PWorkshop: Semester 2, 2006–2007

16 Jan 2007

Bob Ladd

Note: This talk will be in 1.01, 14BP

I argue, broadly in sympathy with Hale and Reiss's notion of "substance-free phonology", that much of the autosegmentally-inspired discussion of "precedence" in phonology is based on the fundamental error of considering the temporal properties of actual phonetic events rather than a more abstract notion of order. My argument is based primarily on the phonological status of tone.

Tone has been treated in two quite distinct ways in phonological theories, as a feature (e.g. Jakobson, Fant & Halle (JFH)) and as a phoneme (e.g. the Chinese tradition). The JFH view of tone is part of a more general theory of phonology that idealises the stream of speech as an ordered string of phonemes, each of which is a bundle of unordered features. Actual duration, in this view, comes into play only when the abstract formal string is given phonetic realisation. The Chinese traditional view of tone implies a somewhat different idealisation, formally speaking a partial ordering: there are relations of precedence between some pairs of elements (initials precede finals) but no defined precedence relation between others (finals and tones are part of the same syllable, but neither precedes the other). Importantly, however, both idealisations allow us to distinguish abstract formal strings from phonetic realisation: the Chinese view can be formalised not as simultaneity, which implies real time, but only as absence of precedence, which need not.

This distinction is the key to understanding developments in autosegmental phonology. Autosegmental phonology grew out of the attempt to reconcile African tonal phenomena with the JFH idealisation, and the original notion of an "autosegment" looks like an attempt to escape from the restrictions of a totally ordered abstract phonology. However, based on Goldsmith's metaphor of the orchestral score, autosegmental phonology soon began to treat the non-synchronisation of tones and syllables as comparable to the non-synchronisation of phonetic gestures more generally. This immediately thrust phonologists into the realm of real time, and into the set of issues that have occupied autosegmental phonology ever since. Such phenomena, in my view, are properly the realm of models based on continuous mathematics, like Browman and Goldstein's Articulatory Phonology.

If we do not equate autosegments with features, we can reconcile the original insights of autosegmental phonology with the formal rigour of SPE and the empirical coverage of Articulatory Phonology. If we accept that tones are like phonemes rather than features, and we try to formalise the intuition behind the original notion of the autosegment, then tone can be treated as involving partial ordering or undefined precedence. This in turn means we can revert to something like the SPE conception of the relation between phonology and phonetics: phonology is formal, abstract and symbolic (i.e. "substance-free"); phonetics deals with concrete physical events in real time.

22 Jan 2007

Lukas Wiget

Note: This talk will be in B9, AFB

23 Jan 2007

Julian Bradfield

30 Jan 2007

Alice Turk

06 Feb 2007

Akira Utsugi

13 Feb 2007

Patrick Honeybone

20 Feb 2007

Peter Bell

27 Feb 2007

Bert Remijsen

This talk is based on a paper co-authored with Bob Ladd. We present a descriptive analysis of tone in the Luanyjang variety of Dinka, a Nilotic language spoken in Southern Sudan. We show that Luanyjang Dinka has four tonemes, High (H), Low (L), Rising (LH) and Falling (HL). We also describe how underlying tone sequences are often substantially modified in utterances by a number of context-sensitive phonological processes such as dissimilatory lowering of High tones. Given our standard autosegmental description, the phonological categories and processes we posit are broadly familiar from other African languages. However, our analysis requires a typologically less usual understanding of the surface phonetic categories of tone (in particular, what we call ?Low? tone is realized under some conditions as a fairly steep fall) and of the relation between the tonal phonology and the quantity system (in particular, we show that each morpheme is underlyingly associated with one and only one toneme, regardless of vowel length). We therefore present a range of acoustic data in support of the basic phonological description.

27 Mar 2007

Natalia Zharkova (QMUC)

The Degree of Articulatory Constraint (DAC) model is the only existing model that includes quantification in a theory of coarticulation. The DAC model is largely based on EPG and acoustic data. This study proposes a method for measuring coarticulation, based on midsagittal ultrasound data. V-on-C and C-on-V coarticulation were analysed, using data from Southern British English symmetrical VCV sequences. Tongue curve comparison was based on nearest neighbour calculations. V-on-C effect was measured by comparing tongue contours for the consonant /t/ in /ata/ and /iti/ sequences. C-on-V1 and C-on-V2 effects were measured by comparing tongue contours for the vowel /a/ in /aka/ and /ata/ sequences, separately for the first and the second vowel. All three effects were significant. The V-on-C effect was significantly greater than both C-on-V effects. The C-on-V2 effect was greater than the C-on-V1 effect, and in two subjects the difference was significant. The actual distance measures could be used as a basis for improving the DAC classification.

15 May 2007

Patrick Wong (Northwestern)

05 Jun 2007

Akira Utsugi

In some languages, such as Korean and Japanese, various postlexical tonal phenomena, such as downstep, upstep, and edge tones, and the interplay between those and the lexical tonal phenomena have been found. Also, those postlexical tonal phenomena have been attributed to the prosodic structure. This talk is concerned with these issues with special reference to Masan/Changwon Korean, whose postlexical tonal phenomena have not been studied well.

This talk reports the results of the fieldwork on the lexical and postlexical tonal phenomena of Masan/Changwon Korean, and proposes the prosodic model to account for the phenomena.

03 Jul 2007

Conference preparation talks

The notion that all foci are theoretically contrastive, i.e. they contrast with a contextually available set of alternatives, is now widely accepted in discourse semantics theory (after Rooth, 1992). Focus is usually taken to be marked in English by a pitch accent on the focussed word. In Calhoun 2006, it is shown that, rather, foci align probabilistically with nuclear prominence. This account raises many questions about what leads to words being perceived as contrastive, in the pragmatic sense of actively contrasting with something else in the context. This talk therefore looks at the question of what makes a word contrastive from prosodic, semantic and pragmatic perspectives. Using a portion of the Switchboard corpus annotated for contrast and prosodic prominence (Calhoun et al 2005), we present both results of contrast prediction models and in-depth analysis of utterances taken from the corpus. (To be presented at the Pragmatics Conference.)

Expressive prosody is thought to be disordered in autism, and this study sets out to evaluate one aspect (prosodic boundary) to investigate a) how naïve judges rate utterances for atypicality; b) whether pitch and duration measurements in those utterances differ from those of typically-developing children; and c) whether children with autism can use prosodic boundary in speech for linguistic distinctions. Samples were drawn from children aged between 5 and 13 years; 31 with language-delayed high-functioning autism (LD-HFA), 40 with Asperger's syndrome (AS) and 119 with typical development (TD). Results showed that naïve judges perceived children with LD-HFA as sounding more atypical than those with AS, who in turn were marginally more atypical than those with TD. Measurements suggested those with LD-HFA had wider pitch-span than those with TD. The groups did not differ on linguistic functionality, and it is possible that factors other than prosody contributed to the perception of atypicality. (To be presented at the ICPhS.)

10 Jul 2007

Conference preparation posters

Research on the prosodic structure of languages has been based on processes such as durational patterns and sandhi phenomena. One of the underlying assumptions is that such processes signal, and are regulated by, the same structure. This poster presents preliminary results testing this assumption by investigating the effect of boundary strength on two processes in parallel, namely pre-boundary lengthening and resolution of external (between-words) vowel hiatus in Modern Greek. Results show that a) pre-boundary lengthening is influenced by boundary strength in a hierarchical gradient manner, and b) degree of coalescence (F2 values at the mid point of vowels in hiatus) is not influenced by boundary strength. Preliminary results also suggest that the first vowel (V1) of vowels in hiatus is not elided in Greek. (To be presented at the ICPhS.)

17 Jul 2007

Conference preparation talks

This paper investigates processing interactions between segmental (stop place) vs. suprasegmental (prosodic boundary) information in English using a two-choice speeded classification procedure. The results suggest that due to the presence of the boundary tonal contour, intonational phrase-boundary information and stop-place information can be processed more independently than phrase-internal, word-boundary information and stop-place information can. Possible mechanisms underlying the observed separability of the two processes are discussed. (To be presented at the ICPhS.)

24 Jul 2007

Conference preparation posters

Adult dyslexics were tested on a range of tasks which were presented in two closely matched versions: a segmental version and a suprasegmental version. The tasks targeted phonological contrasts on one hand and the metalinguistic ability to manipulate phonological units on the other hand. The dyslexic group showed a deficit in suprasegmentals as well as segmentals but only when the tasks involved manipulation. We found no evidence that the representations of suprasegmental contrasts are impaired in the dyslexic participants. (To be presented at the ICPhS.)

This study investigates tonal targets in Daegu Korean. Through our analysis of F0 and alignment, especially focusing on the turning point, we identified the different features between the rise before the accent and the fall after the accent. In the contour before the accent, we identified the turning point from the low plateau to the rise, anchored to the end of the syllable immediately preceding the accented syllable. On the other hand, in the contour after the accent, the turning point was not clear and, even if it exists, it was delayed. These results are against the theory in previous literature that the accented syllable is associated with H*+L in this dialect. (To be presented at the ICPhS.)

In some languages, such as Korean and Japanese, various postlexical tonal phenomena, such as downstep, upstep, and edge tones, and the interplay between those and the lexical tonal phenomena have been found. Also, those postlexical tonal phenomena have been attributed to the prosodic structure. This presentation deals with these issues with special reference to Masan/Changwon Korean, whose postlexical tonal phenomena have not been studied well. This presentation reports the results of the fieldwork on the lexical and postlexical tonal phenomena of Masan/Changwon Korean, and proposes the prosodic model to account for the phenomena. (To be presented at the workshop on "Intonational Phonology: Understudied or Fieldwork Languages".)