Introduction%20to%20Intonation

1
Introduction to Intonation

• Jennifer J. Venditti
• www.cs.rutgers.edu/venditti
• Cognitive Science 201
• 29 March 2001

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Intonation makes the difference

• 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.
• 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.
• A1 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.
• A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.

3
Speech production
oral nasal cavities larynx lungs
air
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Speech production
oral nasal cavities larynx lungs
The vocal folds may be held wide open, or may
vibrate.
5
Speech production
oral nasal cavities larynx lungs
Positioning of the tongue, lips, etc.
acoustically shapes the air.
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Vocal fold vibration
Physical Fundamental frequency (F0) ? rate of
vibration of the vocal folds Perceptual Pitch
fundamental freq.
perceived pitch
UCLA Phonetics Lab demo
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Graphic representation of F0
F0 (in Hertz)
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
time
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The ripples
t
s
s
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
F0 is not defined for consonants without
vocal fold vibration.
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The ripples
v
g
g
z
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
... and F0 can be perturbed by consonants with an
extreme constriction in the vocal tract.
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Abstraction of the F0 contour
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
Our perception of the intonation contour
abstracts away from these perturbations.
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The waves and the swells
wave accent
swell phrase
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
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TOPIC 1 Accent Placement and Intonational Tunes
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Stress vs. accent

• Stress is a structural property of a word it
  marks a potential (arbitrary) location for an
  accent to occur, if there is one.
• Accent is a property of a word in context it is
  a way to mark intonational prominence in order to
  highlight important words in the discourse.

(x) (x) (accented syll)
x x stressed syll
x x x full vowels
x x x x x x x syllables
vi ta mins Ca li for nia
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Which word receives an accent?

• It depends on the context. For example, the new
  information in the answer to a question is often
  accented, while the old information usually is
  not.
• Q1 What types of foods are a good source of
  vitamins?
• A1 LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins.
• Q2 Are legumes a source of vitamins?
• A2 Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins.
• Q3 Ive heard that legumes are healthy, but what
  are they a good source of ?
• A3 Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.

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Intonation makes the difference

• 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.
• A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
• B TWA doesnt fly there ...
• B1 They fly into Des Moines.
• B2 They fly into Des Moines.
• A1 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.
• A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.

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Same tune, different alignment
LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins
The main rise-fall accent ( I assert this)
shifts locations.
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Same tune, different alignment
Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins
The main rise-fall accent ( I assert this)
shifts locations.
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Same tune, different alignment
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
The main rise-fall accent ( I assert this)
shifts locations.
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Broad focus
Tell me something about the world.
legumes are a good source of vitamins
In the absence of narrow focus, English tends to
mark the first and last content words with
perceptually prominent accents.
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Yes-No question tune
are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins
Rise from the main accent to the end of the
sentence.
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Yes-No question tune
are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins
Rise from the main accent to the end of the
sentence.
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Yes-No question tune
are legumes a good source of VITAMINS
Rise from the main accent to the end of the
sentence.
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WH-questions
I know that many natural foods are healthy, but
...
WHAT are a good source of vitamins
WH-questions typically have falling contours,
like statements.
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Broad focus
Tell me something about the world.
legumes are a good source of vitamins
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Rising statements
Tell me something I didnt already know.
legumes are a good source of vitamins
... does this statement qualify?
High-rising statements can signal that the
speaker is seeking approval.
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Yes-No question
are legumes a good source of VITAMINS
Rise from the main accent to the end of the
sentence.
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Surprise-redundancy tune
How many times do I have to tell you ...
legumes are a good source of vitamins
Low beginning followed by a gradual rise to a
high at the end.
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Contradiction tune
Ive heard that linguini is a good source of
vitamins.
linguini isnt a good source of vitamins
... how could you think that?
Sharp fall at the beginning, flat and low, then
rising at the end.
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TOPIC 2 Alignment of Accent with Stressed
Syllable
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Alignment with syllable matters
TWA doesnt fly there ...
they fly to Des Moines
Rise right at start of stressed syllable cues
statement of fact.
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Alignment with syllable matters
TWA doesnt fly there ...
they fly to Des Moines
Rise which is delayed somewhat cues suggestion,
or uncertainty about whether the statement
qualifies as relevant.
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Two distinct alignment categories

• Pierrehumbert Steele (1989) synthesized many
  intonation contours with varying degrees of peak
  delay, and asked speakers to imitate what they
  heard.
• Peak delay of speakers responses patterned in
  two categories early (assertion) and late
  (suggestion).

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Intonation makes the difference

• 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.
• 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.
• A1 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.
• A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.

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TOPIC 3 Intonational phrasing and disambiguation
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A single intonation phrase
legumes are a good source of vitamins
Broad focus statement consisting of one
intonation phrase (that is, one intonation tune
spans the whole unit).
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Multiple phrases
legumes are a good source of vitamins
Utterances can be chunked up into smaller
phrases in order to signal the importance of
information in each unit.
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Phrasing can disambiguate

• Global ambiguity
• The old men and women stayed home.
• Sally saw the man with the binoculars.
• John doesnt drink because hes unhappy.

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Phrasing can disambiguate

• Global ambiguity
• The old men and women stayed home.
• The old men and women stayed home.
• Sally saw the man with the binoculars.
• Sally saw the man with the binoculars.
• John doesnt drink because hes unhappy.
• John doesnt drink because hes unhappy.

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Phrasing can disambiguate

• Temporary ambiguity
• When Madonna sings the song ...

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Phrasing can disambiguate

• Temporary ambiguity
• When Madonna sings the song is a hit.

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Phrasing can disambiguate

• Temporary ambiguity
• When Madonna sings the song is a hit.
• When Madonna sings the song its a hit.
• from Speer Kjelgaard (1992)

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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.
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Phrasing can disambiguate
Elenas mother
mall
Mary
I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
yesterday
Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.
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Intonation makes the difference

• 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.
• A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
• B TWA doesnt fly there ...
• B1 They fly into Des Moines.
• B2 They fly into Des Moines.
• A1 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.
• A2 I met Mary and Elenas mother at the mall
  yesterday.

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References

• The content of this lecture is based mainly on
  these two sources
• Bolinger, D. (1972) Intonation introduction and
  chapter 1. Penguin Books, Ltd. also appears as
  Bolinger, D. (1964) Around the edge of language.
  Harvard Educational Review 34(2) 282-293.
• Pierrehumbert, J. (1980) The Phonetics and
  Phonology of English Intonation. Unpublished
  Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology.
• Other sources cited in the lecture include
• Pierrehumbert, J. and S. Steele (1989) Categories
  of tonal alignment in English. Phonetica 46
  181-196.
• Speer, S. and M. Kjelgaard (1992) Prosodic
  resolution of temporary syntactic ambiguity.
  Paper presented at the 25th Annual Congress of
  Psychology, Brussels.