Catégorie d'événements : Séminaires

Especially for impaired speech, the concept of articulatory undershoot and overshoot is important allowing for different degrees of temporal and spatial modulations. However, it can be difficult to
determine whether the speech output is the direct result of a perturbated speech system or learnt compensatory strategies in speakers with chronic motor speech impairments due to neurological
conditions (Mücke et al. 2014; Thies et al 2021). The discrepancies between the empirical-based movement contours and modelled predictions exemplify the vast challenges when trying to map
phonetic contours to phonological forms. I will compare the effects of healthy aging and Parkinson’s disease on speech motor performance. In addition, I will conclude that the speech system seems to be affected by age and disease but speakers develop compensatory strategies.

Prosody, the rhythmic and tonal organization of speech, plays an integral role in communication. I will discuss, how categorical and gradient changes can be understood as the scaling of one control parameter modulating different prosodic dimensions at the same time and how modulations can change in relative importance when investigating different speaking styles, such as loud and habitual speech (Roessig & Mücke 2019; Pagel et al. 2021). From a methodological perspective, I will also demonstrate the relative importance of acoustic and articulatory variables conducted on a dataset on focus marking in German and relate the results to the question of errors in the interpretation of phonetic data (Mücke et al. 2020).

The dynamical systems theory has been applied to the coordination of e.g., limb movements (finger, arm, legs) and has been extended to linguistic theory (Haken et al. 1985). An important component of dynamical systems is the concept of point attractors, which are stable states in the continuous phase space the system travels towards. I will showcase how these attractors help to understand the variability in speech output and its relation to linguistic functions, e.g., when investigating sound change, phonological alternations or prosodic prominence on the segmental and intonational tiers (Browman & Goldstein 1986; Gafos & Benus 2006; Roessig & Mücke 2019).

Lectures 3-4: Contrast and Dispersion in Handshapes in a Village Sign Language

We provide an analysis of the distribution of handshapes on the dominant and non-dominant hand in the incipient village sign language found in the Maxakal´ı community in Brazil. The most frequent handshapes reflect tendencies in choosing from the crosslinguistically unmarked set of handshapes, and are particularly well-suited to quantitative analyses of handshape complexity found in models such as Ann (2006) and Brentari (2003), in addition to favouring a core set chosen from the most maximally dispersed handshapes. This in fact suggests that emergent sign languages, no matter how young, show quantitative correlations between token frequency and articulatory complexity, despite tendencies that they may have otherwise to be iconically referential. We demonstrate that these trends hold for the non-dominant hand as well, an element of sign language phonologies with no analogue in the spoken domain. Finally, we demonstrate how allophonic thumb extension can be understood as contrast enhancement in signed languages, leading to a visual analogue of acoustic prominence.

Lectures 3-4: Contrast and Dispersion in Handshapes in a Village Sign Language

We provide an analysis of the distribution of handshapes on the dominant and non-dominant hand in the incipient village sign language found in the Maxakal´ı community in Brazil. The most frequent handshapes reflect tendencies in choosing from the crosslinguistically unmarked set of handshapes, and are particularly well-suited to quantitative analyses of handshape complexity found in models such as Ann (2006) and Brentari (2003), in addition to favouring a core set chosen from the most maximally dispersed handshapes. This in fact suggests that emergent sign languages, no matter how young, show quantitative correlations between token frequency and articulatory complexity, despite tendencies that they may have otherwise to be iconically referential. We demonstrate that these trends hold for the non-dominant hand as well, an element of sign language phonologies with no analogue in the spoken domain. Finally, we demonstrate how allophonic thumb extension can be understood as contrast enhancement in signed languages, leading to a visual analogue of acoustic prominence.

Lectures 1-2: Nasality: Enhancement, Position, and Place of Articulation

We propose that contour nasals such as [mb,mb] come from three principal sources. One source, articula- torily driven, comes from underlying voiced stops, as nasal venting in order to sustain voicing. The other, perceptually driven, comes from underlying nasal consonants, as shielding next to contrastively oral vow- els. Although both of these first processes are phonetically well motivated, we argue that the contoured allophones specifically arise in languages in which systemic or phonotactic restrictions allow for easy re- coverability of the corresponding underlying segment. Finally, we present a few cases of contour nasals in preconsonantal contexts that seem to be neither venting nor shielding, and suggest that these arise due to place-of-articulation enhancement in clusters, arguably behind intrusive nasals in cases like Spanish rambla (< ramla). We offer diagnostics for distinguishing nasal venting from shielding and present case studies from South American languages in which understanding such phenomena as enhancement involves analyt- ical commitments to what is contrastive in the language. We then present a maximum entropy model of loanword adaptation for nasal harmonization in languages that borrow from Portuguese, which has nasality but with no onset-vowel dependencies.

Lectures 1-2: Nasality: Enhancement, Position, and Place of Articulation

We propose that contour nasals such as [mb,mb] come from three principal sources. One source, articula- torily driven, comes from underlying voiced stops, as nasal venting in order to sustain voicing. The other, perceptually driven, comes from underlying nasal consonants, as shielding next to contrastively oral vow- els. Although both of these first processes are phonetically well motivated, we argue that the contoured allophones specifically arise in languages in which systemic or phonotactic restrictions allow for easy re- coverability of the corresponding underlying segment. Finally, we present a few cases of contour nasals in preconsonantal contexts that seem to be neither venting nor shielding, and suggest that these arise due to place-of-articulation enhancement in clusters, arguably behind intrusive nasals in cases like Spanish rambla (< ramla). We offer diagnostics for distinguishing nasal venting from shielding and present case studies from South American languages in which understanding such phenomena as enhancement involves analyt- ical commitments to what is contrastive in the language. We then present a maximum entropy model of loanword adaptation for nasal harmonization in languages that borrow from Portuguese, which has nasality but with no onset-vowel dependencies.

Plus d’informations dans la brochure du webinar: Flyer_Webinar_MonPaGe_Juillet_2021 (pdf)

Ce dernier séminaire permettra de rassembler les thèmes, données et méthodes explorés dans les
semaines précédentes et d’en considérer les implications au niveau théorique, tant pour les modèles de
représentation phonologique que pour les théories d’apprentissage linguistique. Au niveau des
représentations, nous discuterons de la validité des traits phonologiques abstraits (sans définition
phonétique précise; p.ex. le trait [continu], lequel ne permet pas de distinction entre consonnes fricatives et
approximantes). Au niveau des théories d’apprentissage, nous comparerons les prédictions des modèles
plus classiques (p.ex. ceux utilisés dans les approches universalistes émanant de Jakobson 1941) aux
prédictions théoriques basées sur les modèles émergentistes proposés depuis le début des années 2000
introduits au premier séminaire.
Lecture suggérée: Rose, Y. 2014. The Emergence of First Language Phonology: Perception, Articulation and
Representation. New Directions in the Acquisition of Romance Languages: Selected Proceedings of the
Romance Turn V, 35–61. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Ce troisième séminaire sera un atelier pratique sur ordinateur dédié à l’analyse de corpus à l’aide du logiciel
Phon (https://www.phon.ca), lequel permet d’intégrer analyses phonologiques (à partir de transcriptions
phonétiques) et phonétiques (à partir de mesures du signal acoustique). Au cours de cet atelier, nous
explorerons de manière concrète les méthodes d’analyse de patrons de production phonologiques et de
mesure acoustiques supportées dans Phon. Les participants à ce séminaire seront dès lors en mesure
d’utiliser cet outil de pointe pour leurs recherches futures. Nous aborderons aussi les questions
méthodologiques essentielles à l’étude de corpus de données phonétiques et phonologiques, par exemple
concernant les relations entre transcriptions phonétiques et leur étude au niveau acoustique et leur étude à
l’intérieur du cadre d’analyse intégré et convivial offert par Phon, lequel incorpore les fonctions d’analyse
acoustique du logiciel Praat. Ces sujets sont pertinents tant pour les études d’acquisition en langue première
ou subséquente que pour les études cliniques.
Lecture suggérée: Rose, Y. & B. MacWhinney. 2014. The PhonBank Project: Data and Software-Assisted
Methods for the Study of Phonology and Phonological Development. The Oxford Handbook of Corpus
Phonology, 380–401. Oxford: Oxford University Press