This dissertation investigates the properties of a particular type of question, namely wh-in-situ questions in French. It examines their properties from two perspectives related to the context in... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the properties of a particular type of question, namely wh-in-situ questions in French. It examines their properties from two perspectives related to the context in which a question is uttered. These are (a) the information structure of the sentence, specifically focus and givenness, and (b) the distinction between regular information seeking questions and echo questions.An important result is the insight that French has two mechanisms to interpret wh-in-situ questions, yielding potentially identical looking questions with different properties. While certain speakers only have one of these mechanisms to interpret wh-in-situ questions in their grammar, others, often younger speakers, have both. This explains much of the data confusion regarding the properties of French wh-in-situ questions.The investigation also provides more general insights into the relation between wh-questions and aspects of the preceding context. While it is often assumed that the focus in wh-questions necessarily equals the wh-phrase, the dissertation shows experimentally that this is not the case in all languages. In languages like French, what is focused may depend on the preceding context, as in declaratives. The dissertation also suggests a direction of research for contextually restricted wh-in-situ in wh-fronting languages like English and German Show less
This book provides a description of Cuvok, a language spoken by about 10,000 people in the far north of Cameroon. The study of the linguistic elements addresses and provides an analysis of the... Show moreThis book provides a description of Cuvok, a language spoken by about 10,000 people in the far north of Cameroon. The study of the linguistic elements addresses and provides an analysis of the language through the examination of phonological and morphological aspects, as well as some notes on syntax and a bilingual lexicon.The issue of prosodies is central to the discussion of vowel segments. The harmonic domain of the word has a prominent place in the morpho-phonological discussion. The noun and the verb are the only grammatical categories that exhibit harmonic domains within which the features +palatalization and -palatalization are observed. All satellite elements of these two categories are either palatalized or non-palatalized depending on the opposition between the two phonemic vowels in the final position of the nominal or verbal complex. The perception of the Cuvok world is revealed through the study of prepositions, markers of temporal and spatial location. The expression of the four cardinal points shows a fixed orientation of the Tchouvok people.Particular emphasis was placed on the ethnolinguistic aspect, which deals with the role of the blacksmith as a key actor in the development of the society. This monographic section examines the role of the blacksmith in a society that is undergoing rapid change and is prey to new ideas and habits.The Cuvok grammar is a work that constitutes a decisive step towards the development and standardization of this language and hence of the central Chadic languages in general. Show less
Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, in which wh-words remain in their base position as declarative counterparts do. Mandarin is also a wh-indeterminate language, in which wh-words like shénme... Show moreMandarin is a wh-in-situ language, in which wh-words remain in their base position as declarative counterparts do. Mandarin is also a wh-indeterminate language, in which wh-words like shénme can have interrogative interpretation ‘what’ (wh-interrogative) or non-interrogative existential interpretation ‘something’ (wh-existential). Due to the wh-in-situ and wh-indeterminate nature, clausal typing (how to classify clauses as wh-questions) in Mandarin and the licensing of wh-indeterminates have been two intriguing topics. This dissertation investigates clausal typing in Mandarin and the licensing of Mandarin wh-indeterminates, from the perspectives of prosody and processing. By conducting a series of studies, we find that prosody plays an essential role in marking and typing wh-questions and listeners can anticipate clause-types by utilizing prosody since the clause onset. Hence we propose an extended clausal typing hypothesis, recognizing the role of prosody in clausal typing and making the original clausal typing hypothesis more complete, cross-linguistically speaking. As for the licensing of wh-existentials, we provide evidence and analysis that wh-existentials can also be licensed in veridical contexts with certain constraints, in addition to the commonly assumed nonveridical contexts. Regarding the licensing of wh-interrogatives, our processing evidence supports that a covert dependency is required between the wh-interrogative and the interrogative operator(Q) at CP-Spec. Show less
This doctoral dissertation reports five studies investigating the processing of prosody and music with cochlear implants or simulations thereof (vocoders) in Dutch. Cochlear implants are... Show moreThis doctoral dissertation reports five studies investigating the processing of prosody and music with cochlear implants or simulations thereof (vocoders) in Dutch. Cochlear implants are implanted hearing prostheses that partly restore hearing for profoundly deaf individuals by presenting an electrical reconstruction of sound to the hearing nerve. Prosody is the melody and rhythm of speech and is crucial in spoken communication. Important functions of prosody include the conveying of emotions (emotional prosody) and the marking of new or old information in utterances (linguistic prosody). These functions are realized by speakers, among other ways, by means of variation in intonation and the duration of parts of an utterance. Of these forms, the perception of intonation variations, but not particularly of duration variations, is notoriously difficult for cochlear implant users. This difficulty is caused by limitations of the device and the interface between cochlear implants and the hearing nerve. Possible limitations in perception and production of linguistic and emotional prosody by actual and simulated cochlear implant hearing had never been systematically compared. This thesis shows that cochlear implant users might have more difficulty discriminating emotional than linguistic prosody and that they rely relatively much on intonation cues for emotional prosody but on duration cues for linguistic prosody. Tests with vocoders showed that sharpening the slopes of spectral filters (simulating reduced spectral smearing) improves prosody perception up to values much extremer than tested before. Taken together, this set of experiments discusses issues to take into account when studying the perception and production of prosody by cochlear implant users and with vocoder simulations. Show less
Consecutive interpreting allows two persons who do not understand each other’s language, to communicate through a bilingual intermediary: the interpreter. Typically, interpreters are native... Show moreConsecutive interpreting allows two persons who do not understand each other’s language, to communicate through a bilingual intermediary: the interpreter. Typically, interpreters are native speakers of one language but not the other. The extent to which student interpreters’ performance is improved by making them aware of prosodic differences (word and sentence stress) between native and foreign language, was investigated for Iranian participants with Farsi as the native language and English as the foreign language. Effects were tested both in recto (from foreign English into native Farsi) and in verso interpreting (from Farsi into English). Interpreting quality was judged by experts on ten rating scales, relating to accuracy of interpreting as well as to intelligibility and pleasantness of the delivery. Objective correlates of the subjective ratings (e.g. counts of errors and hesitations, acoustic fluency measures) were established. Prosody training yielded better interpreting quality on all rating scales in recto interpreting, especially on fluency. In verso interpreting the overall gain was smaller, and with a trade-off between interpreting accuracy and fluency. In follow-up experiments better word recognition and comprehension of the English input was found. Explicit prosody training had a greater benefit than implicit prosody training. Show less
This study investigates the effect of explicit teaching of prosodic features on developing listening comprehension by interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. All were... Show moreThis study investigates the effect of explicit teaching of prosodic features on developing listening comprehension by interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level at the State University of Arak, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random, but with equal division between genders (9 female and 9 male students in each group). No significant differences in English language skills (TOEFL scores) could be established between the groups. Participants took a standard pretest of listening comprehension before starting the program. The control group had exercises in listening comprehension, while the experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, prosodic features of English. The total instruction time was the same for both groups, i.e. 8 hours. Students then took a standard listening comprehension test. The results show that the prosodic feature awareness training significantly improved the students’ listening comprehension skills. The results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreting programs for training future interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy. Show less
The present study investigates the effect of explicit teaching of prosody on developing speaking skills for Farsi-English interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed.... Show moreThe present study investigates the effect of explicit teaching of prosody on developing speaking skills for Farsi-English interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level at Tafresh University, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random, but with equal division between genders (6 female and 6 male students in each group). No significant differences in English language skills (TOEFL scores) could be established between the groups. Participants took a pretest before starting the program. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies and other hot topics, in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, prosodic features of English. The total instruction time was the same for both groups, i.e. 21 hours. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills. The results show that the prosodic feature awareness training significantly improved the students’ speaking skills. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreting programs for training future interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy. Show less
This dissertation examines what network in the human brain is involved in the perception of prosody and whether activity within this network is modulated by the personality trait alexithymia. The... Show moreThis dissertation examines what network in the human brain is involved in the perception of prosody and whether activity within this network is modulated by the personality trait alexithymia. The first four chapters of this dissertation reveal that a bihemispheric network consisting of Heschl__s gyrus, the middle superior temporal gyrus, the posterior superior temporal gyrus and the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus is involved in the perception of emotional prosody. Furthermore, relative right hemispheric specialization for emotional prosody perception can be demonstrated but no hemispheric specialization can be found for linguistic prosody perception. Moreover, hemispheric specialization for emotional prosody perception seems to be driven by hemispheric specialization for non-prosody-specific acoustic dimensions of the speech signal, and not for abstract emotional processing. Additionally, automaticity of processing can be demonstrated for emotional prosody, particularly for anger, but not for emotional music. Last, alexithymia can indeed be demonstrated to modulate activity within the emotional prosody perception network, particularly at relatively early components of the emotional prosody perception pathway. This dissertation is of interest to neurolinguists, (neuro-)phoneticians, psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, comparative biologists and neurologists specialized in aphasia Show less
The Central Chadic languages are a diverse and fascinating collection of languages, spoken in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The phonologies of these languages have intrigued linguists since they were... Show moreThe Central Chadic languages are a diverse and fascinating collection of languages, spoken in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The phonologies of these languages have intrigued linguists since they were first studied, due to their minimal sets of phonemic vowels (sometimes only one), complex systems of vowel harmony, and extensive use of palatalized and labialized consonants. Analysis of these languages led to the proposal of phonemic units referred to as ‘prosodies’, which act on both vowels and consonants, allowing Central Chadic phonologies to be described in a neat and succinct way. This study looks at the diverse phonological systems found within Central Chadic, and reconstructs the phonological system of their ancestor language. This system is itself simple and succinct, and includes one phonemic prosody and just three phonemic vowels. The study describes the phonological processes that led from this system to the many phonological systems that are in use today, shedding light both on the history of the languages, and on issues in the analysis of these languages. Show less
The relation between prosodic realization, syntactic structure, interpretation and focus has caused much debate in the literature. This thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of the... Show moreThe relation between prosodic realization, syntactic structure, interpretation and focus has caused much debate in the literature. This thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of the semantic and prosodic properties of object foci in Greek, employing theoretical and experimental tools. The main research question is: do preverbal object foci in Greek differ from their postverbal counterparts?. In the first part of the thesis, Greek preverbal object foci are compared to their postverbal counterparts with respect to exhaustivity, contrast and discourse topichood. For this purpose, a number of tests are applied to the Greek data. On the basis of the results of the tests, it is argued that preverbal and postverbal object foci do not differ with respect to exhaustivity and contrast. It is also argued that the two differ with respect to discourse topichood. It is shown that Greek preverbal object foci are actually fronted dis course topics. In the second part of the thesis, a production and two perception experiments were carried out to investigate the phonetic properties of preverbal and postverbal object foci in Greek. Moreover, a production and a perception experiment were carried out to investigate the phonetic realization of contrast in Greek. Show less
This study describes the effects of prominence and boundary on the temporal and melodic structures of two Indonesian languages, viz. Toba Batak, a stress language and Betawi Malay, a non-stress... Show moreThis study describes the effects of prominence and boundary on the temporal and melodic structures of two Indonesian languages, viz. Toba Batak, a stress language and Betawi Malay, a non-stress language. Experimental evidence shows that lengthening effects were more than twice as strong in the non-stress Betawi Malay as in Toba Batak. Durational prominence effects in Toba Batak are comparable to those found in western stress language at the word level, but not at the lower levels: stress syllables, especially consonants are hardly affected. Arguably, the use of duration as a stress correlate is restricted by the phonemic consonant contrast in the language. To compensate for this, prominence-related pitch movements, which are connected to the stressed syllable, occur in non-prominent as well as prominent words in Toba Batak. In Betawi Malay, prominence-related pitch movements are larger but vary considerably in shape and position; they serve to cue accents and boundaries, but not stress position. To determine the audible consequences of the native language for the production of Dutch stress, three perception experiments were run. The native language clearly affects the prosody of second-language speech. Toba Batak speakers of Dutch sound more acceptable to Dutch listeners than Betawi Malay speakers do. Show less
