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Intonational Meaning in Discourse. Jennifer J. Venditti. Tutorial for the IRCS 5th ... fish fingers and bottles. cheese sandwiches and milk. cream buns and chocolate ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Intonational%20Meaning%20in%20Discourse


1
Intonational Meaning in Discourse
  • Jennifer J. Venditti
  • Tutorial for the IRCS 5th Annual Undergraduate
    Summer Workshop in Cognitive Science
  • 18 June 2002

2
Intonation makes the difference
  • A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
  • B TWA doesnt 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 Elenas mother at the mall
    yesterday.
  • A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
    yesterday.

3
Intonation is about ...
  • Pitch
  • Melody, or tune
  • Alignment
  • Prominence and focus
  • Chunking, or phrasing
  • ... and more ...

4
Vocal fold vibration
Physical Fundamental frequency (F0) ? rate of
vibration of the vocal folds Perceptual Pitch
fundamental freq.
perceived pitch
UCLA Phonetics Lab demo
5
Pitch range
  • Differences can be due to physical size, gender,
    social identity, excitement level, linguistic,
    etc ...

6
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.

7
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 ...
... Really? I wasnt aware of that.
... I hope she doesnt have stock options.


Ive told you a million times ...
See works by Bolinger, Ladd, Hirschberg ...
8
Perception experiment
  • Speaker 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.

9
What is the difference?
(supporting example)
(counterexample)
  • The alignment of the tune with the segments is
    different.

10
Experiment results
Percent of indeed responses
Peak latency (ms) from onset of accented vowel
  • Peak latency is correlated with response the
    earlier the peak, the more indeed responses.

11
Another example
  • A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
  • B TWA doesnt fly there ...
  • B1 They fly to Des Moines.
  • B2 They fly to Des Moines.

12
Alignment differences cue assertion vs.
suggestion
  • A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
  • B TWA doesnt fly there ...

13
Alignment with different words

Legumes are a good source of vitamins.
? broad focus
A What types of foods are a good source of
vitamins?
  • B LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins.

? narrow focus
Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.
14
Placement of focal accent
LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
15
Placement of focal accent
Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
16
Placement of focal accent
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
17
Focus of a Y-N question
are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
18
Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
19
Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a good source of VITAMINS
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
20
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
21
Chunking, or phrasing
  • A1 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
    yesterday.
  • A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
    yesterday.

22
Phrasing can disambiguate
Mary Elenas mother
mall
I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
yesterday
One intonation phrase with relatively flat
overall pitch range.
23
Phrasing can disambiguate
Elenas mother
mall
Mary
I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
yesterday
Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.
24
Lists of numbers, nouns
  • twenty.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
25
Adjective scope ambiguity
  • Phrasing can help resolve scope ambiguity
  • French bread and cheese

French bread and cheese
French bread and cheese
from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking
26
How about these ambiguities?
  • Temporary ambiguity
  • When Madonna sings the song ...
  • from Speer Kjelgaard (1992)
  • Global ambiguity
  • John doesnt drink because hes unhappy.
  • Sally saw the man with the binoculars.

27
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 ...

28
References
  • Introductory 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/p
    ow/powin.htm
  • Speer, 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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