Project A3

1st Phase - Rhetorical structure in spoken language: modeling of global prosodic parameters

The project investigates the correlation between rhetorical and prosodic structure of spoken discourse. The rhetorical structure influences especially global and prosodic parameters of utterances, such as pitch range, break duration or changes of the spoken rate. Previous works in this field have mostly tried to establish a direct correlation between single phonetical parameters and a usually heavily simplified discourse structure. The aim of the project is however to work out a more extensive categorial model of the global prominence within the modeling of local prominence phenomena, the assumption of a categorial phonological level of description which intermediates between the representation level of information structure or lexical metrical representation level respectively and the phonetical level of realization is unquestioned. We assume that such a phonological component is crucial for the comprehension and the modeling of discourse prosodic phenomena, especially for a better comprehension of the interaction between global (rhetorical structure) and local (information structure) prominence phenomena. The project will discuss the following questions:

  • Which aspects of the rhetorical structure are relevant for the prosodic encoding of discourse? (attending production and perception)
  • Which phonetical parameter is needed in order to realize global prominence? (Phonetical analysis in the domain f0, duration and intensity)
  • How do global and local prominence components interact? (accent range vs. pitch range; defocusing, deaccenting, second occurrence focus)

Download full description

Principal Investigators

  • Dr. Jörg Mayer

Former Staff Members

  • Dr. Katja Jasinskaja
  • Ulrike Kölsch

Activities

February 2007 Workshop Jasinskaja, E.: Nuclear Accent Placement and Resolution of Anaphoric Pronouns. Workshop: The 8th Szklarska Poreba Workshop on the Roots of Pragmasemantics, Szklarska Poreba, Poland.
January 2007 Guest lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Doing discourse relations by topics and implicatures. University of Oslo, Norway.
January 2007 Workshop Zeevat, H. & Jasinskaja, E.: Judgments -and not propositions- settle topics. Workshop: What's the Topic? Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
December 2006 Invited Talk Jasinskaja, E.: Pragmatics and Prosody of Implicit Discourse Relations: The Case of Restatement Talk in the Sematikzirkel. ZAS, Berlin.
December 2006 Invited Talk Jasinskaja, E.: Pragmatics of Implicit Discourse Relations: Evidence from Spontaneous Speech. Invited Talk am Institut for German als Fremdsprachenphilologie. University Heidelberg.
November 2006 Invited Talk Jasinskaja, E.: Doing Discourse Relations by Topics and Implicatures. Invited Talk at the DIP Colloquium, Department of Philosophy/ILLC, University of Amsterdam.
September 2006 Tagungsbeitrag Jasinskaja, E.: Nominal Restatement Talk at Sinn und Bedeutung 11, Barcelona, Spain.
July 2006 Tagungsbeitrag Jasinskaja, E.: Non-Canonical Applications of Topic Continuity: Restatement and Elaboration. Talk at the 2nd Workshop on Constraints in Discourse. Maynooth, Ireland.
July 2006 Invited Talk Jasinskaja, E.: Topics in Prosody and Discourse Interpretation. Guest lecture at ERSS. Université de Toulouse le Mirail.
Summer 2006 Seminar Jasinskaja, E. & Schlangen, D.: Diskurs- und DialogColloquium. University Potsdam.
Summer 2006 Vorlesung Mayer, J.: Diskursprosodie. Lecture course - Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
June 2006 Poster Jasinskaja, E.: Pragmatics and Prosody of Implicit Discourse Relations: The case of restatement. Poster at the International Conference "Information Structure between Linguistic Theory and Empirical Methods", University of Potsdam.
June 2006 Poster Jasinskaja, E., Kölsch, U. & Mayer, J.: Anaphora Resolution in Discourse: The Role of Pitch Range and Pause. Poster at the International Conference "Information Structure between Linguistic Theory and Empirical Methods", University of Potsdam.
May 2006 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Doing Discourse Relations by Gricean Implicature and QUDs. Talk in the Discourse and Dialogue Colloquium, Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam.
November 2005 Lecture Mayer, J.: The linguistic interpretation of discourse prosody. Lund University.
September 2005 Poster Jasinskaja, E., Kölsch, U. & Mayer, J.: Global prosodic parameters and anaphora resolution. Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence: IDP05 (Interface Discourse Prosody Symposium).
June 2005 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Implicit Causal Relations in Discourse. Colloquium - Universitiy of Potsdam: Discourse Colloquium.
April 2005 Seminar Jasinskaja, E.: DiskursColloquium. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
May 2005 Invited Talk Mayer, J.: Linguistic interpretation of global prosodic parameters. Talk in the Cognitive Science Colloquium. Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam.
November 2004 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Applying Various Theories of Exhaustification to the Analysis of Restatements. Colloquium - Universitiy of Potsdam: Discourse Colloquium.
October 2004 - February 2005 Seminar Jasinskaja, E. & Mayer, J.: DiskursColloquium. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
September 2004 Lecture Mayer, J.: Work in progress on discourse prosody. Lund University.
August 2004 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Exhaustification and Semantic Relations in Discourse. ESSLLI'2004 Nancy, France: Workshop on Implicature and Conversational Meaning.
July 2004 Lecture Mayer, J.: The Pragmatics of Phonology. Workshop - University Potsdam: Sprachlautliche Kompetenz: Zwischen Grammatik, Signalverarbeitung und neuronaler Aktivität.
July 2004 Seminar Jasinskaja, E. & Mayer, J.: DiskursColloquium. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
June 2004 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Discourse Semantics of Prosodic Finality: Experimental Evidence for a Joint Effect of Prosody and Conjunction in Russian. Colloquium - Potsdam: Phonetik und Phonologie 1.
April 2004 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Do we need a phonological layer to represent discourse prosody ? Talk at the Phonology Colloquium. Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam.
December 2003 Lecture Jasinskaja, E.: Introduction to Praat: The Basics. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
Sommersemester 2003 Vorlesung Mayer, J.: Diskursprosodie. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.
February 2003 Seminar Mayer, J.: Diskursprosodie. Institut for Linguistik, University Potsdam.