@article{BarthWeingartenKuettnerRaymond2021, author = {Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar and K{\"u}ttner, Uwe-Alexander and Raymond, Chase Wesley}, title = {Pivots revisited}, series = {Open linguistics}, volume = {7}, journal = {Open linguistics}, number = {1}, publisher = {de Gruyter}, address = {Warsaw}, issn = {2300-9969}, doi = {10.1515/opli-2020-0152}, pages = {613 -- 637}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The term "pivot" usually refers to two overlapping syntactic units such that the completion of the first unit simultaneously launches the second. In addition, pivots are generally said to be characterized by the smooth prosodic integration of their syntactic parts. This prosodic integration is typically achieved by prosodic-phonetic matching of the pivot components. As research on such turns in a range of languages has illustrated, speakers routinely deploy pivots so as to be able to continue past a point of possible turn completion, in the service of implementing some additional or revised action. This article seeks to build on, and complement, earlier research by exploring two issues in more detail as follows: (1) what exactly do pivotal turn extensions accomplish on the action dimension, and (2) what role does prosodic-phonetic packaging play in this? We will show that pivot constructions not only exhibit various degrees of prosodic-phonetic (non-)integration, i.e., differently strong cesuras, but that they can be ordered on a continuum, and that this cline maps onto the relationship of the actions accomplished by the components of the pivot construction. While tighter prosodic-phonetic integration, i.e., weak(er) cesuring, co-occurs with post-pivot actions whose relationship to that of the pre-pivot tends to be rather retrospective in character, looser prosodic-phonetic integration, i.e., strong(er) cesuring, is associated with a more prospective orientation of the post-pivot's action. These observations also raise more general questions with regard to the analysis of action.}, language = {en} } @article{FuchsKoenigGerstenberg2021, author = {Fuchs, Susanne and Koenig, Laura L. and Gerstenberg, Annette}, title = {A longitudinal study of speech acoustics in older French females}, series = {Languages : open access journal}, volume = {6}, journal = {Languages : open access journal}, number = {4}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2226-471X}, doi = {10.3390/languages6040211}, pages = {24}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Aging in speech production is a multidimensional process. Biological, cognitive, social, and communicative factors can change over time, stay relatively stable, or may even compensate for each other. In this longitudinal work, we focus on stability and change at the laryngeal and supralaryngeal levels in the discourse particle euh produced by 10 older French-speaking females at two times, 10 years apart. Recognizing the multiple discourse roles of euh, we divided out occurrences according to utterance position. We quantified the frequency of euh, and evaluated acoustic changes in formants, fundamental frequency, and voice quality across time and utterance position. Results showed that euh frequency was stable with age. The only acoustic measure that revealed an age effect was harmonics-to-noise ratio, showing less noise at older ages. Other measures mostly varied with utterance position, sometimes in interaction with age. Some voice quality changes could reflect laryngeal adjustments that provide for airflow conservation utterance-finally. The data suggest that aging effects may be evident in some prosodic positions (e.g., utterance-final position), but not others (utterance-initial position). Thus, it is essential to consider the interactions among these factors in future work and not assume that vocal aging is evident throughout the signal.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Unger2023, author = {Unger, Annika}, title = {Fr{\"u}he Wortsegmentierung im monolingualen und bilingualen Spracherwerb}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58297}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-582970}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 132}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Die vorgelegte Dissertation befasst sich mit der fr{\"u}hen Wortsegmentierung im monolingualen und bilingualen Spracherwerb. Die Wortsegmentierung stellt eine der wesentlichen Herausforderungen f{\"u}r S{\"a}uglinge im Spracherwerb dar, da gesprochene Sprache kontinuierlich ist und Wortgrenzen nicht zuverl{\"a}ssig durch akustische Pausen markiert werden. Zahlreiche Studien konnten f{\"u}r mehrere Sprachen zeigen, dass sich Segmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten von monolingualen S{\"a}uglingen zwischen dem 6. und 12. Lebensmonat herausbilden (z. B. Englisch: Jusczyk, Houston \& Newsome, 1999; Franz{\"o}sisch: Nazzi, Mersad, Sundara, Iakimova \& Polka, 2014; Deutsch: H{\"o}hle \& Weissenborn, 2003; Bartels, Darcy \& H{\"o}hle, 2009). Fr{\"u}he Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten sind sprachspezifisch (Polka \& Sundara, 2012). Crosslinguistische Studien zeigten, dass eine sprach{\"u}bergreifende Segmentierung f{\"u}r einsprachig aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge nur erfolgreich bew{\"a}ltigt wird, wenn die nicht-native Sprache rhythmische Eigenschaften mit ihrer Muttersprache teilt (Houston, Jusczyk, Kuijpers, Coolen \& Cutler, 2000; H{\"o}hle, 2002; Polka \& Sundara, 2012). In vier Studien dieser Dissertation wurden mit behavioralen (Headturn Preference Paradigma) und elektrophysiologischen Untersuchungen (Elektroenzephalografie) monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende und bilingual Deutsch-Franz{\"o}sisch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten untersucht. Dabei wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten in der Lage sind, ihre Muttersprache Deutsch und die rhythmisch un{\"a}hnliche Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch zu segmentieren. Mit anderen Worten: K{\"o}nnen monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten ihre Segmentierungsprozeduren modifizieren bzw. von ihrer bevorzugten Segmentierung abweichen, um auch nicht-muttersprachlichen Input erfolgreich zu segmentieren? Bezogen auf die bilingualen Sprachlerner wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob zweisprachig aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge vergleichbare Segmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten wie monolingual aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge aufweisen und ob sich zudem ein Einfluss der Sprachdominanz auf die Entwicklung der Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten in einer bilingualen Population zeigt. Durch die gew{\"a}hlten Methoden konnten sowohl Verhaltenskorrelate als auch elektrophysiologische Korrelate zur Beantwortung der Fragestellungen herangezogen werden. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus erm{\"o}glichte das EEG durch ereigniskorrelierte Potenziale (EKPs) einen Einblick in Lern- und Verarbeitungsprozesse, die mit Verhaltensmethoden nicht erfassbar waren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten sowohl ihre Muttersprache als auch die nicht-native Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch erfolgreich segmentieren. Die F{\"a}higkeit zur Segmentierung der nicht-nativen Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch wird jedoch beeinflusst von der Muttersprache: monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge, die mit Franz{\"o}sisch zuerst getestet wurden, segmentierten sowohl das Franz{\"o}sische als auch das im Anschluss pr{\"a}sentierte deutsche Sprachmaterial. Monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge die zuerst mit Deutsch und anschließend mit Franz{\"o}sisch getestet wurden, segmentierten die deutschen Stimuli, jedoch nicht das franz{\"o}sische Sprachmaterial. Bilingual Deutsch-Franz{\"o}sisch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge segmentieren im Alter von 9 Monaten beide Muttersprachen erfolgreich. Die Ergebnisse deuten zudem auf einen Einfluss der Sprachdominanz auf die Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten von zweisprachig aufwachsenden S{\"a}uglingen. Die balancierten Bilingualen segmentieren beide Muttersprachen erfolgreich, die unbalancierten Bilingualen zeigen nur f{\"u}r die jeweils dominante Sprache eine erfolgreiche Segmentierung. Zusammenfassend liefert diese Arbeit erstmals Evidenz f{\"u}r eine erfolgreiche sprach{\"u}bergreifende Segmentierung in prosodisch differenten Sprachen unterschiedlicher Rhythmusklassen in einer monolingualen Population. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus liefern die Studien dieser Arbeit Evidenz daf{\"u}r, dass bilingual aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge bezogen auf die Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten eine vergleichbare Entwicklung wie einsprachig aufwachsende Sprachlerner zeigen. Dieses Ergebnis erweitert die Datenlage bisheriger Studien, die f{\"u}r verschiedene Entwicklungsschritte im Spracherwerb keine Verz{\"o}gerung, sondern eine zu monolingual aufwachsenden S{\"a}uglingen vergleichbare Entwicklung innerhalb einer bilingualen Population nachweisen konnten (Sprachdiskrimination: Byers-Heinlein, Burns \& Werker, 2010; Bosch \& Sebastian-Galles, 1997; Phonemdiskrimination: Albareda-Castellot, Pons \& Sebasti{\´a}n-Gall{\´e}s, 2011; Wahrnehmung rhythmischer Eigenschaften: Bijeljac-Babic, H{\"o}hle \& Nazzi, 2016).}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Wellmann2023, author = {Wellmann, Caroline}, title = {Early sensitivity to prosodic phrase boundary cues: Behavioral evidence from German-learning infants}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57393}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-573937}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 136}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This dissertation seeks to shed light on the relation of phrasal prosody and developmental speech perception in German-learning infants. Three independent empirical studies explore the role of acoustic correlates of major prosodic boundaries, specifically pitch change, final lengthening, and pause, in infant boundary perception. Moreover, it was examined whether the sensitivity to prosodic phrase boundary markings changes during the first year of life as a result of perceptual attunement to the ambient language (Aslin \& Pisoni, 1980). Using the headturn preference procedure six- and eight-month-old monolingual German-learning infants were tested on their discrimination of two different prosodic groupings of the same list of coordinated names either with or without an internal IPB after the second name, that is, [Moni und Lilli] [und Manu] or [Moni und Lilli und Manu]. The boundary marking was systematically varied with respect to single prosodic cues or specific cue combinations. Results revealed that six- and eight-month-old German-learning infants successfully detect the internal prosodic boundary when it is signaled by all the three main boundary cues pitch change, final lengthening, and pause. For eight-, but not for six-month-olds, the combination of pitch change and final lengthening, without the occurrence of a pause, is sufficient. This mirrors an adult-like perception by eight-months (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016). Six-month-olds detect a prosodic phrase boundary signaled by final lengthening and pause. The findings suggest a developmental change in German prosodic boundary cue perception from a strong reliance on the pause cue at six months to a differentiated sensitivity to the more subtle cues pitch change and final lengthening at eight months. Neither for six- nor for eight-month-olds the occurrence of pitch change or final lengthening as single cues is sufficient, similar to what has been observed for adult speakers of German (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016). The present dissertation provides new scientific knowledge on infants' sensitivity to individual prosodic phrase boundary cues in the first year of life. Methodologically, the studies are pathbreaking since they used exactly the same stimulus materials - phonologically thoroughly controlled lists of names - that have also been used with adults (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016) and with infants in a neurophysiological paradigm (Holzgrefe-Lang, Wellmann, H{\"o}hle, \& Wartenburger, 2018), allowing for comparisons across age (six/ eight months and adults) and method (behavioral vs. neurophysiological methods). Moreover, materials are suited to be transferred to other languages allowing for a crosslinguistic comparison. Taken together with a study with similar French materials (van Ommen et al., 2020) the observed change in sensitivity in German-learning infants can be interpreted as a language-specific one, from an initial language-general processing mechanism that primarily focuses on the presence of pauses to a language-specific processing that takes into account prosodic properties available in the ambient language. The developmental pattern is discussed as an interplay of acoustic salience, prosodic typology (prosodic regularity) and cue reliability.}, language = {en} } @article{BollAvetisyanBhataraHoehle2017, author = {Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie and Bhatara, Anjali and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {Effects of musicality on the perception of rhythmic structure in speech}, series = {Laboratory phonology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Laboratory phonology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Ubiquity Press}, address = {London}, issn = {1868-6346}, doi = {10.5334/labphon.91}, pages = {16}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Language and music share many rhythmic properties, such as variations in intensity and duration leading to repeating patterns. Perception of rhythmic properties may rely on cognitive networks that are shared between the two domains. If so, then variability in speech rhythm perception may relate to individual differences in musicality. To examine this possibility, the present study focuses on rhythmic grouping, which is assumed to be guided by a domain-general principle, the Iambic/Trochaic law, stating that sounds alternating in intensity are grouped as strong-weak, and sounds alternating in duration are grouped as weak-strong. German listeners completed a grouping task: They heard streams of syllables alternating in intensity, duration, or neither, and had to indicate whether they perceived a strong-weak or weak-strong pattern. Moreover, their music perception abilities were measured, and they filled out a questionnaire reporting their productive musical experience. Results showed that better musical rhythm perception - ability was associated with more consistent rhythmic grouping of speech, while melody perception - ability and productive musical experience were not. This suggests shared cognitive procedures in the perception of rhythm in music and speech. Also, the results highlight the relevance of - considering individual differences in musicality when aiming to explain variability in prosody perception.}, language = {en} } @misc{BarthWeingartenOgden2021, author = {Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar and Ogden, Richard}, title = {"Chunking" spoken language}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-8380}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-53625}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-536259}, pages = {531 -- 548}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In this introductory paper to the special issue on "Weak cesuras in talk-in-interaction", we aim to guide the reader into current work on the "chunking" of naturally occurring talk. It is conducted in the methodological frameworks of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics - two approaches that consider the interactional aspect of humans talking with each other to be a crucial starting point for its analysis. In doing so, we will (1) lay out the background of this special issue (what is problematic about "chunking" talk-in-interaction, the characteristics of the methodological approach chosen by the contributors, the cesura model), (2) highlight what can be gained from such a revised understanding of "chunking" in talk-in-interaction by referring to previous work with this model as well as the findings of the contributions to this special issue, and (3) indicate further directions such work could take starting from papers in this special issue. We hope to induce a fruitful exchange on the phenomena discussed, across methodological divides.}, language = {en} } @article{BarthWeingartenOgden2021, author = {Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar and Ogden, Richard}, title = {"Chunking" spoken language}, series = {Open linguistics}, volume = {7}, journal = {Open linguistics}, number = {1}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, address = {Berlin}, issn = {2300-9969}, doi = {10.1515/opli-2020-0173}, pages = {531 -- 548}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In this introductory paper to the special issue on "Weak cesuras in talk-in-interaction", we aim to guide the reader into current work on the "chunking" of naturally occurring talk. It is conducted in the methodological frameworks of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics - two approaches that consider the interactional aspect of humans talking with each other to be a crucial starting point for its analysis. In doing so, we will (1) lay out the background of this special issue (what is problematic about "chunking" talk-in-interaction, the characteristics of the methodological approach chosen by the contributors, the cesura model), (2) highlight what can be gained from such a revised understanding of "chunking" in talk-in-interaction by referring to previous work with this model as well as the findings of the contributions to this special issue, and (3) indicate further directions such work could take starting from papers in this special issue. We hope to induce a fruitful exchange on the phenomena discussed, across methodological divides.}, language = {en} } @article{ChenHoehle2018, author = {Chen, Aoju and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {Four- to five-year-old' use of word order and prosody in focus marking in Dutch}, series = {Linguistics Vanguard}, volume = {4}, journal = {Linguistics Vanguard}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, address = {Berlin}, issn = {2199-174X}, doi = {10.1515/lingvan-2016-0101}, pages = {9}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This study investigated Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds' use of word order and prosody in distinguishing focus types (broad focus, narrow focus, and contrastive narrow focus) via an interactive answer-reconstruction game. We have found an overall preference for the unmarked word order SVO and no evidence for the use of OVS to distinguish focus types. But the children used pitch and duration in the subject-nouns to distinguish focus types in SVO sentences. These findings show that Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds differ from their German- and Finnish-speaking peers, who show evidence of varying choice of word order to mark specific focus types, and use prosody to distinguish focus types in subject and object nouns in both SVO and OVS sentences. These comparisons suggest that typological differences in the relative importance between word order and prosody can lead to differences in children's use of word order and prosody in unmarked and marked word orders. A more equal role of word order and prosody in the ambient language can stimulate more extensive use of prosody in the marked word order, whereas a more limited role of word order can restrict the use of prosody in the unmarked word order.}, language = {en} } @article{SimikWierzba2017, author = {Simik, Radek and Wierzba, Marta}, title = {EXPRESSION OF INFORMATION STRUCTURE IN WEST SLAVIC: MODELING THE IMPACT OF PROSODIC AND WORD-ORDER FACTORS}, series = {Language : journal of the Linguistic Society of America}, volume = {93}, journal = {Language : journal of the Linguistic Society of America}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0097-8507}, doi = {10.1353/lan.2017.0040}, pages = {671 -- 709}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The received wisdom is that word-order alternations in Slavic languages arise as a direct consequence of word-order-related information-structure constraints such as 'Place given expressions before new ones'. In this article, we compare the word-order hypothesis with a competing one, according to which word-order alternations arise as a consequence of a prosodic constraint: 'Avoid stress on given expressions'. Based on novel experimental and modeling data, we conclude that the prosodic hypothesis is more adequate than the word-order hypothesis. Yet we also show that combining the strengths of both hypotheses provides the best fit for the data. Methodologically, our article is based on gradient acceptability judgments and multiple regression, which allows us to evaluate whether violations of generalizations like 'Given precedes new' or 'Given lacks stress' lead to a consistent decrease in acceptability and to quantify the size of their respective effects. Focusing on the empirical adequacy of such generalizations rather than on specific theoretical implementations also makes it possible to bridge the gap between different linguistic traditions and to directly compare predictions emerging from formal and functional approaches.}, language = {en} } @article{HolzgrefeLangWellmannPetroneetal.2016, author = {Holzgrefe-Lang, Julia and Wellmann, Caroline and Petrone, Caterina and Raeling, Romy and Truckenbrodt, Hubert and H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Wartenburger, Isabell}, title = {How pitch change and final lengthening cue boundary perception in German: converging evidence from ERPs and prosodic judgements}, series = {Language, cognition and neuroscience}, volume = {31}, journal = {Language, cognition and neuroscience}, publisher = {Begell House}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {2327-3798}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2016.1157195}, pages = {904 -- 920}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This study examines the role of pitch and final lengthening in German intonation phrase boundary (IPB) perception. Since a prosody-related event-related potential (ERP) component termed Closure Positive Shift reflects the processing of major prosodic boundaries, we combined ERP and behavioural measures (i.e. a prosodic judgement task) to systematically test the impact of sole and combined cue occurrences on IPB perception. In two experiments we investigated whether adult listeners perceived an IPB in acoustically manipulated speech material that contained none, one, or two of the prosodic boundary cues. Both ERP and behavioural results suggest that pitch and final lengthening cues have to occur in combination to trigger IPB perception. Hence, the combination of behavioural and electrophysiological measures provides a comprehensive insight into prosodic boundary cue perception in German and leads to an argument in favour of interrelated cues from the frequency (i.e. pitch change) and the time (i.e. final lengthening) domain.}, language = {en} }