Questions tagged [prosody]
The rhythm, stress and intonation of speech.
63
questions
37
votes
5answers
6k views
Why is there (almost) no variety to the Hebrew accent in Israel?
Hebrew is my native language, and I grew up and spent most of my life in Israel.
Unlike English, in Hebrew we don't have a variety of accents. In fact, generally all of the people in Israel have the ...
1
vote
3answers
1k views
Why does IPA have stress in /ɡəˈʃtɔlt/ before instead of after the /ʃ/?
Why does IPA have stress here /ɡəˈʃtɔlt/ instead of here /ɡəʃˈtɔlt/?
4
votes
0answers
890 views
Does pre-fortis clipping only operate within a syllable? If not, what is its actual scope?
English is known to have a phenomenon of "pre-fortis clipping": in certain contexts, vowel and sonorant phonemes before a fortis/voiceless consonant are realized with shorter duration than the same ...
1
vote
1answer
58 views
Is there a dataset/list of rules mapping words in sentences to prosodic features?
I'm interested in building a toy text-to-speech system, where at the very least I want to decide when to include dynamic emphasis, slight pitch shift, and the duration and boundary between words. It ...
3
votes
0answers
75 views
How are LH words assigned stress in Latin if we assume maximally bimoraic feet?
I recently came across a paper, "The Quantitative Trochee in Latin" (by R. Armin Mester, 1994) that seems to argue that feet in Latin were "strictly" bimoraic.
The arguments that Mester gives for ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
Online collection of the world languages' melodic patterns?
Every language has some very typical melodic patterns and I've been wondering is there some sort of a global repository collecting and comparing such patterns?
3
votes
1answer
164 views
What’s a good example a language phenomena in which f0 is NOT correlated to pitch?
It’s standard doctrine that “pitch is perceived f0”, and that f0 is phonetic and corresponds to pitch which is phonological ... no problem there. (Even if this is a simplification)
But I wonder if ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Sentence stress detection
I was looking for APIs for the detection of sentence stress, also known as prosodic stress, based on input audio.
(Ideally, I was hoping for a library able to assess the level of prominence of a ...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
what is the (pan) linguistic term for “scare-quotes” intonation
I was thinking about the use of scare-quotes in English speech, not the physical gesture so much as the intonation and prosodic features as the word or phrase is used in an oral statement. What label ...
2
votes
0answers
70 views
Do we have an Intonation “etymology”?
Recently I was thinking about a language I'm currently learning and its similarities with my own native language. While I assume grammar to change considerably depending on language it came to mind ...
1
vote
1answer
78 views
Does the Klingon spoken in Star Trek: Discovery present a harsh/ventricular/pressed voice phonation?
The new Klingon dialogue sounds noticeably different, perhaps they could be using a sound filter or simply acting in a lower register; although Klingon character Voq's voice sounds particularly ...
2
votes
1answer
752 views
looking for corpus of dialogue recording in appointment between doctors and patients
I am looking for a public corpus of dialogue recording in short/medium appointment between doctors and patients, aims to study speech variation, the prosody of speech, measuring speech' rhythm, ...
13
votes
2answers
2k views
How does ghetto talk work in tonal languages?
Among historically low income/education groups in the US and in my native Mexico City, "ghetto talk" is heavy on the use of pitch to convey meaning. I've always attributed this to people compensating ...
0
votes
0answers
125 views
How can I remove the red dashed lines of the cursor in Praat?
I am writing a conference paper where I want to include the PRAAT analyses of some spoken sentences (I will use screenshots), but I cannot get rid of the red cursor lines. Is there a way to deactivate ...
1
vote
0answers
46 views
Speech Recognition: prosody. What is the difference between combined and intergrated models?
I am readin a paper about dialogue modelling and the identification of dialogue acts using prosody. The paper describes 2, maybe three types of model for utilizing the speech signal: a separate, ...
4
votes
1answer
485 views
Components that comprise a syllable
Is there a standard representation that combines onset, nucleus, coda with mora? That would help me visualize the prosodic hierarchy better, because I could put something beneath the syllable level.
...
1
vote
1answer
89 views
In what sense if f0 not an objective measurement?
I always assumed a dichotomy between f0 and pitch, such that the former is objective/physical whilst the latter is subjective/mental.
Then, I was introduced to this presentation and article.
...
1
vote
2answers
94 views
Are there necessary and sufficient features for categorizing tone using only f0?
Imagine i gave you recordings of a few syllables in an unknown language, but told you that there are H and L tones in that language. In that case you could probably distinguish H from the L syllables ...
2
votes
1answer
247 views
How is “rising tone” the same in all tonal languages?
If we compare two unrelated languages with lexical tone, where both languages have the same number of tonal contrasts, are there any universals/tendencies regarding:
the kinds of tonal contrasts (...
2
votes
0answers
87 views
graphical representation that exemplifies the different between stressed-timed and syllable-timed languages
A student asked why English and French have different rhythms. luckily, I had an answer on hand:
English is a stressed-timed language - rhythmic beats align with stressed syllables
French is a ...
1
vote
0answers
22 views
Considering basic intonation patterns, what is meant by “generation paths” in this excerpt?
In this description of intonation, the author claims that
The pitch contours belonging to the same family are supposed to be manifestations of the same underlying “basic intonation pattern”. In ...
2
votes
1answer
60 views
How does Saussure understand prosodic aspects of language?
Did Saussure ever consider intonation/melody as part of parole and/or langue? I cannot find any indication of prosody in the "Course in General Linguistics", so maybe Saussure was concerned more with ...
1
vote
0answers
67 views
What's a simple example of natural classes of tone contours?
I recently learned (in this forum) that natural classes of tones are posited based on the tendency of members of those classes to act together (that is, I suppose, to have the same effect based on a ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Representing tone in feature matrices
I’m studying feature geometry in my intro to phono course, and we’re looking at tone. One topic which I have trouble getting my head around is the “tonal motivation” for autosegmental phonology; ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
Can word stress always been seen in the signal as increased f0?
Of course stress is manifest in a variety of ways, not just increased f0, and f0 indicates much more than just stress - but is it accurate that stress always entails at least increased f0?
0
votes
2answers
97 views
How are prosodic phenomena represented in the phonological hierarchy?
Thanks to earlier questions (and some reading), I understand the basics of the phonological hierarchy
Features < Root < Skeletal Slot < (mora / onset-rhyme-nucleus-coda) <
Syllable &...
1
vote
1answer
249 views
Is it accurate to claim that autosegmental phonology is a theory of suprasegmental prosodic phenomena?
I'm a little unclear on what autosegmental phonology is vis-a-vis suprasegmentals. Although I understand the nuts-and-bolts of autosegmental phonology, it is not clear to me if it negates a division ...
2
votes
1answer
205 views
In what tonal language is tone uncontroversially suprasegmental and not segmental?
So, it recently came to my attention that Chinese tone is not necessary a suprasegmental feature like I assumed. It seems that some claim it can be analyzed as being subsegmental.
If I am interested ...
3
votes
1answer
294 views
Prosodic vs Metrical vs Autosegmental accounts of suprasegmental phenomena
In the literature I see three different theoretical constructs used to account for prosodic phenomena:
Prosodic phonology
Metrical phonology
Autosegmental phonology
Likely there are a few others, ...
2
votes
2answers
281 views
Is vowel harmony prosodic, suprasegmental, or both?
I read that the division between suprasegments and segments is not black and white. I take this claim to have two logical entailments:
There are prosodic features that are segmental. For example, ...
1
vote
1answer
135 views
Why is the utterance and intonational phrase “post-lexical”?
In the right side of the image below, it is implied that constituents up to the level of the word are considered "postlexical" and those below it are "lexical".
I can easily imagine that the prosodic ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
What is a “vertical scale” in a discussion of intonation contours?
In Ladd, D. R., & Morton, R. (1997), the authors write:
It is customary to think of an intonation contour as having a
linguistically distinctive shape or pattern and an independently
...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
Pitch movements in English
As each language can be said to have an "inventory" of pitch movements which are felicitous (?) or anyway possible, I wonder what sequences of pitch movements characterize English (but not e.g. French ...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
How can listeners perceive male f0 on the telephone
So I know that F0 need not be present for pitch to perceived (at least for men!) because the telephone filters out frequencies <300Hz (at least in the 90s, maybe there have been innovations in the ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the phonetic difference between “White House” and “white house”?
I guess this is really a difference of stress (though I confess, as a non-native, I barely perceive it).
Obama lives in the White House (white has primary stress?)
I live in the white house on this ...
1
vote
2answers
183 views
What's the explanatory value of Metrical Trees?
What's the explanatory value of metrical trees used to account for prominence relations or syllable stress? At first reflection, it seems to me like rules should be sufficient (indeed, rules and trees ...
2
votes
1answer
5k views
How are Tone and Intonation languages different acoustically?
On what aspects Tonal languages differ from Intonation languages when analyzing them acoustically?
On intonation and tone: Jones (1960) - "the variations which take place in the pitch of the ...
2
votes
2answers
78 views
What is the philosophy of prosodic transcription?
Why are we transcribing prosody? and what is the philosophy behind it? In general what is the purpose of it?
1
vote
1answer
131 views
How do we define foot in Mandarin Chinese?
As we known, foot is a stress-related unit. But in Mandarin, the existence of stress remains controversial, so I would like to know the formation of foot in Mandarin Chinese. Thanks.
1
vote
2answers
1k views
How to save the process of your work in PRAAT?
Is it possible to save the process of your project (not a result of it) in PRAAT programme so that you can change smth later etc and do not do the same things over again?
3
votes
2answers
223 views
What are the advantages of using ToBI for prosodic analysis?
I am a grad student who wants to compare the prosody of two of my classmates from different regions who speak different dialects of English.
The obvious tool to use is ToBI, of course because it ...
4
votes
2answers
206 views
How is IPrA going to change the way we transcribe prosody?
There are some proposals for IPrA (International Prosodic Alphabet, similar to IPA but for prosody).
The meeting for IPrA (link to UCLA webpage on the topic) is planning to be held in BU in mid 2016. ...
2
votes
1answer
83 views
Is there a common method of transcribing prosody?
I've seen diacritics corresponding to tones (in tonal languages), but asides from that I haven't come across a system for transcribing prosody in my studies. Is there a popular convention people use?
3
votes
1answer
53 views
Why don't we use frequency change in ToBI?
As we know the ToBI system is designed to transcribe prosody and within it you can transcribe only High and Low prosody changes. The question is here Why don't we implement frequency change and/or ...
3
votes
1answer
99 views
Is there a solution for the ToBI's weakness in showing speech variance?
I'm currently doing a research on the ToBI system (a system for transcribing prosody). The ToBI system is a phonological based system and does not show the variance in speech. for instance an L+H% ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Why do we use an upward inflection when asking questions?
I have tried Googling where the upward inflection comes from but all I get are "Valley Girl" results.
My curiosity in this started with my new German Language course I'm taking and noticed that the ...
0
votes
1answer
442 views
What are the different ways prosodic features of a language are represented throughout the history of linguistics?
I can name a few:
1. Tones as numbers
2. Intonation contour as a line above the sentence
3. Tones as lines above segments
4. Stress marks before stress syllables ['white house] vs [white 'house]
But ...
1
vote
1answer
32 views
Are there any tools on the market that employ prosodic research to help overcome speech impediments?
I see a lot of language learning software, apps, intelligent games on the market, but nearly all of them focuses on grammar and lexical aspects of linguistics. I wonder if any techniques are dedicated ...
0
votes
0answers
156 views
Linguistic studies of singing: prosody, structure, etc
What are some well known techniques in which singing, especially that from less-known languages, has been studied?
I'm particularly interested in prosodic analysis of singing and e.g. song-structure (...
1
vote
2answers
105 views
What's an interactive, hands-on creative way to show the role of prosody?
I am have been nominated to teach an accelerated course on phonology to grad students. The course emphasizes lab work and hands-on methods.
What's a creative and innovative idea to demonstrate some ...
