Intonational Meaning in Discourse Jennifer J. Venditti Tutorial for the IRCS 5 th Annual...
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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
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Transcript of Intonational Meaning in Discourse Jennifer J. Venditti Tutorial for the IRCS 5 th Annual...
Intonational Meaning in Discourse
Jennifer J. Venditti
Tutorial for the IRCS 5th Annual Undergraduate Summer Workshop in
Cognitive Science
18 June 2002
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.
Intonation is about ...
Pitch Melody, or “tune” Alignment Prominence and focus Chunking, or “phrasing” ... and more ...
Vocal fold vibration
Physical: Fundamental frequency (F0) rate of vibration of the vocal folds
Perceptual: Pitch
perceived pitch
fun
dam
en
tal fr
eq
.[UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]
Pitch range
[from Prosody on the Web tutorial on pitch]
Differences can be due to physical size, gender, social identity, excitement level, linguistic, etc ...
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.
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 ...]
[... I hope she doesn’t have stock options.]
[... Really? I wasn’t aware of that.]
[I’ve told you a million times ...]
* *
*
* *
* *
*
[See works by Bolinger, Ladd, Hirschberg ...]
Perception experimentSpeaker 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.]
What is the difference?
The alignment of the tune with the segments is different.
M e l a n i e ...
M e l a n i e ...
(counterexample)
(supporting example)
Experiment results
Peak latency is correlated with response: the earlier the peak, the more “indeed” responses.
Perc
en
t of
“in
deed
” r
esp
on
ses
Peak latency (ms) from onset of accented vowel
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.
Alignment differences cue “assertion” vs. “suggestion”
A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.B: TWA doesn’t fly there ...
50
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they fly to Des Moines 50
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they fly to Des Moines
Alignment with different words
B: LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins.
Legumes are a good source of vitamins.* *
*
“broad focus”
“narrow focus”
A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins?
# Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.
50
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Placement of focal accent
LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.
50
100
150
200
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Placement of focal accent
Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.
Placement of focal accent
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS50
100
150
200
250
300
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400
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.
Focus of a Y-N question
are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.
50
100
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Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.
50
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500
550
Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a good source of VITAMINS
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the sentence.
50
100
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200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
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]
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.
50
100
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200
250
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350
400
Phrasing can disambiguate
I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday
Mary & Elena’s mothermall
One intonation phrase with relatively flat overall pitch range.
50
100
150
200
250
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350
400
Phrasing can disambiguate
I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday
Marymall
Elena’s mother
Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.
Lists of numbers, nounstwenty.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]
Adjective scope ambiguity Phrasing can help resolve scope
ambiguity:
French bread and cheeseFrench [bread and cheese]
[French bread] and [cheese]
green scarf and gloves
pedigree cats and dogs
white socks and shoes
old men and women
milky tea and coffee[from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking]
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.
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 ...
ReferencesIntroductory 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.htmSpeer, 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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