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

1. Timing

• 3 strands of dynamics, i.e. amplitude-time courses in speech production

– subglottal: air flow generation

º long-term settings and dynamics ¶ vocal effort¶ breath group organization

º locally superimposed short-term dynamics ¶ force accent

– glottal: phonation and f0

º long-term settings and dynamics

¶ “voice quality”» individual » group

¶ functional voice control: attitudes, emotions¶ pitch register, pitch range¶ internal timing of global pitch patterns

º 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

– supraglottal: vocal tract gestures

º short-term opening-closing/closing-opening gestures

¶ vocalic and consonantal segments¶ syllables: onset and rhyme

º 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

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

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

• 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

Germ. (Wie Boris) Valerie die Treppe runterkickt.“(When Boris) kicks Valerie down the stairs.”

k

• 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

º made alphabetic writing systems possibleº origin of the phoneme concept º and of the concepts of target and coarticulation

º glottal features play subsidiary role at this level

¶ consonantal distinctions» mainly voiced/voiceless» often coded by other timing means

¶ tone¶ voice register

• 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

º short-term f0 patterns for word tones º and long-term f0 patterns for pragmatics

• likewise subglottal dynamics are pimarily long-term for pragmatic functions

2. Function

• linguistic function to differentiate intellectual meaning– word phonology– prosodic structure

º word stress: increase, noun vs verbº sentence accent, focus, emphasis for contrast or

for intensity: I‘m not going to visit him.º sentence mode: He hasn‘t done it, has he.º syntagmatic phrasing: He left her (,) a new man.

• 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)

• pragmatic functions of peak contour synchronizations

– early – finality: established

– medial – openness: new observation

– late – unexpectedness: expressive evaluation

– late medial – contrasting new observation

Er war mal schlank.“He used to be slim.“

- medial

- late medial

- late

• This gives us a semantic-pragmatic net of

– established

– new

– new with rational contrast to expectation

– new with contrast and expressive evaluation.

• pragmatic function of force accent

– negative emphasis for intensity

– negative expressive evaluation

– disapproval

• It can be added to the semantic-pragmatic net.

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

• 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.

• How are the peak synchronizations and respective functions linked in different dialects and different languages?

– Swedish

– Russian

– Alemannic dialects of German

• intervention of additional features for the coding of the same functions

– peak height

– intensity

– segmental lengthening

– lexical elements, morphosyntax

4. Perception of Timing Patterns

• perceptual intonation categories – determined by global characteristics

º f0 peak and valley synchronizationsº internal f0 contour timingº intensity timing

– addition of local characteristicsº f0 increase on accented syllableº accented syllable duration

• 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.

• 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.

• 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”º :by a Londoner º mistaken for pli:z by a Scottish listenerº expecting pli:z]

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.

• Neither substance nor function can be analysed without the other:

– measurement must take place within communicative domains

º go beyond lab speech

º take spontaneous speech into the lab;

– functional categories must be related to substantive parameters in production and perception

º go beyond systemic linguistic contrasts

º include the whole spectrum of the behavioural sound - meaning relationships

º with reference to such central concepts as time and function.

• 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.

• 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:

The Paradigm of

Function-Oriented

Experimental Phonetics

I hope you find it exciting!

So we can now take some timefor questions and

other communicative functions.