LSA 210: Intonational typology

Carlos Gussenhoven | session 2 | MW 1:30 – 3:15, 106 Moffitt Hall

The structure of the intonation of English will be the starting point of a treatment of the intonation systems of a large number of languages. We will identify the analytical issues: what are the phonological elements, how are they to be grouped in polytonal melodies, what is their morphemic structure, and what are the generalizations in the phonetic implementation rules? Results from perception experiments are evidence that could decide such issues, on which researchers (e.g. Bolinger, O'Connor & Arnold, Pierrehumbert, ToBI) have taken different positions. This part includes a labelling exercise of two readings of a children's story within the speech analysis program Praat (Boersma & Weenink). Analyses will be in the Autosegmental-Metrical framework and take the perspective of Optimality Theory. The other languages will consist of a typologically disparate group of tone and non-tone languages from geographically widely dispersed locations as well as a group of closely related language varieties with significant degrees of phonological and phonetic variation, the Franconian dialects spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Reading: Carlos Gussenhoven, The Phonology of Tone and Intonation and selected materials available online.

Areas of linguistics: Phonetics, phonology, and morphology