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Intonational Meaning in Discourse

Jennifer J. Venditti Tutorial for the IRCS 5 th Annual Undergraduate Summer Workshop in Cognitive Science 18 June 2002. Intonational Meaning in Discourse. Intonation makes the difference. A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ...

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Intonational Meaning in Discourse

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  1. Jennifer J. Venditti Tutorial for the IRCS 5th Annual Undergraduate Summer Workshop in Cognitive Science 18 June 2002 Intonational Meaning in Discourse

  2. Intonation makes the difference 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. 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. 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. Intonation is about ... • Pitch • Melody, or “tune” • Alignment • Prominence and focus • Chunking, or “phrasing” • ... and more ...

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

  5. [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on pitch] Pitch range • Differences can be due to physical size, gender, social identity, excitement level, linguistic, etc ...

  6. English Pitch Accents • Certain words in the speech stream can be made structurally and perceptually prominent by the use of pitch accents. * * Lenora works for Lucent. • Pitch accents are local pitch movements (e.g. rising, falling) or pitch maxima/minima that accompany these metrically strong syllables. • The intonational “tune” is the melody that is created by sequences of pitch accents over an utterance.

  7. * * * * Intonational tunes: What do they mean? • Lenora works for Lucent. • Lenora works for Lucent. • Lenora works for Lucent. • Lenora works for Lucent. * * [Tell me something about the world ...] [... Really? I wasn’t aware of that.] [... I hope she doesn’t have stock options.] * * [I’ve told you a million times ...] [See works by Bolinger, Ladd, Hirschberg ...]

  8. Perception experiment Speaker 1: Rodents are the only pets that chew up their cages. Speaker 2: … Guinea pigs chew their cages ...... Speaker 1 has made a generalization about rodents. Speaker 2 then responds by pointing to the case of guinea pigs, which are either a supporting example or a counterexample, depending on whether they are classed as rodents or not. You see on your answer sheet: I) Rodents are the only pets that chew up their cages. A) Indeed. _____________, and they're rodents. (supporting example) B) Really?______________, and they're not rodents. (counterexample) [Exercise kindly provided by Mary Beckman, taken from forthcoming textbook: Pierrehumbert & Beckman Laboratory Phonology.]

  9. M e l a n i e ... M e l a n i e ... What is the difference? • The alignment of the tune with the segments is different. (supporting example) (counterexample)

  10. Experiment results • Peak latency is correlated with response: the earlier the peak, the more “indeed” responses. Percent of “indeed” responses Peak latency (ms) from onset of accented vowel

  11. Another example 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.

  12. they fly to Des Moines they fly to Des Moines Alignment differences cue “assertion” vs. “suggestion” A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ...

  13. Alignment with different words B: LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins. * * Legumes are a good source of vitamins. “broad focus” A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? * “narrow focus” # Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.

  14. Placement of focal accent LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins The rise-falltune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  15. Placement of focal accent Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins The rise-falltune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  16. Placement of focal accent legumes are a good source of VITAMINS The rise-falltune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

  17. Focus of a Y-N question are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.

  18. Focus of a Y-N question are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.

  19. Focus of a Y-N question are legumes a good source of VITAMINS Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.

  20. Which word is focused? a green car a white boat a blue bus a green boat a black car cream and coffee? honey and eggs? bread and jam? coffee and honey? bread and milk? [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on focus]

  21. Chunking, or “phrasing” A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

  22. 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.

  23. 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.

  24. Lists of numbers, nouns twenty.eight.five ninety.four.three seventy.three.seven forty.seven.seven seventy.seven.seven coffee cake and cream chocolate ice cream and cake fish fingers and bottles cheese sandwiches and milk cream buns and chocolate [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking]

  25. green scarf and gloves pedigree cats and dogs white socks and shoes old men and women milky tea and coffee Adjective scope ambiguity • Phrasing can help resolve scope ambiguity: French bread and cheese French [bread and cheese] [French bread] and [cheese] [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking]

  26. How about these ambiguities? • Temporary ambiguity: When Madonna sings the song ... [from Speer & Kjelgaard (1992)] • Global ambiguity: John doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. Sally saw the man with the binoculars.

  27. Summary Intonational meaning: • Pitch range can cue expressiveness or interest ... • Pitch accents make certain words prominent ... • Intonational tunes lend pragmatic meaning ... • Alignment with syllable is a cue to meaning ... • Focal accent can shift depending on the question under discussion ... • Intonational phrasing can disambiguate scope or structural ambiguities ...

  28. References Introductory readings on intonational form and function: Bolinger, D. (1972) Intonation [introduction and chapter 1]. Penguin Books, Ltd. Ladd, D.R. (1996) Intonational Phonology. Cambridge Univ. Press. Kadmon, N. (2001) Formal Pragmatics [chapter 12]. Blackwell Publ. Beckman, M. & J. Pierrehumbert (1986) Intonational structure in Japanese and English. Phonology Yearbook 3: 255-309. Pierrehumbert, J. & Hirschberg (1990) The meaning of intonational contours in interpretation of discourse. In Cohen, et al. (eds.) Intentions in Communication. MIT Press. Other sources sited in this presentation: Prosody on the Web: www.eptotd.btinternet.co.uk/pow/powin.htm Speer, S. and M. Kjelgaard (1992) Prosodic resolution of temporary syntactic ambiguity. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Congress of Psychology, Brussels.

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