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  • 10 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 2.3. Information structure; 2.3.1. Givenness

    10 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 2.3. Information structure; 2.3.1. Givenness
    2025/11/16
    2.3. Information structure
    An important linguistic function of intonation is the marking of information structure, in particular (a) the expression of givenness of entities within a chunk of discourse and (b) the division of utterances into focus and background elements. In both (a) and (b) we are dealing with a continuum rather than a dichotomy: entities are not simply given or new, but may have an intermediate status between the two extremes, just as an utterance might contain elements which are focussed to a greater or lesser degree. We deal with (a) and (b) in sections 2.3.1. and 2.3.2. respectively.
    2.3.1. Givenness
    Degrees of givenness can be expressed through the choice of words. A clearly new discourse element can be expressed with a noun and indefinite article, as in the underlined noun phrase in (8). A clearly given one can be expressed as a pronoun, as in (9).
    (8) Thomas isst einen Apfel. ‘Thomas eats an apple.’
    (9) A: Was ist mit dem Apfel passiert? ‘What happened to the apple?’
    B: Thomas hat ihn gegessen. ‘Thomas ate it.’
    An intermediate degree of givenness can be expressed by the use of a definite article, as in (10), where the word Apfel is considered to be more given than in (8), since it refers to a specific instance of an apple which has already been introduced into the discourse in some way.
    (10) Thomas isst den Apfel. ‘Thomas eats the apple.’
    Of course, degrees of givenness can also be expressed through intonation. For example, the word Apfel in (11) receives a pitch accent and is thus more prominent than the same word in the second turn (B) in (12). In B’s turn Apfel is deaccented, which means that it does not receive an accent although it would be accented under default conditions, i.e. in an ‘all-new’ context such as in (11).
    (11) Thomas hat Hunger. Also isst er einen APfel. ‘Thomas is hungry so he eats an apple.’
    (12) A: Hast Du gesagt, dass Thomas mit einem Apfel jongliert?
    B: Nein, er ISST einen Apfel.
    ‘Did you say Thomas is juggling with an apple? No, he’s eating an apple.’
    (12) is similar to an example of Cruttenden’s (2006) for English, given in (13).
    (13) A: Would you like to come to dinner tonight? I’m afraid it’s only chicken.
    B: I don’t LIKE chicken.
    Indian English, by contrast, does not deaccent, as in the example taken from Ladd (1996: 176), reproduced in (14).
    (14) If you don’t give me that CIgarette I will have to buy a CIgarette.
    Italian is similar to Indian English in that the nuclear pitch accent tends to go on the final lexical item regardless of whether it is given or not. In (15), the nuclear accent is on casa in both cases, whereas in English it would have gone on outside and inside.3
    (15) É un lavoro che si fa fuori CAsa o dentro CAsa?
    ‘Is it a job which you do outside the HOME or inside the HOME.’
    Cruttenden (2006) refers to examples such as those in Italian and Indian English as having reaccenting. Not all types of accent are equally strong, and therefore the context sometimes dictates not only whether an accent is present or not but also which type of accent may be used. The interested reader is referred to Baumann and Grice (2006), where degrees of givenness are shown to be reflected in the type of accent used. A high accent is used for new information, and a step down in pitch onto the accented syllable for information which is not totally given but, rather, accessible. No accent at all is used for totally given information.

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    4 分
  • 09 Grige & Bauman (Eng) | 2.1-2 Functions of intonation; Lexical and morphological marking; Syntactic functions

    09 Grige & Bauman (Eng) | 2.1-2 Functions of intonation; Lexical and morphological marking; Syntactic functions
    2025/11/16
    2. Functions of intonationIn spoken language, intonation serves diverse linguistic and paralinguistic functions, ranging from the marking of sentence modality to the expression of emotional and attitudinal nuances. It is important to identify how they are expressed in the learner's native language, so that differences between the native and target languages are identified. It is particularly important to point out that many aspects of information structure and indirect speech acts are expressed differently across languages. Making learners aware of the existence of these functions will not only help them learn to express them, but will also help them to interpret what they hear in a more analytic way, thus reducing the danger of attributing unexpected intonation patterns as (solely) a function of the attitude or emotional state of the speaker.We have seen that intonation analysis involves categorical decisions about whether there is stress or accent, and, if there is an accent, which type of pitch accent it is. It also involves decisions about whether a boundary is present, and if so which pitch movement or level is used to mark it. There are also many gradient aspects to intonation, such as variation in pitch height or in the exact shape of the contour (equivalent to allophonic variation in the segmental domain).2.1. Lexical and morphological markingLexical and morphological marking does not belong to intonation proper but uses pitch, and to some extent also the other channels used by intonation. Categorical tonal contrasts at word level are characteristic of tone languages. Two quite different examples of tone languages are Standard Chinese, which has lexical contrasts such as the well-known example of the syllable ma with four different tonal contours, each which constitutes a distinct lexical item (mother, hemp, horse and scold), and the West African (Niger Congo) language Bini, which has grammatical tone: a change of tone marks the difference between tenses, e.g. low tone marking present tense and high or high-low tones marking past tense (see Crystal 1987: 172). Categorical tonal contrasts are also characteristic of so-called pitch accent languages which may also have lexical or grammatical tone. Both Swedish and Japanese are pitch accent languages. The difference between tone languages and pitch accent languages is that the former have contrastive tone on almost all syllables, whilst the latter restrict their tonal contrasts to specific syllables, which bear a pitch accent. However, it is difficult to draw a dividing line between these two language categories (seeGussenhoven 2004: 47).In intonation languages (the most thoroughly studied of which are generally also stress accent languages) like English and German, pitch is solely a postlexical feature, i.e. it is only relevant at utterance level. All tone and pitch accent languages have intonation in addition to their lexical and/or grammatical tone, although the complexity of their intonation systems varies considerably.2.2. Syntactic functionsAs we have already pointed out, syntactic structure and intonational phrasing are strongly related, but do not have to correspond exactly. Intonation can be used to disambiguate in certain cases between two different syntactic structures. The attachment of prepositional phrases is often said to be signalled by intonation. For example, in (6), a phrase break after verfolgt tends to lead to the interpretation that it is the man with the motorbike which Rainer is following. A phrase break after Mann would tend to lead to the interpretation that Rainer is on his motorbike and is following a man whilst riding it. In the first case the prepositional phrase modifies the noun phrase (den Mann) and in the second it modifies the verb (verfolgt). This phrasing has the same effect in the English translation.(6) Rainer verfolgt den Mann mit dem Motorrad. ‘Rainer is following the man with the motorbike.’However, it is often unnecessary to disambiguate between two readings, particularly if the context is clear. It should therefore not be expected that speakers will make such distinctions all of the time. A study on Italian and English syntactic disambiguation (Hirschberg and Avesani 2000) showed this particularly clearly, not only for prepositional phrase attachments, as in (7a), but also for ambiguously attached adverbials, as in (7b) (adapted from Hirschberg and Avesani 2000: 93).(7a) Ha disegnato un bambino con una penna. ‘lit. He drew a child with a pen’(7b) Lui le aveva parlato chiaramente. ‘lit. He to her has spoken clearly.’The two readings of (7b) are either that it was clear that he spoke to her (the adverbial modifies the sentence) or that he spoke to her in a clear manner (the adverbial modifies the verb).Il programma del corso si trova in questa pagina.Verrà aggiornato con la pubblicazione dei singoli episodi.Iscrivi e seguici, ci fa piacere. anzi, se ti va puoi anche ...
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    6 分
  • 08 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.3. Consequences of highlighting and phrasing for the segments of speech

    08 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.3. Consequences of highlighting and phrasing for the segments of speech
    2025/11/16
    1.3. Consequences of highlighting and phrasing for the segments of speech
    In section 1.1. we claimed that sounds are more strongly articulated when they are stressed or accented. The strength of sounds is also affected by the position of the sound in the syllable and, in turn, of the syllable within the phrase. Below we outline what is meant by strengthening, both with respect to prominence and to phrasing, and describe another phrasal effect on the duration of sounds. An account of intonation cannot ignore these effects, as they are often consciously or unconsciously used as diagnostics for the intonational analysis itself. This is particularly the case for phrasing, where intuitions about levels of phrasing based on the pitch contour are often unclear.
    If we take the sound /t/, at the beginning of a stressed syllable it is stronger than it would be at the beginning of an unstressed syllable: compare /t/ realisations at the beginning of ‘tomorrow’ and ‘tomcat,’ where /t/ in ‘tomcat’ is stronger (we hear greater aspiration and a longer closure).
    Moreover, /t/ at the beginning of a syllable bearing a pitch accent is stronger than one at the beginning of a syllable which is stressed but bears no pitch accent: Compare initial /t/ in the word ‘tomcats’ in ‘I like TOMCATS best’ with ‘Why not? I LIKE tomcats,’ where the former /t/ is longer and more aspirated.
    The strengthening of segments at the beginning of phrases (domains) is referred to as domain initial strengthening (see, e.g., Keating et al. 2003).
    Let us take the sound /t/ in English again. It is pronounced at the beginning of a larger phrase with greater strength than at the beginning of a smaller one. Furthermore, connected speech processes such as assimilation occur to a lesser extent across large boundaries than across small ones. This resistance to assimilation is also considered to be due to initial strengthening, in the sense that the segment preserves its identity, thus enhancing the contrast with adjacent segments (syntagmatic contrast), and possibly even enhancing a contrast with other segments which might occur in that position
    (paradigmatic contrast).
    At the ends of phrases there is a slowing down of the articulators, which is reflected in the signal as final lengthening. The larger the phrase, the greater the degree of final lengthening (inter alia, Wightman et al. 1992).
    Final lengthening leads to an increase in the duration of segments which is different from the increase obtained by stress and accent; the sounds are often pronounced less loudly and clearly than in stressed and accented syllables.
    Thus, final lengthening cannot easily be mistaken for accentual lengthening. Final lengthening has been found in a large number of languages, and is assumed to have a physiological basis, although there are language-specific, and even contour-specific differences as to the degree of final lengthening present. If a phrase break occurs across a sequence of unstressed syllables, those which are at the beginning of the second phrase are often pronounced very fast, this is referred to as anacrusis. Like an abrupt change in pitch, an abrupt change in rhythm is a strong cue for a phrase break.
    Now that the highlighting and phrasing tasks have been discussed, we turn to which functions they are used to express.

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    4 分
  • 07 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.2 Phrasing

    07 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.2 Phrasing
    2025/11/16
    1.2. Phrasing
    Speech is divided into chunks delimited by means of intonation. These chunks have been termed breath groups, sense groups, tone units, tone groups, phonological phrases or intonational phrases, to name but a few (see Cruttenden 1997: 29–37). The most obvious indicators of boundaries between intonation units are (filled and silent) pauses. The longer the pause, the stronger the perceived boundary. However, there are many cases in which a boundary is perceived although a pause is missing. This effect is often due to an abrupt change in pitch across unaccented syllables, i.e. a jump up or down in pitch which cannot be attributed to the highlighting function of intonation.
    It is often difficult to decide whether an intonation unit boundary is present or not, in particular when investigating spontaneous speech. In fact, transcribers across a number of approaches to intonation have often reported that they need to capture different levels of phrasing – in simple terms larger and smaller phrases. Although the British School originally had only one level of intonational phrasing (Crystal 1969, for instance), large scale corpus transcription using this model carried out by Gerry Knowles and Briony Williams led to the introduction of an additional level, the major tone unit, which was able to contain a number of (minor) tone units (Williams 1996a, b).
    The autosegmental-metrical model of English intonation which contributed substantially to the ToBI framework (see section 3.2.) also makes a distinction between smaller, intermediate phrases and larger, intonation phrases. It is not clear whether there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems in terms of their phrasing, but it is possible to say that in many cases an intermediate phrase corresponds to a tone unit/tone group and the intonation phrase to a major tone group (see Roach 1994 and
    Ladd 1996 for attempts at converting between the British School and autosegmental metrical models).
    The intuitive need for at least two different sizes of phrase can be felt when comparing utterance (3) above, which consists of only one phrase, with (4), which appears most naturally to be composed of two:
    (4) Findest Du NICHT, dass Lena ein SCHÖnes HAUS gekauft hat? Don’t you think that Lena has bought a beautiful house?’
    The jump in pitch (and thus the phrase break) occurs between nicht and dass. Although the tonal break coincides with a syntactic break here, we stress that intonational phrases and syntactic phrases are independent, even if they of course often correspond.
    Other instances of larger phrases containing more than one smaller phrase are lists, as in (5).
    Lena hat einen ROten, einen GELben und einen BLAUen Ball.‘Lena has a red, a yellow, and a blue ball.’
    In lists usually all but the last phrase end at a relatively high pitch, either as in (5) above, or with a high level pitch. The high pitch indicates that there is still at least one more item to come. After it the pitch is reset (i.e. there is a jump down), marking the beginning of the next phrase. A jump either up or down is a strong cue for a phrase break (the boundary between two phrases).


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    4 分
  • 06 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.1. Highlighting

    06 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.1. Highlighting
    2025/11/16
    In languages like English and German, utterance level prominence is realised on a designated syllable either by means of increased loudness and length, and unreduced vowel quality (all contributing to stress) or by means of the above, accompanied by a pitch movement (accent). This is not the case for all languages. Some languages use pitch movement without the accompanying loudness, length and vowel reduction (or at least using them to a lesser degree). English and German are referred to by Beckman (1986) as ‘stress-accent languages’, in contrast to, e.g., Japanese, which is a ‘non-stress accent language’. Both pitch movements with stress in stress-accent languages, and those without stress in non-stress-accent languages are referred to as pitch accents. In what is to follow, we concentrate on pitch accents in stress-accent languages.

    The notion of ‘stress’ applies to both word and utterance levels. We differentiate between ‘lexical stress’, also called ‘word stress’, denoting abstract prominences at word level, and ‘postlexical stress’, concrete prominences at utterance level. Table 2 summarises the different levels of description.
    The difference between stresses and accents entails a difference in the strength or degree of (postlexical) prominence. There are at least four different degrees of prominence at utterance level, as listed in table 3.

    In (3) we provide an extended version of utterance (1) above. It might conceivably be produced with a nuclear pitch accent on Haus (‘house’), a non-nuclear pitch accent on the first syllable of schönes (‘beautiful’), and stress on the first syllable of Lena (and possibly also on –kauft). All other syllables can be thought of as unaccented. In this and later examples, pitch accents are indicated by capital letters, stresses by small capitals.


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    2 分
  • 05 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.0. An introduction to intonation – functions and models

    05 Grice & Bauman (Eng) | 1.0. An introduction to intonation – functions and models
    2025/11/16
    Il capitolo di Grice & Baumann offre una sintesi autorevole sull’intonazione come componente centrale della prosodia linguistica, distinguendo nettamente tra segmenti e tratti soprasegmentali secondo la tradizione dell’International Phonetic Association. L’intonazione viene descritta come l’insieme delle variazioni funzionali di F0 (frequenza fondamentale) e degli altri correlati prosodici (intensità, durata, qualità vocalica), che nel loro insieme concorrono alla costruzione del significato linguistico e pragmatico.
    Due sono i compiti fondamentali:
    1. Prominence – la modulazione gerarchica della rilevanza informativa all’interno dell’enunciato, realizzata tramite pitch accent, differenze di durata e stabilità articolatoria;
    2. Prosodic constituency – la segmentazione del parlato in unità prosodiche maggiori e minori, interpretata nel quadro metrico-autosegmentale come distribuzione di accenti e toni di bordo che strutturano la gerarchia prosodica.

    Gli autori evidenziano come le lingue differiscano nella gestione dei rapporti tra lexical stress, pitch accent e information status: alcune sfruttano la deaccentuazione sistematica (inglese), altre mantengono un’accentazione finale più robusta (italiano, varietà indiane di English). Il contributo mostra inoltre come l’intonazione operi nel marcaggio del focus, distinguendo tra narrow focus e broad focus, e nella codifica di stati informativi come “nuovo”, “dato”, “accessibile”, secondo parametri riconosciuti dalla pragmatica internazionale.
    Un’ampia sezione è dedicata alla distinzione tra funzioni linguistiche e paralinguistiche, chiarendo il ruolo dei tre codici biologici (frequency code, production code, effort code) nel modellare contorni come quelli interrogativi, finali, continuativi o espressivi.
    Infine, gli autori confrontano i modelli descrittivi: la tradizione britannica basata su contorni globali e il sistema autosegmentale-metrico (ToBI), oggi standard internazionale per precisione analitica, interoperabilità tra lingue e corrispondenza con la fonetica sperimentale.

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    4 分
  • 004 Le Sei Dimensioni di Hofstede

    004 Le Sei Dimensioni di Hofstede
    2025/11/08
    Le fonti forniscono una panoramica dettagliata della teoria delle dimensioni culturali di Hofstede, un modello sviluppato per la psicologia interculturale che analizza come la cultura di una società influenzi i valori e i comportamenti dei suoi membri.

    Inizialmente basato su quattro dimensioni derivate da un'indagine globale condotta su dipendenti IBM tra il 1967 e il 1973, il quadro è stato successivamente ampliato per includere sei dimensioni chiave per la comparazione nazionale: distanza dal potere, individualismo/collettivismo, mascolinità/femminilità (ora orientamento al successo e al raggiungimento), evitamento dell'incertezza, orientamento a lungo/breve termine e indulgenza/moderazione.

    Il testo illustra in che modo queste dimensioni permettano il confronto tra le culture nazionali, citando esempi come Stati Uniti, Cina, Germania e Brasile, e descrive le applicazioni pratiche del modello nel commercio internazionale, nella comunicazione e nel marketing. Infine, vengono riconosciute e discusse in modo conciso le critiche e le limitazioni del modello di Hofstede.

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    20 分
  • 003-01 Voce e Carisma Il Pregiudizio di Genere

    003-01 Voce e Carisma Il Pregiudizio di Genere
    2025/11/05
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    15 分