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Functional Timing of Prosody
Klaus J. Kohler
IPDS, Kiel, Germany
Symposium on “Prosodic Timing – From Signal to Function” Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University
27 January, 2006
1. Timing
• 3 strands of dynamics, i.e. amplitude-time courses in speech production
– subglottal: air flow generation
º long-term settings and dynamics ¶ vocal effort¶ breath group organization
º locally superimposed short-term dynamics ¶ force accent
– glottal: phonation and f0
º long-term settings and dynamics
¶ “voice quality”» individual » group
¶ functional voice control: attitudes, emotions¶ pitch register, pitch range¶ internal timing of global pitch patterns
º locally superimposed short-term dynamics
¶ force accent¶ tone (tone languages), tonal accent
(e.g. Swedish)¶ raising pitch for local accentuation¶ segmental distinctions
» voiced/voiceless» breathy (voice)» creak
– supraglottal: vocal tract gestures
º short-term opening-closing/closing-opening gestures
¶ vocalic and consonantal segments¶ syllables: onset and rhyme
º integrated into long-term settings and dynamics
¶ base of articulation¶ overall speech rate
» individual characteristic» group characteristic: Mediterranan vs
Scandinavian» functional adaptation: asides, time
constraints¶ rhythm: grouping of syllables¶ functional vocal tract control: liprounding
for endearment, speaking with a smile
• temporal coordination of the 3 strands– pathological – language and dialect differences– functional adaptation
Germ. Sie hat ja gelogen. “She’s been lying.”
• amplitude interaction between the 3 strands– increase of f0 and syllabic amplitude-time
course for pitch accent– increased level in all 3 strands for force accent
Germ. (Wie Boris) Valerie die Treppe runterkickt.“(When Boris) kicks Valerie down the stairs.”
k
• vocal tract dynamics are pimarily short-term– locally timed strictures of opening and closing– supplemented by short-term glottal adjustments– leading to segmental structure – for the linguistic function of word identification
º made alphabetic writing systems possibleº origin of the phoneme concept º and of the concepts of target and coarticulation
º glottal features play subsidiary role at this level
¶ consonantal distinctions» mainly voiced/voiceless» often coded by other timing means
¶ tone¶ voice register
• glottal dynamics are pimarily long-term for pragmatic functions– they should thus be analysed as global patterns – not, e.g., as linear sequences of H and L– differentiation of
º short-term f0 patterns for word tones º and long-term f0 patterns for pragmatics
• likewise subglottal dynamics are pimarily long-term for pragmatic functions
2. Function
• linguistic function to differentiate intellectual meaning– word phonology– prosodic structure
º word stress: increase, noun vs verbº sentence accent, focus, emphasis for contrast or
for intensity: I‘m not going to visit him.º sentence mode: He hasn‘t done it, has he.º syntagmatic phrasing: He left her (,) a new man.
• social function: indices of speaker - hearer relations
• expressive function: attitudes and emotions
• guide function: assisting and influencing the decoding of messages
– rhythmic structure– phonetic rhetoric (boring, interesting, cajoling)
• pragmatic functions of peak contour synchronizations
– early – finality: established
– medial – openness: new observation
– late – unexpectedness: expressive evaluation
– late medial – contrasting new observation
Er war mal schlank.“He used to be slim.“
- medial
- late medial
- late
• This gives us a semantic-pragmatic net of
– established
– new
– new with rational contrast to expectation
– new with contrast and expressive evaluation.
• pragmatic function of force accent
– negative emphasis for intensity
– negative expressive evaluation
– disapproval
• It can be added to the semantic-pragmatic net.
3. Timing – Function Relationship
• scale of synchronization of
– long-term f0 patterns
– with short-term vocal tract dynamics
• synchronization of subglottal, glottal and supraglottal short-term timing strands in force accents
• on the other hand, semantic-pragmatic net of functions
• These synchronization patterns and functions may be assumed to be universal.
• Force accent and its negative expressiveness may also be assumed to be universal.
• How are the peak synchronizations and respective functions linked in different dialects and different languages?
– Swedish
– Russian
– Alemannic dialects of German
• intervention of additional features for the coding of the same functions
– peak height
– intensity
– segmental lengthening
– lexical elements, morphosyntax
4. Perception of Timing Patterns
• perceptual intonation categories – determined by global characteristics
º f0 peak and valley synchronizationsº internal f0 contour timingº intensity timing
– addition of local characteristicsº f0 increase on accented syllableº accented syllable duration
• The original f0-VT synchronization categories of
– early – medial – late medial – late peaks
– and early – late valleys
– receive a new perceptual categorization as multifactorial timing categories.
• There are indications
– that production and perception of the multifactorial timing of intonation categories are congruent
– and that isolated parameter manipulation for perception tests may create artefacts.
• The production of short-term segmental aspects and their perception may diverge
– in perception longer-term parameters (articulatory prosodies) play a more prominent role
– pronunciation for “white please”º :by a Londoner º mistaken for pli:z by a Scottish listenerº expecting pli:z]
5. Developing a new research paradigm
• The goal of phonetics is the elucidation of speech communication
– of the relationship between phonetic substance and communicative function
– with linguistic form being derived from this relationship.
• Neither substance nor function can be analysed without the other:
– measurement must take place within communicative domains
º go beyond lab speech
º take spontaneous speech into the lab;
– functional categories must be related to substantive parameters in production and perception
º go beyond systemic linguistic contrasts
º include the whole spectrum of the behavioural sound - meaning relationships
º with reference to such central concepts as time and function.
• There is growing unease with Laboratory Phonology theory and practice, e.g. with ToBI.
– Yi Xu goes as far as giving priority to function over lingistic form.
– When we combine this with Björn Lindblom’s priority of substance over linguistic form, we capture the future of phonetics.
• This movement will gather momentum in years to come
– in the development of a comprehensive theory of speech communication
– and in the description of speech behaviour in the languages of the world.
• We will then have a new paradigm:
The Paradigm of
Function-Oriented
Experimental Phonetics
I hope you find it exciting!
So we can now take some timefor questions and
other communicative functions.