Functional Timing of Prosody

1. 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

2. 1. Timing • 3 strands of dynamics, i.e. amplitude-time courses in speech production • subglottal: air flow generation • long-term settings and dynamics • vocal effort • breath group organization • locally superimposed short-term dynamics • force accent

3. glottal: phonation and f0 • long-term settings and dynamics • “voice quality” • individual • group • functional voice control: attitudes, emotions • pitch register, pitch range • internal timing of global pitch patterns

4. 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

5. supraglottal: vocal tract gestures • short-term opening-closing/closing-opening gestures • vocalic and consonantal segments • syllables: onset and rhyme

6. 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

7. temporal coordination of the 3 strands • pathological • language and dialect differences • functional adaptation

8. Germ. Sie hat ja gelogen. “She’s been lying.” l où

9. 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

10. Germ. (Wie Boris) Valerie die Treppe runterkickt. “(When Boris) kicks Valerie down the stairs.” k H I kH t<

11. 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 • made alphabetic writing systems possible • origin of the phoneme concept • and of the concepts of target and coarticulation

12. glottal features play subsidiary role at this level • consonantal distinctions • mainly voiced/voiceless • often coded by other timing means • tone • voice register

13. 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 • short-term f0 patterns for word tones • and long-term f0 patterns for pragmatics • likewise subglottal dynamics are pimarily long-term for pragmatic functions

14. 2. Function • linguistic function to differentiate intellectual meaning • word phonology • prosodic structure • word stress: increase, noun vs verb • sentence accent, focus, emphasis for contrast or for intensity: I‘m not going to visit him. • sentence mode: He hasn‘t done it, has he. • syntagmatic phrasing: He left her (,) a new man.

15. 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)

16. pragmatic functions of peak contour synchronizations • early – finality: established • medial – openness: new observation • late – unexpectedness: expressive evaluation • late medial – contrasting new observation

17. Er war mal schlank. “He used to be slim.“ - medial - late medial - late

18. This gives us a semantic-pragmatic net of • established • new • new with rational contrast to expectation • new with contrast and expressive evaluation.

19. pragmatic function of force accent • negative emphasis for intensity • negative expressive evaluation • disapproval • It can be added to the semantic-pragmatic net.

20. 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

21. 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.

22. How are the peak synchronizations and respective functions linked in different dialects and different languages? • Swedish • Russian • Alemannic dialects of German

23. intervention of additional features for the coding of the same functions • peak height • intensity • segmental lengthening • lexical elements, morphosyntax

24. 4. Perception of Timing Patterns • perceptual intonation categories • determined by global characteristics • f0 peak and valley synchronizations • internal f0 contour timing • intensity timing • addition of local characteristics • f0 increase on accented syllable • accented syllable duration

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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” • [wA>E_? pli:z] by a Londoner • mistaken for [bl³A>k pli:z]by a Scottish listener • expecting [ãÃi? pli:z]

28. 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.

29. Neither substance nor function can be analysed without the other: • measurement must take place within communicative domains • go beyond lab speech • take spontaneous speech into the lab;

30. functional categories must be related to substantive parameters in production and perception • go beyond systemic linguistic contrasts • include the whole spectrum of the behavioural sound - meaning relationships • with reference to such central concepts as time and function.

31. 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.

32. 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:

33. The Paradigm of Function-Oriented Experimental Phonetics I hope you find it exciting! So we can now take some time for questions and other communicative functions.