Functional Timing of Prosody

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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
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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

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• 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

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• 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

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

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• 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

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

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Germ. Sie hat ja gelogen. Shes been lying.
l
où
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• 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

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Germ. (Wie Boris) Valerie die Treppe
runterkickt. (When Boris) kicks Valerie down
the stairs.
k
H
I
kH tlt
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• 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

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

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• 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

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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 Im not going to visit him.
• sentence mode He hasnt done it, has he.
• syntagmatic phrasing He left her (,) a new man.

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• 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)

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

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Er war mal schlank. He used to be slim. -
medial - late medial - late
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• This gives us a semantic-pragmatic net of
• established
• new
• new with rational contrast to expectation
• new with contrast and expressive evaluation.

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

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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

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• 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.

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

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

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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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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
• wAgtE_? pliz by a Londoner
• mistaken for bl³Agtk pliz by a Scottish
  listener
• expecting ãÃi? pliz

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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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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 Lindbloms
  priority of substance over linguistic form, we
  capture the future of phonetics.

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• 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

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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.