Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German

Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German PDF Author: Bettina Braun
Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
ISBN: 9780820475936
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Variations in speech melody (intonation) can be used to express different meanings (e.g. question vs. statement, friendliness). Yet, intonational information is hardly used in present-day linguistic models. When intonational information is used, it is mostly based on introspection rather than on empirical investigation; almost exclusively, a one-to-one relation between accent types and semantic function is assumed. This book focuses on an empirical investigation of thematic contrast in German. Thematic contrast has received considerable attention in semantics because sentences with contrastive themes can be used to imply propositions of various kinds without saying them explicitly. In this book, first an acoustic comparison between sentences produced in contrastive and noncontrastive contexts is described. Intonational realisation is quantified in terms of the height and position of tonal targets. The perceptual reality of different productions and the relevance of different acoustic cues are tested by means of rating experiments. Finally, the data are prosodically annotated by a group of linguists to explore the validity and explanatory power of different accent categories for contrastive and non-contrastive themes in German.

Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German

Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German PDF Author: Bettina Braun
Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
ISBN: 9780820475936
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book Here

Book Description
Variations in speech melody (intonation) can be used to express different meanings (e.g. question vs. statement, friendliness). Yet, intonational information is hardly used in present-day linguistic models. When intonational information is used, it is mostly based on introspection rather than on empirical investigation; almost exclusively, a one-to-one relation between accent types and semantic function is assumed. This book focuses on an empirical investigation of thematic contrast in German. Thematic contrast has received considerable attention in semantics because sentences with contrastive themes can be used to imply propositions of various kinds without saying them explicitly. In this book, first an acoustic comparison between sentences produced in contrastive and noncontrastive contexts is described. Intonational realisation is quantified in terms of the height and position of tonal targets. The perceptual reality of different productions and the relevance of different acoustic cues are tested by means of rating experiments. Finally, the data are prosodically annotated by a group of linguists to explore the validity and explanatory power of different accent categories for contrastive and non-contrastive themes in German.

Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German

Production and Perception of Thematic Contrast in German PDF Author: Bettina Braun
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039105663
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Variations in speech melody (intonation) can be used to express different meanings (e.g. question vs. statement, friendliness). Yet, intonational information is hardly used in present-day linguistic models. When intonational information is used, it is mostly based on introspection rather than on empirical investigation; almost exclusively, a one-to-one relation between accent types and semantic function is assumed. This book focuses on an empirical investigation of thematic contrast in German. Thematic contrast has received considerable attention in semantics because sentences with contrastive themes can be used to imply propositions of various kinds without saying them explicitly. In this book, first an acoustic comparison between sentences produced in contrastive and non-contrastive contexts is described. Intonational realisation is quantified in terms of the height and position of tonal targets. The perceptual reality of different productions and the relevance of different acoustic cues are tested by means of rating experiments. Finally, the data are prosodically annotated by a group of linguists to explore the validity and explanatory power of different accent categories for contrastive and non-contrastive themes in German.

Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy

Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy PDF Author: Paolo Coluzzi
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110414
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Issues of language planning and minority nationalism or «micronationalism» are becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. Yet minority language planning in Italy and its relation to minority nationalism has so far attracted relatively limited academic attention, despite the particularly interesting changes that have taken place since Law 482 on the protection of minority languages was passed in 1999. This book presents the situation in Italy in three case studies and compares them with similar cases in Spain: Friulian (compared with Galician), Cimbrian (compared with Aranese) and Western Lombard (compared with Asturian). Analysis of these case studies is preceded by a clear and thorough introduction to terminology, legislation in the two countries, nationalism, the discipline of language planning and bilingual education, both in general terms and with specific reference to the Italian and Spanish cases. This first part introduces and defines the crucial distinction between minority and regional languages, between macro and micronationalism, both in their conservative and progressive strands, and between majority and minority language planning, among other things.

Bengali-English in East London

Bengali-English in East London PDF Author: Sebastian M. Rasinger
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110360
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
An in-depth study of language and language use within the Bangladeshi community in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. Based on a corpus of spontaneous speech data collected within the area, the book provides the reader with an overview of the linguistic characteristics of 'Bengali-English' as well as patterns of language use.

Sourcing the Self

Sourcing the Self PDF Author: Kathy Pitt
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039113989
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Social constructionists argue that our inner selves and our actions in the world are socially produced. Meta-realists, on the other hand, say that human consciousness is stratified, and not socially shaped at all levels. How do the human acts of creativity and resistance illuminate these different perspectives on human consciousness? This book explores theories of self and agency through a critical discourse analysis of the accounts of five British artists talking about their motivations, their creative processes and their experiences of the practices and institutions of visual art. Throughout the analysis the author considers how we voice dimensions of being that are 'beyond' language, and how these words impact on our sense of self and actions. The concept of self realisation is at the centre of this book and is critically examined. The analysis also explores the construction of social identities through family relations and institutional art practices and the media. It shows how they can provide solidarity for those who risk breaking social norms, but at the same time build barriers of difference.

Learning Politeness

Learning Politeness PDF Author: Ian Walkinshaw
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039115273
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book examines how Japanese learners of English learned about managing politeness while they were studying at language schools in New Zealand. Specifically, it investigates how they learned to produce and interpret a range of disagreement strategies during oppositional talk with native speakers of English. Employing a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to data analysis, the book discusses the initial pragmatic competence of the learners, and describes how their competence developed over a ten-week period. The book outlines some points of cultural divergence which may have influenced the direction and the extent of the learners' pragmatic development. It also sheds light on the language-acquisition strategies utilised by the learners during their tenure in the host culture. Most crucially, the book illuminates patterns of directness and indirectness in the learners' selected disagreement strategies. These patterns challenge the generally accepted theory that politeness always increases with social distance.

Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension

Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension PDF Author: Sónia Frota
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400701373
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Located at the intersection of phonology, psycholinguistics and phonetics, this volume offers the latest research findings in key areas of prosodic theory, including: •The relationship between intonation and pragmatics in speech production •Sentence modality prosody characterization •The role of pitch in quantity-based sound systems •Consonant-conditioned tone depression phonology across languages •The encoding of intonational contrasts in both intonational and tonal languages Featuring new data and ground-breaking results, the papers draw on empirical approaches that analyze production, perception and comprehension experiments such as the prepared speech paradigm and semantic scaling tasks. These are discussed in a variety of languages, some underrepresented in the literature (such as French and Estonian) while others, such as Shekgalagari, are examined in this way for the first time. This collection of cutting-edge material will be of interest to a broad range of language researchers.

Focus Particles in German

Focus Particles in German PDF Author: Stefan Sudhoff
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027288569
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This study explores the grammar of focus particles in German. It gives a thorough description and analysis of focus particle constructions and links their syntactic, semantic, and information structural properties to their prosodic characteristics. The study also shows that focus particles present a particularly well-suited subject for the investigation of the modularity of grammar in general. The first part of the book deals with the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of focus particle constructions and results in a modular account of the relation between their word order, information structure, and meaning. The second part presents a corpus study and several speech production and perception experiments investigating the prosodic realization of the constructions. The integration of these two lines of research results in a comprehensive theory of focus particles and of the interaction of grammar and information structure in German.

Fuzzy boundaries: Ambiguity in speech production and comprehension

Fuzzy boundaries: Ambiguity in speech production and comprehension PDF Author: Christopher Carignan
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832521029
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description


The Role of Alternatives in Language

The Role of Alternatives in Language PDF Author: Sophie Repp
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889668401
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description