) and late (‘suggestion’).

  33. Intonation makes the difference A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... B1: They fly to Des Moines. B2: They fly to Des Moines. A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

  34. TOPIC #3 Intonational phrasing and disambiguation

  35. A single intonation phrase legumes are a good source of vitamins Broad focus statement consisting of one intonation phrase (that is, one intonation tune spans the whole unit).

  36. Multiple phrases legumes are a good source of vitamins Utterances can be ‘chunked’ up into smaller phrases in order to signal the importance of information in each unit.

  37. Phrasing can disambiguate • Global ambiguity: The old men and women stayed home. Sally saw the man with the binoculars. John doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy.

  38. Phrasing can disambiguate • Global ambiguity: The old men and women stayed home. The old men %and women %stayed home. Sally saw %the man with the binoculars. Sally saw the man%with the binoculars. John doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. John doesn’t drink%because he’s unhappy.

  39. Phrasing can disambiguate • Temporary ambiguity: When Madonna sings the song ...

  40. Phrasing can disambiguate • Temporary ambiguity: When Madonna sings the song is a hit.

  41. Phrasing can disambiguate • Temporary ambiguity: When Madonna sings % the song is a hit. When Madonna sings the song % it’s a hit. [from Speer & Kjelgaard (1992)]

  42. Phrasing can disambiguate Mary & Elena’s mother mall I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday One intonation phrase with relatively flat overall pitch range.

  43. Phrasing can disambiguate Elena’s mother mall Mary I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.

  44. Intonation makes the difference A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... B1: They fly into Des Moines. B2: They fly into Des Moines. A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

  45. References The content of this lecture is based mainly on these two sources: • Bolinger, D. (1972) Intonation [introduction and chapter 1]. Penguin Books, Ltd. [also appears as: Bolinger, D. (1964) Around the edge of language. Harvard Educational Review 34(2): 282-293.] • Pierrehumbert, J. (1980) The Phonetics and Phonology of English Intonation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Other sources cited in the lecture include: • Pierrehumbert, J. and S. Steele (1989) Categories of tonal alignment in English. Phonetica 46: 181-196. • Speer, S. and M. Kjelgaard (1992) Prosodic resolution of temporary syntactic ambiguity. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Congress of Psychology, Brussels.

More Related