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Nuclear Intonation in Swedish : Evidence from Experimental-Phonetic Studies and a Comparison with German

Ambrazaitis, Gilbert LU (2009) In Travaux de l'Institut de Linguistique de Lund 49.
Abstract
This thesis investigates Swedish intonation patterns and their interaction with word accent realisation in various pragmatic conditions, using German as a reference language. The point of departure is the wide-spread assumption that Swedish, as a language with a tonal word accent distinction, has a considerably smaller repertoire of nuclear intonation contours than German and other so-called intonation languages. In particular, whereas only one sentence accent has been modelled for Swedish so far (a high focal accent H-), a multiple paradigmatic contrast of sentence accents (e.g. H*, L*+H, H+L*) has been assumed for German. It is hypothesised, however, that the contemporary models of German and Swedish intonation are based on different... (More)
This thesis investigates Swedish intonation patterns and their interaction with word accent realisation in various pragmatic conditions, using German as a reference language. The point of departure is the wide-spread assumption that Swedish, as a language with a tonal word accent distinction, has a considerably smaller repertoire of nuclear intonation contours than German and other so-called intonation languages. In particular, whereas only one sentence accent has been modelled for Swedish so far (a high focal accent H-), a multiple paradigmatic contrast of sentence accents (e.g. H*, L*+H, H+L*) has been assumed for German. It is hypothesised, however, that the contemporary models of German and Swedish intonation are based on different research traditions, and hence, that the intonation of the two languages might be more similar than commonly assumed. Three production studies, based on recordings from 21 speakers, and one perception (reaction time) experiment involving 20 listeners are reported. In the first two production studies, the intonation of test phrases elicited in German and Swedish speakers in a variety of pragmatic conditions is compared by analysing F0 and to some degree duration patterns. The most central pragmatic distinction treated in this thesis involves the focussing of new vs. given information, the latter case occurring in confirmations. The main result of these studies is that Swedish and German seem to have a similar inventory of nuclear intonation patterns, which have basically the same pragmatic functions in the two languages. For instance, an "early fall", a pattern involving a fall onto a low-pitched stressed vowel, can signal a confirmation in both German and Swedish. This result suggests that, in addition to the well-established high accent (H-), Swedish also has a paradigmatic choice of sentence accents, involving a falling accent (H+L-). The third production study and the reaction time experiment concentrate on the "early fall" found in confirmations and investigate the interaction of word accent and intonation. The results show that the Swedish word accent distinction can be neutralised in connection with the "early fall", a situation which may be related to the perceptual enhancement of the intonational contrast between a high (H-) and a falling (H+L-) sentence accent. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Docent Heldner, Mattias, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
parallel encoding, contrastive topic, new information, given information, focus, information structure, pragmatics, nucleus, sentence accent, prosody, word accent, F0, early peak, perception, reaction time
in
Travaux de l'Institut de Linguistique de Lund
volume
49
pages
199 pages
publisher
Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University
defense location
Sal 207, Zoofysiologen, Helgonavägen 3-5
defense date
2009-12-11 13:15:00
ISSN
0347-2558
ISBN
978-91-974116-5-3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
d5aea4cc-c954-4050-b21d-3fd0a6f082c8 (old id 1503597)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:35:30
date last changed
2019-05-23 16:59:08
@phdthesis{d5aea4cc-c954-4050-b21d-3fd0a6f082c8,
  abstract     = {{This thesis investigates Swedish intonation patterns and their interaction with word accent realisation in various pragmatic conditions, using German as a reference language. The point of departure is the wide-spread assumption that Swedish, as a language with a tonal word accent distinction, has a considerably smaller repertoire of nuclear intonation contours than German and other so-called intonation languages. In particular, whereas only one sentence accent has been modelled for Swedish so far (a high focal accent H-), a multiple paradigmatic contrast of sentence accents (e.g. H*, L*+H, H+L*) has been assumed for German. It is hypothesised, however, that the contemporary models of German and Swedish intonation are based on different research traditions, and hence, that the intonation of the two languages might be more similar than commonly assumed. Three production studies, based on recordings from 21 speakers, and one perception (reaction time) experiment involving 20 listeners are reported. In the first two production studies, the intonation of test phrases elicited in German and Swedish speakers in a variety of pragmatic conditions is compared by analysing F0 and to some degree duration patterns. The most central pragmatic distinction treated in this thesis involves the focussing of new vs. given information, the latter case occurring in confirmations. The main result of these studies is that Swedish and German seem to have a similar inventory of nuclear intonation patterns, which have basically the same pragmatic functions in the two languages. For instance, an "early fall", a pattern involving a fall onto a low-pitched stressed vowel, can signal a confirmation in both German and Swedish. This result suggests that, in addition to the well-established high accent (H-), Swedish also has a paradigmatic choice of sentence accents, involving a falling accent (H+L-). The third production study and the reaction time experiment concentrate on the "early fall" found in confirmations and investigate the interaction of word accent and intonation. The results show that the Swedish word accent distinction can be neutralised in connection with the "early fall", a situation which may be related to the perceptual enhancement of the intonational contrast between a high (H-) and a falling (H+L-) sentence accent.}},
  author       = {{Ambrazaitis, Gilbert}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-974116-5-3}},
  issn         = {{0347-2558}},
  keywords     = {{parallel encoding; contrastive topic; new information; given information; focus; information structure; pragmatics; nucleus; sentence accent; prosody; word accent; F0; early peak; perception; reaction time}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Travaux de l'Institut de Linguistique de Lund}},
  title        = {{Nuclear Intonation in Swedish : Evidence from Experimental-Phonetic Studies and a Comparison with German}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4058530/1503609.pdf}},
  volume       = {{49}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}