initial rises and discourse
DESCRIPTION
Initial Rises and Discourse. J.-M Marandin & J. German. Phrasing in French. Hierarchy of phrasing: – Bottom level: Accentual phrase – Top level: Intonation phrase – Intermediate level (no consensus, several proposals: Di Cristo, Delais & Post, Jun&Fougeron, Michelas & D’Imperio, etc.). - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Initial Rises and Discourse
J.-M Marandin & J. German
JSM 2010 2
Phrasing in French
Hierarchy of phrasing:
– Bottom level: Accentual phrase
– Top level: Intonation phrase
– Intermediate level (no consensus, several proposals: Di Cristo, Delais & Post, Jun&Fougeron, Michelas & D’Imperio, etc.)
Part 1. Initial rises in the literature
NB. : For time considerations, we cannot give Astesano’s (and colleagues) studies the place they deserve. They should be included in a complete
overview of the issue.
JSM 2010 4
Initial rises
AP structure (Jun & Fougeron 2002, Welby 2006)
(1) )content word
(L)Hi (L)H*
where (L)H* is obligatory while (L)Hi is optional
JSM 2010 5
Types of initial rises
• Accent mélodique: left edge marker whose occurrence is correlated to ‘chunking’ reasons (length of APs, tempo, etc.).
(1) (Les dé clarations) (du président) } n’ont pas convaincu …. Hi Hi
• Accent d’insistance: emphasis/emotion marker.
(2) (Ton pull est) (for midable)
Hi (3) (Il a fait) (une tempête) (hier soir)
Hi
NB.: The accent d’insistance is described as higher in pitch, longer in duration than the accent mélodique.
JSM 2010 6
Initial rises and information/discourse structure
Initial rises have been observed in relation to discourse/information marking:
- In relation to Information (narrow) Focus (i. a. Di Cristo 1999).
- In relation to Discourse (thematic) Structure (Beyssade et al. 2005, Marandin et al. 2002)
JSM 2010 7
Initial Rises and Information Focus
Initial Rises may occur at the left edge of Narrow Information Focus.
(4) A.: Il a acheté un livre qui parle de quoi?
B.: i. Il a acheté un livre sur la cuisine provenCAL(e)ii. Il a acheté un livre sur la cuisine provenCAL(e)
Di Cristo’s analysis:- (4.B.i) is a case of « marquage simple » of the Focus; (4.B.ii) a case of bilateral
marking. - Initial rises are not necessarily linked to Kontrast (activated set of alternatives).- Initial rises in relation to Information Focus are analyzed as accents mélodiques
(wrapping the focal XP).
JSM 2010 8
Initial rises and discourse structure
Initial rises occur at the left edge of Thematic Shifters.
(5) A.: Que fumaient les chanteurs de rock ? B.: i. Les chanteurs anglais fumaient des cigarettes
ii. Les chanteurs anglais fumaient des cigarettesiii. Les chanteurs anglais fumaient des cigarettes
--> A.: et les français?(6) A.: Qui est venu?
B.: Bernadette est venue --> A.: et les autres?
Beyssade’s et al. analysis:- Thematic shifters are Büring’s S-Topics (i. a. 2003).- They bring about a « residual topic effect »: they call for another questions thematically related to the question
they are an answer to. Answers (5.B.i,ii,iii) call for « What did singers of other countries smoke? » - They belong to a dimension orthogonal to the Focus-Ground partition. Thus, they occur either in the ground (5)
or the focal part (6) of the answer.
- They correspond to T-accents (vs F-accents) in Büring’s framework.
Part 2. Initial rises: new data
JSM 2010 10
Introduction
Initial rises are observed in two corpora elicited in controlled conditions (script-based production experiments):
– In interrogatives: German & D’Imperio 2010
– In declaratives: Beyssade et al. 2010
Those recent observations – obtained in controlled settings– reinforce the
observations reported in the literature (based on a competence basis).
11
German & D’Imperio (2010)
Wide agreement that phonetically, right edge of contrastive focus is marked, with reasonable reliability, by a transition from regular (rhythmic, syntactic) phrasing, to a deaccented region
Are there cues to the left edge?
Traditional assumption: Hi (initial rise of Jun & Fougeron 2002, Welby 2006) is “optional” feature of AP
Hypothesis: Hi (initial rise of Jun & Fougeron 2002, Welby 2006) marks or is at least associated with the left edge of a contrastive focus in qu-interrogatives.
Fix the right edge of the contrastive region and systematically manipulate the location of the left edge for textually identical pairs of target sentences
12
German & D’Imperio (2010)
(1) i. Qui a commandé le merlan à la sauce citron ce soir?
ii. Qui a commandé le merlan [aux navets]F ce soir?
iii. Qui a commandé le merlan aux câpres ce soir?
(2) i. Qui a commandé l’entrecôte ce soir?
ii. Qui a commandé [le merlan aux navets]F ce soir?
iii. Qui a commandé les gambas ce soir?
13
German & D’Imperio (2010)
Robust predictor of Hi occurrence is phrase length: APs containing more syllables are more likely to contain Hi
How are the two predictors related?
– To extent that Hi marks focus, does phrase length interfere with this tendency?
– Are very short and very long phrases insensitive to focus?
(1) a. Qui a commandé [le merlan aux navets]AP ce soir?
b. Qui a commandé [le merlan aux macadamias]AP ce soir?
14
German & D’Imperio (2010)
84% of productions included an AP boundary between the NP and the PP
How was the likelihood for Hi on PP affected by phrase length and focus?
[Qui a commandé] [le merlan] [aux navets] [ce soir]Hi? H*H*H*
15
German & D’Imperio (2010)
16
German & D’Imperio (2010)
[Qui a commandé] [le merlan] [aux navets] [ce soir]Hi? H*H*H*
PP (I2) initial rises
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
PP focus (narrow) DO focus (wide)
2 syllables4 syllables
17
German & D’Imperio (2010)
[Qui a commandé] [le merlan] [aux navets] [ce soir]
Hi? H*H*H*
NP (I1) initial rises
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
PP focus (narrow) DO focus (wide)
2 syllables4 syllables
JSM 2010 18
IR in declaratives
Partial question:
(ii) Qu'as-tu visionné la nuit dernière ? What did you screen last night?
Broad question:
(iii) Où en es-tu dans ton enquête ? What’s up with your investigation
(iv) J’ai visionné les vidéos la nuit dernièreI screened the videos last night
Initial rises are observed in a corpus elicited to study the marking of XPs resolving questions (= Information Focus).
Design of the experiment: Subjects are presented with the description of a context (i) and a question: either a partial question (ii) or a broad question (iii). They are asked to read aloud an answer (iv), as if they were actually participating in the dialogue.
(i) Context: Richard is a policeman. He has to treat various documents (films, leaflets, K7s) seized in a terrorist cache.
JSM 2010 19
IR in declaratives. Results (1)
Pattern A
Nuclear Low at the right edge of the Direct Object NP (DO)
Pattern B
Nuclear Low at the right edge of the Object NP + initial accentuation of the DO
Pattern C
Initial accentuation of DO + register enhancement of DO (Nuclear Low at the right edge of the sentence)
Pattern D
Nuclear Low at the right edge of the sentence
JSM 2010 20
IR in declaratives. Illustration (2)
A B
C D
Illustration: J’ai élargi le gilet avec du velours noir. I let out the vest with black velvet.
JSM 2010 21
IR in declaratives. Synthesis
Answers to Placement of the nuclear pitch accent (mostly L* in the corpus)
Initial rise on DO
Right edge of DO
Right edge of S
Partial questions
60% 30,8% 72,6%
Broad questions
40% 69,2% 32,7%
Part 3. Questions
Part of a research program on the links between IRs and Discourse
….
JSM 2010 23
Question 1
Are the IRs found in questions and in answers the same ?
Potential arguments:- Phonetic: Same phonetic realization ?
NB.: Identification of IRs should be unified in the two studies.
- Functional: Same role?
JSM 2010 24
Functional role of IRs (1)
IRs occur on DOs in approx. 1/3 of the answers to broad questions.
- Beyssade’s et al. conjecture: thematic shifters?
(8) A. Où en es-tu dans ton enquête?
B. [J’ai visionné [les vidéos]ST la nuit dernière]F
(9) Top question: What’s up with your investigations?
Answer: I screened [the videos] Subordinate-Q.: What about the videos? last night
JSM 2010 25
Functional role of IRs (2)
IRs occur on DOs on approx. 2/3 of answers to partial questions:Several analysis possible:- Thematic shifters
(10) A. Qu’as-tu visionné la nuit dernière?
B. J’ai visionné [les vidéos]ST, F la nuit dernière
(11) Top question: What did you screen last night
Answer: I screened [the videos] Subordinate-Q.: What about the videos? last night
- Or: Marking of the resolving XP- Or (Current conjecture) :
IRs are functionally underspecified. They mark an XP as distinguished in a prosodic domain.
JSM 2010 26
Functional role of IRs (3)
Corroboration (data currently under verification)
The narrow association of ad-verbial seulement (only) with a dependant of the verb is only deterministic when the dependant shows IR.
(12) J’ai seulement vu [Bernadette] à Paris=
‘I saw nobody else than Bernadette’
Two cases:
Pattern B Pattern C
JSM 2010 27
Question 2
Are the IRs linked to Discourse/Information the same as accent mélodique or accent d’insistance ?
Why is the question relevant? « Accent placement in English is determined by a number of different independent factors, which include focushood (as in focus-ground), interestingness or informativeness, emotiveness and others. [..] Pitch accents are available as a structural resource and they appear to be exploited for a number of different uses. Some of them have to do with the realization of focushood and linkhood … » (Vallduví & Zacharsky 1993).
Questions to be solved:- Are the differences pertaining to level of pitch or duration stable and systematic?
If yes, are they categorical ?- Conjecture:
IR marking the left edge of AP ≠IR marking the left edge of some higher phrase.
JSM 2010 28
References
• Astesano C. (2001) Rythme et accentuation en français. Paris: L’Harmattan.• Beyssade, C., E. Delais-Roussarie, J. Doetjes, J.-M. Marandin & A. Rialland (2004). Prosody and Information in
French. Corblin, F. & H. de Swart (eds.), Handbook of French Semantics. CSLI, pp. 477-499.• Beyssade, C., B. Hemforth, J.-M. Marandin & C. Portes (2008). The prosody of restrictive seulement in French. Third
TIE Conference on Tone and Intonation. Barcelone, pp. 15-17 September 2008.• Beyssade, C., B. Hemforth, J.-M. Marandin & C. Portes (2010). Prosodic markings of Information Focus in French.
Proceedings of IDP 2009. • Büring, D. (2003). On D-trees, beans, and B-accents. Linguistics & Philosophy 26:5, pp. 511-545.• Delais-Roussarie E & B. Post (2008). Unités prosodiques et grammaire de l’intonation. Proceedings of JEP 2008. • Di Cristo, A. (1999). Le cadre accentuel du français contemporain, Langues 3(2), pp.184-205, Langues 4(2), pp. 258-
267.• German J. & M. D’Imperio (2010). Focus, phrase length, and the distribution of phrase-initial rises in French.
Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2010. • Jun, S.-A & C. Fougeron (2002). Realizations of Accentual Phrases in French. Probus 14:147-172.• Marandin J.-M., Beyssade, C., E. Delais-Roussarie, & A. Rialland (2002). Discourse Marking in French: C accents
and Discourse Moves. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2002, Aix-en-Provence.• Michelas A & M. D’Imperio (2010). Durational cues and prosodic phrasing in French: evidence for the intermediate
phrase. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2010. • Vallduví Enric & Ron Zacharski 1993, Accenting Phenomena, Association with Focus and the Recursiveness of
Focus-Ground. Proceedings of the 9th Amsterdam colloquium, U. of Amsterdam, ed. by P. Dekker & al.• Welby P. (2006) French intonational structure: Evidence from tonal alignment. Journal of Phonetics 34(3): 343-371.
JSM 2010 29
Doc. Answers to partial questions
Pattern NPA placement
IR (+ register change)
A 11% Right edge of DO:
60%B 49% IR on DO:
72,6%C 23,6% Final (right edge of S):
40%D 16,4%
JSM 2010 30
Doc. Answers to broad questions
Pattern NPA placement
IR (+ register change)
A 17,3% Right edge of DO:
30,8%B 13,5% IR on DO:
32,7%C 19,2% Final (right edge of S):
69,2%D 50%