On the phonological status of pitch falls in English and Dutch: Evidence from semantic judgements Experimental Studies on Intonation: Phonetic, Phonological and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Sentence Prosody, 5-7 January 2009, Potsdam University Carlos Gussenhoven Queen Mary, University of London

Outline Two analyses of pre-nuclear steep falls in English: 1. a falling pitch accent (Palmer, Halliday, Crystal, O’Connor & Arnold, Gussenhoven, Ladd, Féry, Grabe, Peters, ToDI...) 2. an interpolation between a high accent and a following boundary L (Bolinger, Pierrehumbert, MAE-ToBI, GToBI) Experiment I (Sentence adverbs): The steep fall in ‘Jackknife’ does not define a boundary, unlike the steep fall before low plateau. Experiment II (Tone Concord): ditto, plus: the rise of the peak is the interpolation, the fall is the pitch accent

I don’t think she meant to say that ADDITION, PROCLAIMING, NEUTRAL, STATEMENT, NEW,.. Semantic consensus

I don’t think she meant to say that Phonological consensus

Each tone is a morpheme (almost: Hirschberg & Pierrehumbert 1990); find no semantic evidence for tone grouping. L+H*: phonological grouping (MAE-ToBI, GToBI): on-ramp. H*L: morphological grouping (’British’, ToDI): off-ramp Some analyses teaspoon: Morphology:[ti:] [spu:n] *[ti:s] [ pu:n] Phonology:/t/ /i:/ /s/ /p/ /u:/ /n/ Diphthongs: / I i, U u/; syllables: ?(ti:(s)pu:n) ?(ti:)(spu:n)

Semantic consensus TESTING, REFERRAL, NOT NEW, INTERROGATIVE,.. Are you really considering that option?

Phonological consensus Are you really considering that option?

The Great Divide British/European: Off-ramp American: On-ramp Crystal, Halliday, ToDI, Féry, Bolinger, Pierrehumbert, Grabe, Peters MAE-ToBI

L+H* L- L% L* H- H% MAE-ToBI vs ToDI MAE-ToBI

%L H*L L% %L L*H H% MAE-ToBI vs ToDI ToDI

1 On-ramp implies one more right-hand boundary than off- ramp: predictions of boundaries. 2 On-ramp implies first half defines identity, off-ramp implies second half defines identity. Some consequences of LH vs HL

Main features of ToDI DISPLACEMENT: Trailing tone of pre-nuclear pitch accents is pronounced rightmost (1984: Partial tone- linking, also: right-alignment) CONTINUATION: Morpheme-final tones continue targets (until next morpheme or end of phrase is encountered) (‘double alignment’, 2000, 2004, 2005) Pre-nuclear H*LH (cf. O’Connor & Arnold’s Jackknife, 1984) ToDI

Main features of ToDI H*, L* H*L, L*H; prenuclear H*LH(; nuclear H*H) %L,%H L%,H%, % (DOWNSTEP-morpheme) (L*-prefixation) (H-prefixation) ToDI

and we then kept ALL the bottles that had a dePOSit on them %L H*L H*L L% DISPLACEMENT CONTINUATION ToDI

and we then kept ALL the bottles that had a dePOSit on them %L H*LH H*L L% DISPLACEMENT CONTINUATION ToDI

and did you keep ALL the bottles that had a dePOSit on them %L H* L*H H% CONTINUATION ToDI CONTINUATION

and did you keep ALL the bottles that had a dePOSit on them %L H*L L*H H% ToDI

and we then kept all the bottles that had a dePOSit on them %L H* % CONTINUATION ToDI CONTINUATION

maar kep NIET gezegd dat we niet toe moeten naar herverdeling van ARbeid ‘But I haven’t said we shouldn’t consider redistribution of labour’ (Neelie Smit-Kroes) %L H*L H*L L% ToDI’s tritonal prenuclear H*LH %L H*LH% %L H*L L% %L H*LH H*L L%

Research question Does a steep F0 fall from an accented syllable signal an IP-boundary? Methodology Semantic judgements about F0 contours on two-accent source utterances that are disambiguated by an IP-boundary Experiment I: English

Verbal adverb vs. sentence adverb She TREATED the poor man(,) HONESTLY I THOUGHT she responded(,) ODDLY He NEVER acted(,) STRANGELY He DEALT with the woman(,) HONESTLY Experiment I: English

f0 manipulation on durationally hybridized source utterances by female AmE speaker - Three pitch accents H*L, H*LH and H* (all before H*L L%) - Boundary vs No boundary - %L and %H - Female speaker read eight sentences (two sets of four) - Durational hybrids were created by judicious splicing and cutting of sections in the speech wave form, per segment. - Two sentences used the ‘comma’ source utterances, two the ‘no comma’ source utterances - 12 F0 contours on each hybridized speech files (i.e. only f0 varied) Experiment I: English

2 x 6 contours %H%L H*L (L% %L) H*L L% %H%L H*LH (% %L) H*L L% %H%L *H ( % %L) H*L L% Experiment I: English %L %H

%H%L H*L L% %L H*L L% %H%L H*L H% %L H*L L% %H%L *H H*L L% %H%L H*L H*L L% %H%L H*LH H*L L% %H%L *H % %L H*L L% Experiment I: English

Task - Pairs of contours: which is more likely to have the comma? (‘1, 2 or neither’); ditto ‘lack’ - %L and %H sets of 5 x 6 contour pairs - Sentences and contours Latin-squared - 15 American English subjects (12 vs 3 per order) Experiment I: English

Your task in this 10-minute experiment is to listen to a number of pairs of sentences and to decide which of the two pronunciations expresses better that there is coherence between the verb and adverb. You do that by checking either the first or the third box. In the following example, the listener judged that the second pronunciation of the sentence more clearly expresses that there is coherence between the verb and the adverb, i.e. that the treatment of his case was honest: She dealt with him honestly In the next example, the listener thought that her treatment was honest: 1 She dealt with him honestly You are always encouraged to make a decision. You will find that... She dealt with him honestly Experiment I: English

Your task in this 10-minute test experiment is to listen to a number of pairs of sentences and to decide which of the two pronunciations expresses the ‘comma intonation’ better. You do that by checking either the first or the third box. In the following example, the listener judged that the second pronunciation of the sentence more clearly expressed the comma than the first: She dealt with him, honestly In the next example, the listener thought that the first better expressed the comma: She dealt with him, honestly You are always encouraged to make a decision. You will find that often... She dealt with him, honestly Experiment I: English

Conclusions 1. Steep fall followed by rise (the ‘Jackknife’ of O’Connor & Arnold) does not define a boundary; 2. Off-ramp analyses (British, ToDI) are supported if H*LH is accepted. A rival analysis is L+H*+L followed by H+H*. Neither of these are available in MAE-ToBI. Experiment I: English And something needs to be done such that H+H* and H+L* always appear after L+H*+L.

Tone Concord Experiment II: Dutch (e.g. Wells 2006, Intonation) - Identical melodic structure - separated by an IP-boundary Pitch accents

Tone Concord Experiment II: Dutch - Apposition Mr. Evans, the butcher (cf. John the Baptist) - Reformulation They had about ten, about a dozen - Optional adverbial Act normally, like William - Non-restrictive relative clauses He chose to keep the watch, which was never repaired -...

Tone Concord Experiment II: Dutch - Restrictive apposition Mr. Evans, the butcher (cf. John the Baptist) - Reformulation They had about a dozen, more than ten - Optional adverbial vs. modal adverb ‘Act normally, like William’ - Non-restrictive relative clauses He chose to keep the watch, which was never repaired Doe gewoon, zoals Willem ‘Act normally, like William’ vs Doe gewoon zoals Willem ‘Just act like William’

Two hypotheses 1 No boundary after prenuclear H*LH (like English experiment) 2 The off ramp (=the fall from the peak) represents the pitch accent (and not the on-ramp=the rise to the peak) Experiment II: Dutch

Two hypotheses 1 No boundary after prenuclear H*LH (like English experiment) 2 The off ramp (=the fall from the peak) represents the pitch accent (and not the on-ramp=the rise to the peak) Experiment II: Dutch Semantic difference due to ±bounday (identical melodies) Semantic difference due to variation in shape of pre-nuclear pitch accent (+boundary)

Identification experiment Semantic task: meaning modal adverb or otherwise? Female speaker 3 ambiguous words 2 two sentence lengths 6 contours (Praat, f0 manipulation) 5-point scale Two counterbalanced orders, reversed scales 5 filler contours 20 listeners Experiment II: Dutch

Materials Hij zit alleen in het café Hij zit alleen met die man in het café Doe maar gewoon zoals Willem Doe maar gewoon hier zoals Willem Ze zit vast op de snelweg Ze zit vast met dat ding op de snelweg Experiment II: Dutch

Materials He is simply/alone in the pub Hij is simply/alone with that man in the pub Just act -/normally like William Just act -/normally here like William She is surely/stuck on the motorway She is surely/stuck with that thing on the motorway Experiment II: Dutch

zonder anderen in ’t café [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] slechts in ’t café repeated stimulus presentation doe normaal, zoals Willem [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] doe maar net als Willem in een file op de snelweg [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] zeker op de snelweg Experiment II: Dutch

%L H*L L% %L H*L H% %L L*H % %L L*H H% Experiment II: Dutch

%L H*L L% %L H*L H% %L L*H % %L L*H H%

%L H*L H*L L% %L H*LH H*L H% %L L*H L*H H%

No boundary -> Modal meaning Boundary -> Concord Experiment II: Dutch

Hypothesis

‘She’s surely there?’ is semantically incongruous

Identity of pitch accent Experiment II: Dutch %L H*L % %L H*L L% % L+H* L- % L+H* L- L%

On-ramp (ToBI) vs Off-ramp (ToDI) %L H*L %L H*L L% % L+H* L- L% Experiment II: Dutch %L H* %L H*L L% % L+H* L- L% %H H*L %L H*L L% %H H* L- L% % L+H* L- L%

hij zit alleen in het café hij zit alleen met die man in het café %H H*L % %L H*L L% %L H* % %L H*L L% %L H*L % %L H*L L%

Non-identity -> Modal meaning Identity -> Concord Experiment II: Dutch

Hypothesis Experiment II: Dutch

??He is aLONE with that man in the PUB ‘alone’ has shifted to ‘only’ Experiment II: Dutch

Conclusions Pre-nuclear H*LH exists (Jackknife has no boundary after first peak) An accentual peak is a fall, not a rise. Listeners respond sensibly to meaning identification task. Experiment II: Dutch

1. Two meaning identification tasks, one for English and one for Dutch, show that pre- nuclear steep falls exist, analysed as H*LH 2. Tone Concord for a pitch peak is perceived when a fall precedes, not when a rise precedes. This suggests a peak is (L) H*L, not L+H* (L). 3. The morphological and phonological structure of the intonation of West Germanic is an under-researched field. Conclusion

Thank you for your attention