TY - BOOK A1 - Duah, Reginald Akuoko A1 - Fominyam, Henry Z. A1 - Klose, Claudius A1 - Pfeil, Simone A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Kügler, Frank A1 - Valle, Daniel ED - Grubic, Mira ED - Bildhauer, Felix T1 - Mood, Exhaustivity & Focus Marking in non-European Languages N2 - This is the 19th — and final — issue of the working paper series Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS) of the Collaborative Research Center 632. In this issue, we present cross-linguistic work on Mood, Exhaustivity, and Focus Marking, on African languages and American languages. T3 - Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 - 19 Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-81200 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Kügler, Frank T1 - Production and perception of question prosody in Akan JF - Journal of the International Phonetic Association N2 - The paper presents a production experiment investigating the phonetic parameters speakers employ to differentiate Yes-No questions from string-identical statements in Akan, a West-African two-tone Kwa language. Results show that, in comparison to the statement, speakers use a higher pitch register throughout the utterance as a global parameter, and falling f0, longer duration and higher intensity as local parameters on the final syllable of the Yes-No question. Further, two perception experiments (forced-choice identification and gating) investigate the perceptual relevance of the global parameter and the local final parameters. Results show that listeners cannot assess the higher pitch register information to identify the mode of a sentence early on. Rather, identification takes place when the local phonetic parameters on the final vowel are available. The findings point to the superiority of language-specific cues in sentence mode perception. It is suggested that Akan uses a low boundary tone that associates with the right edge of the intonation phrase (L%) in Yes-No questions. The results are discussed from the point of view of question intonation typology in African languages. It is argued that a classification along the lines of functionally relevant cues is preferable to an impressionistic analysis. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100318000191 SN - 0025-1003 SN - 1475-3502 VL - 50 IS - 1 SP - 61 EP - 92 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Ishihara, Shinichiro A1 - Suranyi, Balazs T1 - The prosodic expression of focus, contrast and givenness: A production study of Hungarian JF - Lingua : international review of general linguistics N2 - This paper reports the results of a production experiment that explores the prosodic realization of focus in Hungarian, a language that is characterized by obligatory syntactic focus marking. Our study investigates narrow focus in sentences in which focus is unambiguously marked by syntactic means, comparing it to broad focus sentences. Potential independent effects of the salience (textual givenness) of the background of the narrow focus and the contrastiveness of the focus are controlled for and are also examined. The results show that both continuous phonetic measures and categorical factors such as the distribution of contour types are affected by the focus-related factors, despite the presence of syntactic focus marking. The phonetic effects found are mostly parallel to those of typical prosodic focus marking languages like English. The prosodic prominence required of focus is realized through changes to the scaling and slope of F0 targets and contours. The asymmetric prominence relation between the focus and the background can be expressed not only by the phonetic marking of the prominence of the focused element, but also by the phonetic marking of the reduced prominence of the background. Furthermore, contrastiveness of focus and (textual) givenness of the background show independent phonetic effects, both of them affecting the realization of the background. These results are argued to shed light on alternative approaches to the information structural notion of contrastive focus and the relation between the notions of focus and givenness. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Hungarian KW - Prosody KW - Focus KW - Background KW - Givenness KW - Contrast Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2014.07.010 SN - 0024-3841 SN - 1872-6135 VL - 165 SP - 183 EP - 204 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kügler, Frank A1 - Genzel, Susanne T1 - On the prosodic expression of pragmatic prominence The case of pitch register lowering in Akan JF - Language and speech N2 - This article presents data from three production experiments investigating the prosodic means of encoding information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put target words either in wide, informational, or corrective focus, or in one of the experiments also in pre-focal or post-focal position rendering it as given. The prosodic parameters F0 and duration were measured on the target words. Duration is not consistently affected by information structure, but contrary to the prediction that High (H) and Low (L) tones are raised in ex situ (fronted) focus constructions we found a significantly lower realization of both H and L tones under corrective focus in ex situ and in situ focus constructions. Givenness does not seem to be marked prosodically. The data suggest that pragmatic prominence is expressed prosodically by means of a deviation from an unmarked prosodic structure. Results are thus contradicting the view of the effort code that predicts a positive correlation of more effort resulting in higher F0 targets. KW - Akan KW - effort code KW - information structure KW - prosody KW - register lowering Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830911422182 SN - 0023-8309 VL - 55 IS - 9 SP - 331 EP - 359 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfeil, Simone A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Kügler, Frank T1 - Empirical investigation of focus and exhaustivity in Akan JF - Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 N2 - It has been observed for many African languages that focussed subjects have to appear outside of their syntactic base position, as opposed to focussed objects, which can remain in-situ. This is known as subjectobject asymmetry of focus marking, which Fiedler et al. (2010) claim to hold also for Akan. Genzel (2013), on the other hand, argues that Akan does not exhibit a subject-object focus asymmetry. A questionnaire study and a production experiment were carried out to investigate whether focussed subjects may indeed be realized in-situ in Akan. The results suggest that (i) focussed subjects do not have to be obligatorily realized ex-situ, and that (ii) the syntactic preference for the realization of a focussed subject highly depends on exhaustivity. KW - Akan KW - focus KW - subjects KW - exhaustivity KW - in-situ Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-83774 SN - 1614-4708 SN - 1866-4725 IS - 19 SP - 87 EP - 109 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kügler, Frank A1 - Genzel, Susanne T1 - On the prosodic expression of pragmatic prominence BT - the case of pitch register lowering in Akan N2 - This article presents data from three production experiments investigating the prosodic means of encoding information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put target words either in wide, informational, or corrective focus, or in one of the experiments also in pre-focal or post-focal position rendering it as given. The prosodic parameters F0 and duration were measured on the target words. Duration is not consistently affected by information structure, but contrary to the prediction that High (H) and Low (L) tones are raised in ex situ (fronted) focus constructions we found a significantly lower realization of both H and L tones under corrective focus in ex situ and in situ focus constructions. Givenness does not seem to be marked prosodically. The data suggest that pragmatic prominence is expressed prosodically by means of a deviation from an unmarked prosodic structure. Results are thus contradicting the view of the effort code that predicts a positive correlation of more effort resulting in higher F0 targets. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 369 KW - Akan KW - effort code KW - information structure KW - prosody KW - register lowering Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403217 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Grubic, Mira A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Kügler, Frank T1 - Linguistic Fieldnotes I: Information Structure in different African Languages N2 - This is the 13th issue of the working paper series Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS) of the Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 632. It is the first part of a series of Linguistic Fieldnote issues which present data collected by members of different projects of the SFB during fieldwork on various languages or dialects spoken worldwide. This part of the Fieldnote Series is dedicated to data from African languages. It contains contributions by Mira Grubic (A5) on Ngizim, and Susanne Genzel & Frank Kügler (D5) on Akan. The papers allow insights into various aspects of the elicitation of formal correlates of focus and related phenomena in different African languages investigated by the SFB in the second funding phase, especially in the period between 2007 and 2010. T3 - Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 - 13 KW - Ngizim KW - Akan KW - information structure KW - syntax Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49684 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Genzel, Susanne A1 - Kügler, Frank T1 - How to elicit semi-spontaneous focus realizations with specific tonal patterns JF - Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 N2 - This article presents a situation description production experiment investigating the interaction between syntax and information structure in Akan, a tone language that belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger- Congo family spoken in Ghana. Information structure was elicited via context questions that put the object in narrow informational focus or narrow corrective focus while controlling for the tonal structure of the target word. Contrary to the prediction that corrective focus is marked by fronting and morphological marking of the focused constituent the data suggest that the in-situ strategy is the preferred one. KW - Akan KW - information structure KW - syntax Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49749 SN - 1614-4708 SN - 1866-4725 IS - 13 SP - 77 EP - 102 ER - TY - THES A1 - Genzel, Susanne T1 - Lexical and post-lexical tones in Akan T1 - Lexikalische und post-lexikalische Töne im Akan N2 - This dissertation is about factors that contribute to the surface forms of tones in connected speech in Akan. Akan is an African tone language, which is spoken in Ghana. It has two level tones (low and high), automatic and non-automatic downstep. Downstep is the major factor that influences the surface forms of tones. The thesis shows that downstep is caused by declination. It is argued that declination is an intonational property of Akan, which serves to signal coherence. A phonological representation using a high and a low register tone, associating to the left and right edge of an intonational phrase (IP), respectively, is proposed. Declination/downstep is modelled using a (phonetic) pitch implementation algorithm (Liberman & Pierrehumbert, 1984). An innovative application of the algorithm is presented, which naturally captures the relation between declination and downstep in Akan. Another important factor is the prosodic manifestation of sentence level pragmatic meanings, such as sentence mode and focus. Regarding the former, the thesis shows that a post-lexical low tone, which associates with the right edge of an IP, signals interrogativity. Additionally, lexical tones in Yes – No questions are realized in a higher pitch register, which does not lead to a reduction of declination. It is claimed that the higher register is not part of the phonological representation in Akan, but that it emerges at the phonetic level to compensate for the ‘unnatural’ form of the question morpheme and to satisfy the Frequency code (Gussenhoven, 2002; 2004). An extension of Rialland’s (2007) typology in terms of a new category called “low tense” question prosody is proposed. Concerning focus marking, it is argued that the use of the morpho-syntactic focus marking strategy is related to extra grammatical factors, such as hearer expectation, discourse expectability (Zimmermann, 2007) and emphasis (Hartmann, 2008). If a speaker of Akan wants to highlight a particular element in a sentence, in-situ, i.e. by means of prosody, the default prosodic structure is modified in such a way that the focused element forms its own phonological phrase (pP). If it is already contained in a pP, the boundary deliminating the focused element is enhanced (Féry, 2012). This restructuring/enhancement is accompanied by an interruption of the otherwise continuous melody due to insertion of a pause and/or a glottal stop. Beside declination and intonation, raising of H tones applies in Akan. H raising is analyzed as a local anticipatory planning effect, employed at the phonetic level, which enhances the perceptual distance between low and high tones. Low tones are raised, if they are wedged between two high tones. L raising is argued to be a local carryover effect (co-articulation). Further, it is demonstrated that global anticipatory raising takes place. It is shown that Akan speakers anticipate the length of an IP. Preplanning (anticipatory raising) is argued to be an important process at the level of pitch implementation. It serves to ensure that declination can be maintained throughout the IP, which prevents pitch resetting. The melody of an Akan sentence is largely determined by the choice of words. The inventory of post-lexical tones is small. It consists of post-lexical register tones, which trigger declination and post-lexical intonational tones, which signal sentence type. The overall melodic shape is falling. At the local level, H raising and L raising occur. At the global level, initial low and high tones are realized higher if they occur in a long and/or complex sentence. This dissertation shows that many factors, which emerge at different levels of the tone production process, contribute to the surface form of tones in Akan. N2 - Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit Faktoren, welche die Oberflächenrealisierung von Tönen in gesprochenem Akan beeinflussen. Akan ist eine afrikanische Tonsprache, die in Ghana gesprochen wird. Das Akan verfügt über zwei Töne, tief und hoch, automatischen und nicht-automatischen Downstep. Downstep ist als der wichtigste Einflussfaktor auf die Oberflächenrealisierung von Tönen anzusehen. Diese Arbeit zeigt, dass der Absenkungseffekt, der allgemeinhin als Downstep bekannt ist, durch Deklination entsteht. Es wird argumentiert, dass Deklination als Intonationseigenschaft des Akan anzusehen ist, welche dazu dient Kohärenz auszudrücken. Ein Vorschlag zur phonologischen Repräsentation der Deklination wird unterbreitet; jeweils ein hoher und ein tiefer Registerton assoziieren mit dem linken und rechten Rand der Intonationsphrase (IP). Deklination/downstep werden mit Hilfe eines (phonetischen) Tonhöhenimplementationsalgorithmus (Liberman & Pierrehumbert, 1984) modelliert. Eine innovative Anwendung des Algorithmus wird präsentiert, welche die Beziehung zwischen Deklination und Downstep im Akan natürlich erfasst. Ein anderer wichtige Faktor ist die prosodische Manifestation von pragmatischer Bedeutung auf Satzebene, wie Satzmodus und Fokus. Bezüglich der Satzmodusmarkierung zeigt die Dissertation, dass diese Bedeutung durch einen tiefen post-lexikalischen Grenzton, welcher am rechten Rand der IP assoziiert, vermittelt wird. Zusätzlich, werden lexikalische Töne in Ja – Nein Fragen in einem höheren Tonhöhenregister realisiert. Es kommt jedoch nicht zu einer Reduktion der Deklination. Es wird vorgeschlagen, dass das höhere Register nicht Teil der phonologischen Repräsentation des Akan ist, da es auf der phonetische Ebene entsteht um die „unnatürliche“ Form der Frageprosodie zu kompensieren und damit den „Frequency Code“ (Gussenhoven , 2002, 2004) zu befriedigen. Es wird vorgeschlagen, Rialland’s Fragetypologie der afrikanischen Sprachen um die Kategorie „low tense“ zu erweitern. Bezüglich der Fokusmarkierung wird argumentiert, dass die Nutzung der morpho-syntaktische Strategie an extra-grammatische Faktoren wie Hörererwartung, Diskursakzeptabilität (Zimmermann, 2007) und Emphase (Hartmann, 2008) geknüpft ist. Wenn ein Sprecher des Akan ein bestimmtes Element im Satz prosodisch hervorheben möchte, wird die Standardphrasierung modifiziert, so dass das fokussierte Element seine eigene phonologische Phrase (pP) bildet. Falls das fokussierte Element standardmäßig in eine pP phrasiert ist, werden die Grenzen der pP verstärkt (Féry, 2012). Diese Restrukturierung/Verstärkung geht einher mit einer Unterbrechung des kontinuierlichen Signals durch Einfügung einer Pause und/oder eines Glottalverschlusses. Neben Deklination und Intonation, findet Hochtonanhebung im Akan statt. Hochtonanhebung wird als lokaler antizipatorischer Planungseffekt analysiert, welcher die perzeptuelle Distanz zwischen Hoch- und Tiefton vergrößert. Tieftöne werden angehoben wenn sie zwischen Hochtönen auftreten. Tieftonanhebung wird als lokaler Koartikulationseffekt analysiert. Außerdem wird gezeigt, dass eine globale antizipatorische Tonanhebung auftritt. Sprecher des Akan antizipieren die Länge/Komplexität der IP. Es wird argumentiert, dass antizipatorische Tonanhebung ein wichtiger Prozess auf Ebene der Tonhöhenimplementierung ist, da er sicherstellt, dass Deklination innerhalb der IP aufrechterhalten werden kann. Die Melodie eines Satzes des Akan ist größtenteils durch die Wahl der Wörter bestimmt. Das Inventar an post-lexikalischen Tönen ist klein. Es besteht aus post-lexikalischen Registertönen, welche Deklination auslösen und post-lexikalischen Intonationstönen, welche Satzmodus ausdrücken. Im Allgemeinen ist die Melodieverführung fallend. Auf lokaler Ebene treten Hoch- und Tieftonanhebung auf. Auf globaler Ebene werden initiale Hoch- und Tieftöne höher realisiert, wenn sie in einem langen und/oder komplexen Satz auftreten. Diese Dissertation zeigt das viele Faktoren, welche an unterschiedlichen Ebenen des Tonproduktionsprozesses auftreten zur Oberflächenform der Töne des Akan beitragen. KW - Akan KW - tone language KW - prosody KW - phonetics KW - downstep KW - Akan KW - Tonsprache KW - Prosodie KW - Phonetik KW - Downstep Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-77969 ER -