Experimental investigations on the prosody of Hungarian exclamatives Katalin Mády 1, Beáta Gyuris 1 & Ádám Szalontai 2 1 RIL HAS, 2 Eötvös Loránd University 30 May 2013 Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 1 / 55
Background on exclamatives The exclamative in the system of sentence types The notion of sentence type (Sadock and Zwicky 1985) sentence type: a coincidence of grammatical structure and conventional conversational use (p. 155) An illustration: the combination of verb-subject word order and rising final intonation in the following English sentences: (1) a. Have they finished installing the furnace? b. Are you tired of plucking penguins? is associated with one use, that of asking a yes-no question (a request that the person you are addressing tell you whether the proposition you have supplied to him is true or not.) (p. 155) Sadock, J. M. and Arnold M. Zwicky. 1985. Speech Act Distinctions in Syntax. In Shopen, T. (ed) Language Typology and Syntactic Description. CUP, 155-196. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 2 / 55
Background on exclamatives The exclamative in the system of sentence types The inventory of sentence types A cross-linguistically-useful definition of sentence types must... be based on formal criteria: the sentence types, or, more specifically, the formal properties characterizing those types should ideally form a system of alternative choices that are mutually exclusive such that each sentence token can be assigned to one type and no sentence token can be a member of more than one type (Sadock and Zwicky 1985:158) (König and Siemund 2007: 278)... most languages are similar in presenting three basic sentence types with similar functions and often strikingly similar forms. These are the declarative, interrogative, and imperative. (S & Z 1985:160) König, E. and P. Siemund 2007. Speech act distinctions in grammar. In Shopen, T. (ed.) Language Typology and Syntactic Description. CUP, 276-324. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 3 / 55
Background on exclamatives The exclamative in the system of sentence types Other sentence types (minor types) exclamations/exclamatory types (S & Z 1985), exclamatives (K & S 2007) imprecatives (expressing curses): Fuck you! optatives: (May) God bless you! prohibitives: Don t do that! hortatives: Let s go! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 4 / 55
Background on exclamatives Formal and interpretational features The interpretation of exclamatives according to K & S 2007... exclamations, the semantic counterpart of so-called exclamative sentences, are used for the performance of representative speech acts, i.e., for speech acts expressing a state of belief and making a claim about the world... the point of an exclamation is not really to inform the hearer(s) about some situation, but to express an affective response to what is taken to be a fact. More specifically, exclamations convey the speaker s surprise that some present situation is remarkable and thus seem to be used as expressive speech acts of a type not included in Searle s typology. Finally, exclamations relate to a scale or dimension and identify an extreme value. (p. 316) Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 5 / 55
Background on exclamatives Formal and interpretational features Formal structures/constructions expressing exclamations in English (K & S 2007) (2) a. He is so stupid / such an idiot! b. Isn t this great! (negation, can have rising intonation) c. How foolish he is! d. The speed they drive on the freeway! e. Man, is this kid intelligent! f. I can t believe how much he has grown! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 6 / 55
Background on exclamatives Formal and interpretational features The relation between exclamations and exclamatives, K & S 2007 great variety of structures and constructions that can be used to express exclamations (which are not to be dismissed as indirect speech acts) highly problematic to list exclamatives as a 4th basic sentence type only common denominator: intonation (falling contour + focus on the basic argument or the (scalar) predicate or on both) exclamative sentences : could be regarded as being the result of combining declarative or interrogative sentences with specific syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties (cf. Rosengren 1992, 1997) Rosengren, I. 1992. Zur Grammatik und Pragmatik der Exklamation. In Rosengren, I. (ed), Satz und Illokution. Volume 1. Tübingen: Niemeyer, pp 263-306. Rosengren, I. 1994. Expressive Sentence Types - A Contradiction in Terms. The Case of Exclamation. In Swan, T. and O. Jansen Westvik (eds), Modality in Germanic Languages, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 7 / 55
Background on exclamatives Prosody and sentence type Altmann s 1993 theory on (German) sentence types Formal features distinguishing sentence types in German (a feature is included if it can distinguish between two sentence types): the presence of certain elements: finite/nonfinite verbs, complementisers, subject pronouns, modal particles, wh-expressions morphological features: finiteness/nonfiniteness of verb, [+/-IMP], [+/-IND] word order: position of the verb intonation: position of sentence stress, type of stress, melody, final pitch Altmann treats exclamatives as representing a basic sentence type alongside declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives. Altmann, H. 1993. Satzmodus. In: Jacobs, J. et al. Syntax. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1006-1029. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 8 / 55
Background on exclamatives Prosody and sentence type Rosengren s 1992, 1994 theory on exclamatives based on Brandt et al. s 1992 approach to sentence types argues strongly against intonation being a marker of clause or sentence types, primarily on the basis of the fact that it cannot be used to differentiate between embedded clause types all exclamative sentences belong either to the declarative or the interrogative form types their special interpretational feature is orthogonal to those features that distinguish between sentence types this interpretational feature: the expression of a specific expressive illocutionary type, which is directly connected to emphatic stress. Brandt, M., M. Reis, I. Rosengren and I. Zimmerman. 1992. Satztyp, Satzmodus und Illokution. In: Rosengren, I. (ed), Satz und Illokution. Volume 1. (Linguistische Arbeiten 278), Niemeyer, Tübingen. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 9 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types Károly 1964 on the exclamative in Hungarian one of the five sentence types, having equal status with declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and optatives in order to be classified as an exclamative, a sentence has to satisfy the following four formal criteria: it must have a so-called emotional intonation, and it may not possess the defining features of optatives, imperatives or interrogatives the emotional intonation pattern (not specified closer) is not restricted to exclamatives, but can also appear on optatives, imperatives and interrogatives no specific intonation pattern characterising all exclamatives these assumptions are compatible with the possibility that the emotional intonation patterns of structurally different subtypes of exclamatives are different in Hungarian. Károly, S. 1964. A mondatfajták vizsgálata a funkció és a forma szempontjából. Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 66: 67-88. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 10 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives according to Keszler 2000, 1 Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types an utterance fragment containing an interjection or an interactional sentence-word : (3) Jaj a cselszövőknek! oh the schemers.dat Poor schemers! a full sentence (without an interjection) containing an intensifier particle (de, be) or a word having the role of a degree adverbial like olyan so, annyira so much, úgy that way : (4) Milyen jó zavartalanul olvasgatni! how good undisturbed read.inf How good it is to read undisturbed! Keszler, B. 2000. Magyar grammatika. Budapest, Nemzeti Könyvkiadó. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 11 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives according to Keszler 2000, 2 Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types combinations of the two kinds of features above: (5) Hű de szeretném ezt megkóstolni! oh but like.poss.1sg this.acc taste.inf Oh, how much I would like to taste this! sentences made exclamative only by means of the emotional intonation : (6) Itt a nyár! here the summer Summer is here! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 12 / 55
Background on exclamatives Lipták 2006 on Hungarian exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types wh-exclamatives: (7) Mennyi könyvet elolvastál! how.many book.acc pv.read.2sg You read so many books! de-exclamatives: (8) De sok könyvet elolvastál! but many book.acc pv.read.2sg You read so many books! relativised exclamatives: (9) Amennyi könyvet te elolvastál! rel.how.many book.acc you pv.read.2sg The number of books you read! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 13 / 55
Background on exclamatives Root wh-exclamatives in Lipták 2006, 1 Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types The classification and the proposals for the syntactic analysis relies significantly on observations made in Kálmán 2001 (by V. Trón). Class 1: wh-exclamatives and interrogatives are necessarily string-identical (10) Hova bújtak a gyerekek! where hid.3pl the children In what strange places the children hid! (11) Melyik könyvet vetted meg! which book.acc bought.2sg pv (I am surprised at) which book you bought! (12) *Melyik könyvet megvetted! which book.acc bought.2sg pv Intended: (I am surprised at) which book you bought! Kálmán L. (szerk.) 2001. Magyar leiró nyelvtan. Mondattan I. Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 14 / 55
Background on exclamatives Root wh-exclamatives in Lipták 2006, 2 Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types Class 2: the exclamative can only occur with the non-inverted order (13) Mennyire nőtt meg Éva? how.much grew.3sg pv Éva How much has Éva grown? (14) *Mennyire nőtt meg Éva! how.much grew.3sg pv Éva Intended: How much Éva has grown! (15) Mennyire megnőtt Éva! how.much pv.grew.3sg Éva How much Éva has grown! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 15 / 55
Background on exclamatives Root wh-exclamatives in Lipták 2006, 3 Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types Class 3: both word orders are possible (16) Hány könyvet megvettél! how.many book.acc pfx.bought.2sg You bought so many books! (17) Hány könyvet vettél meg! how.many book.acc bought.2sg pfx You bought so many books! (18) Hány könyvet vettél meg? how.many book.acc bought.2sg pfx How many books did you buy? Lipták, A. 2006. Word order in Hungarian exclamatives. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 53: 343-391. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 16 / 55
Lipták s analysis Background on exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types exclamatives with inversion: (19) [... [ FocP ExclP V 0 [ AspP pv... ]]] exclamatives without inversion (20) [... [ manyp ExclP [ AspP pfx-v [... ]]]] Lipták 2006 provides an exhaustive list of the wh-expressions that represent each of the above patterns. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 17 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types Previous observations on the prosody of Hungarian root exclamatives Lipták 2006: the two syntactic classes of exclamatives have an identical prosodic form, consisting of a stress on the E[xclamative]-phrase and falling intonation following it (p. 345, fn. 3). Kálmán 2001: the prosody of wh-exclamatives consists of a high tone followed by a slow descent (p. 137). Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 18 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types The prosody of root wh-interrogatives in Hungarian Assumptions about the prosody of root wh-interrogatives: They have an overall falling contour (Varga 2002). The wh-expression carries the strongest accent (É. Kiss 2002). The verb following the wh-expression is deaccented (Kálmán & Nádasdy 1994). wh-word carries a falling pitch accent and might be preceded by a high tone (Mycock 2010). É. Kiss, K. (2002): The syntax of Hungarian. Cambridge: University Press. Kálmán, L. & Nádasdy, Á. (1994): A hangsúly [On stress]. In: F. Kiefer (ed.), Strukturális magyar nyelvtan 2: fonológia. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 393 467. Mycock, L. (2010): Prominence in Hungarian: the prosody syntax connection. Transactions of the Philological Society 108 (3), 265 297. Varga, L. (2002): Intonation and stress: evidence from Hungarian. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 19 / 55
Background on exclamatives Exclamatives in the system of Hungarian sentence types The prosody of root wh-exclamatives in Hungarian? It s time to find out. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 20 / 55
Production experiment Production experiment For details see Gyuris, B. & Mády, K. (2013): Approaching the prosody of Hungarian wh-exclamatives. P. Szigetvári (ed.), VLLXX: Papers presenpted to László Varga on his 70th birthday. http://seas3.elte.hu/tmp/vlfs/gyuris-mady.html Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 21 / 55
Production experiment Material: sentence types Material and methods 1 Class 1: obligatory string-identity. Milyen rosszul főz? Milyen rosszul főz! How bad does (s)he cook? How bad (s)he cooks! Melyik játékot vette meg? Melyik játékot vette meg! Which toy did (s)he buy? Which toy (s)he bought! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 22 / 55
Production experiment Material: sentence types Material and methods 1 Class 1: obligatory string-identity. Milyen rosszul főz? Milyen rosszul főz! How bad does (s)he cook? How bad (s)he cooks! Melyik játékot vette meg? Melyik játékot vette meg! Which toy did (s)he buy? Which toy (s)he bought! 2 Class 2: no string-identity. Mennyire nőtt meg Hanna? Mennyire megnőtt Hanna! How tall has Hannah become? How tall Hanna has become! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 22 / 55
Production experiment Material: sentence types Material and methods 1 Class 1: obligatory string-identity. Milyen rosszul főz? Milyen rosszul főz! How bad does (s)he cook? How bad (s)he cooks! Melyik játékot vette meg? Melyik játékot vette meg! Which toy did (s)he buy? Which toy (s)he bought! 2 Class 2: no string-identity. Mennyire nőtt meg Hanna? Mennyire megnőtt Hanna! How tall has Hannah become? How tall Hanna has become! 3 Class 3: optional string-identity. Hány ember jött el? Hány ember eljött! / Hány ember jött el! How many people came? How many people came! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 22 / 55
Reading task Production experiment Material and methods Context: all sentences were embedded in a context text-finally. wh-interrogative: Azt mondod, Béla nem egy jó szakács. Meséld már el részletesebben! Milyen rosszul főz? They say Béla is not a great cook. Tell me more about it! How badly does he cook? wh-exclamative: Tegnap a barátnőm anyja meghívott ebédre. Azt a mindenit! Milyen rosszul főz! My girlfriend s mother invited me for lunch yesterday. Gee! How badly she cooks! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 23 / 55
Production experiment Material and methods Recordings 5 items within each sentence type 45 sentences, 2 repetitions, 5 speakers (3 females), recording by a head-mounted microphone connected to a laptop via an external sound card in a silent environment. altogether 450 stimuli. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 24 / 55
Production experiment Material and methods Analysis of tonal categories Labelling according to ToBI, but reflecting real f0 movements: pitch accent type, phrase-initial boundary tone (%H, %M, %L), phrase-final boundary tone (H%, M%, L%). In most languages, no phrase-initial boundary tone and no M(id) boundary tone is assumed but their relevance has to be tested for each language. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 25 / 55
Production experiment Material and methods Analysis of f0 parameters F0 maximum, f0 minimum and f0 range within the initial CVC-sequence of the wh-expression regardless of its syllable structure, sentence-initial f0, sentence-final f0. Statistical method: repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance. Significance level: p < 0.05. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 26 / 55
An example Production experiment Material and methods Left: interrogative, right: exclamative, by the same speaker. 320 300 320 300 250 250 200 200 Pitch (Hz) 150 100 mijen lassan ment Pitch (Hz) 150 100 mijen lassan ment H* L+H* %H L% 6.683 7.873 Time (s) %L M% 5.363 6.613 Time (s) Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 27 / 55
Production experiment Categorical analysis Pitch accent patterns count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Pitch accent type rising falling high low wh interrogatives count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Pitch accent type rising falling high low wh exclamatives High and falling pitch accents for interrogatives, mainly rising pitch accents for exclamatives. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 28 / 55
Production experiment Categorical analysis Phrase-final boundary tones count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Phrase final boundary tone L% M% H% wh interrogatives count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Phrase final boundary tone L% M% H% wh exclamatives L(ow) boundary tones for interrogatives, M(id) tones for exclamatives. %M tones are interpreted as %0 tones in some frameworks. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 29 / 55
Production experiment Categorical analysis Phrase-initial boundary tones Relevance of phrase-initial boundary tones not stated for Hungarian. count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Phrase initial boundary tone %H %L %M wh interrogatives count (n) 0 50 100 150 200 Phrase initial boundary tone %H %L %M wh exclamatives H(igh) boundary tones for interrogatives, non-high tones for exclamatives. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 30 / 55
Production experiment Parametrical analysis F0 maximum and minimum The sentences contained only one pitch accent (high, falling or rising). In exclamatives, the f0 peak was often located after the pitch-accented wh-word. Overall f0 maximum F0 minimum in accented CVC semitones 85 90 95 100 excl sentence type ir semitones 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 excl sentence type ir Significantly higher f0 maximum in interrogatives. F0 minimum and range are not reliable due to differences in wh-expression length (milyen vs. hol). Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 31 / 55
Production experiment Parametrical analysis Phrase-initial and -final f0 Sentence initial f0 Sentence final f0 semitones 85 90 95 semitones 80 82 84 86 88 90 excl sentence type ir excl sentence type ir Significantly higher initial f0 in interrogatives. Difference between final f0 non-significant (p > 0.1) categorical boundary tones. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 32 / 55
Production experiment Parametrical analysis Sentence types Tendencies are the same in all sentence types. No systematic difference in Class 3 sentences, where inversion for exclamatives is optional. The (non)-identity of strings has no impact on the degree of prosodic distinction between wh-interrogatives and wh-exclamatives. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 33 / 55
Production experiment Parametrical analysis Discussion I Wh-interrogatives and exclamatives are distinguished by the following prosodic features: Accent on wh-word: high and falling accents for interrogatives, rising accents for exclamatives. F0 is higher for interrogatives. Phrase-final boundaries: difference in boundary tone labels (Low vs. Mid), but actual f0 values differ only by 0.24 semitones. Phrase-initial boundaries: high boundaries for interrogatives, non-high ones for exclamatives. F0 difference: 6 semitones. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 34 / 55
Production experiment Parametrical analysis Discussion I Higher f0 maximum in interrogatives is possibly a by-product of the high phrase-initial boundary tone. Is the difference between the pitch accent patterns due to different phrase-initial boundary tones? Is the divergence between the categorical perception of phrase-final boundary tones and the actual f0 values connected to the prosodic differences sentence-initially? Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 35 / 55
Perception experiment Perception experiment Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 36 / 55
Perception experiment Goals What is the relevant prosodic category for distinguishing between wh-interrogatives and wh-exclamatives? 1 by their phrase-initial boundary tone, i. e. sentence-initial f0, 2 by their pitch accent pattern, 3 by their phrase-final boundary tone, i. e. sentence-final f0. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 37 / 55
Perception experiment Target sentences 11 pairs of target sentences, 1 pair = interrogative + root exclamative. (21) [DM 1 DM 2 Wh-expression V pv] Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 38 / 55
Perception experiment Target sentences: examples (22) Na de akkor MIlyen későn kelt fel? so but then how late got.up.3sg pv But then how late was it when he got up? (23) De hogy végül MIlyen későn kelt fel! so that finally how late got.3sg up But eventually how late it was by the time he got up! Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 39 / 55
Target stimuli Perception experiment Target sentences were spoken by a male speaker. Problem: it is not possible to have identical particles for interrogatives and exclamatives segmental and intensity cues were eliminated. f0 movements due tomicro prosodic changes were corrected entire sentence was synthesised into a human-like scwha-sound ( hum ) Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 40 / 55
Target stimuli Perception experiment 3 segments were cut from the sound files ini: initial 3 syllables of the discourse markers, med: the wh-element, fin: the final 2 syllables that had a relatively flat f0 curve. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 41 / 55
Stimuli Perception experiment The targets were analysed in terms of the f0 in exclamative and interrogative sentences. initial final f0 maximum peak range position excl 125 117 176 74 0.77 interr 150 130 213 97 0.33 p-value 0.0009 0.033 0.0001 0.009 0.0011 Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 42 / 55
Perception experiment Target sound: interrogative contour Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 43 / 55
Perception experiment Target sound: exclamative contour Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 44 / 55
Perception experiment Task 24 participants (7 females, 17 males, mean age: 42). Stimulus sound and two minimal pairs were presented (visually). The 3 chunks were presented independently: 6 presentations for each sentence pair. Task: binary forced choice task chunks heard were indicated visually, participants had to identify which sentence these came from, individually randomised order. Main task was preceded by a training session. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 45 / 55
Task Perception experiment Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 46 / 55
Task Perception experiment Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 47 / 55
Task Perception experiment Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 48 / 55
Perception experiment Results Analysis: based on the distribution of correctly identified utterances over sentence types and the position of the chunks. ini: correlated with phrase-initial boundary tone. med: alaways identical with the wh-expressions. fin: correlated with phase-final boundary tones. Differences between sentence types: χ 2 test. Differences between the number of correct identifications for each participant: repeated measures ANOVA. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 49 / 55
Perception experiment Results: correct responses ratio of correct identifications 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 Correctly identified sentence types interr excl ini med fin chunk position Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 50 / 55
Results Perception experiment Chunk position: impact on the number of correct identifications Investigated for each subject separately: repeated measures ANOVA No. of correct identifications: dependent variable, positions: within-subject factor. Results: highly significant difference interrogatives: p <0.0001 exclamatives: p = 0.003 Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 51 / 55
Perception experiment Discussion II Sentence-intial f0, the f0 pattern of the pitch accent and the sentence-final f0 contribute to the indentification of exclamatives and interrogatives. Sentence-initial f0: most reliable; 60% correct identifications in both cases. The unaccented left-edge of the sentence carries more relevant information with regard to sentence type than the the pitch accent or the sentence-final f0. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 52 / 55
Conclusions Relevance for research on prosody Emotional plus : emphasis is not necessarily expressed by higher f0 but alternatively by peak delay (Gussenhoven 2004). Emotional plus : the interplay of the non-high boundary tone and the delayed pitch accent might contribute to the overall perception of higher pitch. General finding: reliable identification based on phrase-initial chunks: an argument for the presence of phrase-initial boundary tones in Hungarian (see also Mycock 2010). Gussenhoven, C. (2004): The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: University Press. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 53 / 55
Conclusions Relevance for research on sentence types We have argued that the that the prosodic features of the two syntactic types of root wh-exclamatives discussed in Lipták 2006 do not differ significantly and that they are significantly different from the prosodic features of root wh-interrogatives. Should the relevant prosodic features be taken to contribute to the characterization of the relevant form types (wh-interrogative vs. wh-imperatives)? Preliminary evidence suggests that the relevant prosodic distinctions are not present in embedded wh interrogatives/imperatives. Suggestion: the prosodic features associated with root wh-exclamatives characterize exclamation acts. Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 54 / 55
Thanks to Hungarian Research Fund, PD 101050 and NK 100804 Andrea Deme Ádám Kurcz Mády, Gyuris & Szalontai (RIL HAS, ELTE) Prosody of Hungarian exclamatives 30 May 2013 55 / 55