Intonational%20Meaning%20in%20Discourse

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Intonational Meaning in Discourse

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

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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.

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Intonation is about ...

• Pitch
• Melody, or tune
• Alignment
• Prominence and focus
• Chunking, or phrasing
• ... and more ...

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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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Pitch range

• Differences can be due to physical size, gender,
  social identity, excitement level, linguistic,
  etc ...

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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.

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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 ...
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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.

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What is the difference?
(supporting example)
(counterexample)

• The alignment of the tune with the segments is
  different.

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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.

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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.

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Alignment differences cue assertion vs.
suggestion

• A Id like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
• B TWA doesnt fly there ...

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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.
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Placement of focal accent
LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
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Placement of focal accent
Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
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Placement of focal accent
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
The rise-fall tune ( I assert this) shifts
locations.
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Focus of a Y-N question
are LEGUMES a good source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
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Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a GOOD source of vitamins
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
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Focus of a Y-N question
are legumes a good source of VITAMINS
Rise from the focal accent to the end of the
sentence.
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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
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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.

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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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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
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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
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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.

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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 ...

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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.