29 novembre 2014 — Journées d’étude LeCSeL
Première journée d’étude du groupe LeCSeL
Une journée d’étude sur la linguistique empirique aura lieu le samedi 29 novembre 2014, 10h-17h, en D008/010 (rez-de-chaussée, bâtiment D), Université Paris 8 (métro : Saint-Denis Université).
Abstracts
Some examples of comparison of acoustic characteristics in L1, L2 and interference
Jaqueline Vaissière (LPP, Paris 3 / IUF)
Stance constructions in computer-mediated and spoken discourse in English
Nele Põldvere (Lund University, Sweden)
This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part of the talk I will present a study that looks at the use of epistemic and evidential stance verbs on an online bulletin board. With the help of both qualitative and quantitative corpus techniques, I expect to find support to the hypothesis that epistemic and evidential stance verbs are important markers of social status in such communities. In the second part of the talk I will turn to spoken discourse and propose an upcoming study that would deal with the grammaticalization of epistemic and evidential complement-taking predicates and their functional characteristics in spoken British English.
Cross-gender acoustic differences in Parisian French and American English speakers
Erwan Pépiot (LECSeL, Paris 8)
Many studies were conducted on acoustic differences between female and male voices. However, they were generally led on speakers of only one language, and focused on a single acoustic parameter. The present study is an acoustic analysis of dissyllabic words or pseudo-words produced by 10 Northeastern American English speakers (5 females, 5 males) and 10 Parisian French speakers (5 females, 5 males). Vowel formant frequencies, spectral centre of gravity of voiceless consonants, mean f0, f0 range, VOT, H1-H2 intensity differences and words’ duration were measured. Significant cross-gender differences were obtained for each tested parameter. Moreover, cross-language variations were observed for f0 range, vowel formants and H1-H2 differences. These results suggest that cross-gender acoustic differences are partly language dependent and therefore, socially constructed.
The contribution of person deixis to the construction and to the discourse context
Barbara De Cock (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium)
In this talk, I will show how person deixis is in essence related to the construction in which it occurs and to the discourse context. In order to do so, I will propose a detailed analysis of some non-prototypical uses of person reference, among others generic seconds, pluralis maiestatis. On the one hand, I will show how the construction and the discourse context help us interpret the person reference form correctly and, on the other hand, how non-prototypical person reference uses contribute to shaping a specific discourse context and even discourse genre. The analysis will be based on examples taken from English, French, Spanish, German and Dutch.
Research in prosodic transfer from a typological perspective : the case of the phonetic realization of relative prominence
Motoko Ueyama (University of Bologne, Italy)
The effect of L1 characteristics on L2 speech has been investigated extensively at the segmental level, and the major L2 speech learning models have also developed mostly based on segmental data. In the present study we investigate how L1 prosodic features affect L2 prosodic patterns (i.e., prosodic transfer) in the production of L2 Japanese-L1 English speech, focusing on the rhythmic aspect of L2 prosody. The investigation of this L2 type is interesting, since Japanese and English are typologically very different in terms of their prosodic characteristics. Three domains of L2 rhythmic organization are experimentally investigated : 1) how acoustic characteristics of L1 English stress affect the production of L2 Japanese pitch accents ; 2) effects of L1 English phonetic durational contrast between tense and lax vowels on the production of L2 Japanese phonemic vowel contrast ; 3) effects of L1 English lapse & culminativity constraints on the production of L2 Japanese unaccented utterances.
The grammar and prosody of topic transition in American English conversation
Marine Riou (Paris 3)
In talk-in-interaction, speakers can mobilize different strategies to cue a topic transition. This mixed methods study analyses the contribution of some these markers : prosody, questions and discourse markers – with insights from conversations in which one of the participants suffers from schizophrenia.
Lule Saami supergeminates : an acoustic and phonological study
Nora Fangel-Gustavson (LPP, Paris 3)
Lule Saami, an indigenous language of Northern Europe, is one of the few known languages in the world to present a three-way consonantal quantity system. Word-medial non-cluster consonants can occur with three different degrees of length ; sometimes referred to as quantity (Q) 1, 2 and 3, or as singletons, geminates and supergeminates. Ternary quantity contrasts (for consonants and/or vowels) are cross-linguistically rare, and the phonological representation of such contrasts has been the subject of much debate. This study has a dual purpose ; firstly, to describe the results of an acoustic experiment designed to determine the manner in which the three-way quantity opposition is phonetically implemented in Lule Saami, and secondly, to discuss the relationship between the phonetic manifestation of Lule Saami (super)geminates and their phonological representation.
Integrating verbal, vocal and visuo-gestural resources to take stance in British English conversation
Camille Debras (Paris 10)
This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part of the talk I will present a study that looks at the use of epistemic and evidential stance verbs on an online bulletin board. With the help of both qualitative and quantitative corpus techniques, I expect to find support to the hypothesis that epistemic and evidential stance verbs are important markers of social status in such communities. In the second part of the talk I will turn to spoken discourse and propose an upcoming study that would deal with the grammaticalization of epistemic and evidential complement-taking predicates and their functional characteristics in spoken British English.
A short sketch of production of Nepalese Coronals : relation between lingual configuration and the place of articulation
Rajesh Khatiwada (LPP, Paris 3)
In languages that possess retroflex and simple dental coronals, tongue retroflexion (i.e. the tongue tip curling back against the palatal region) is considered the primary articulatory parameter to distinguish the abovementioned two phonological categories (Bhat 1973, Ladefoged & Bhaskararao 1983, Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996). Pokharel, however, emphasized that the Nepalese “so-called” retroflex is not produced with the “tongue tip curling back” as it is described in traditional grammar (Pokharel 1988). According to Pokharel, it is produced as a simple apico-alveolar consonant.
Through two different palatographic studies presented here, it is shown that, contrary to Pokharel’s claim, Nepalese retroflex consonants are produced either with or without the tongue tip curling back (i.e. with or without retroflexion). Based on these experimental studies, I consider Nepalese “apico-alveolar” types to be produced with a particular tongue tip configuration, defined as “cacuminal”. Following Hála (1964), we propose that the two phonetic categories “retroflex” and “cacuminal” constitute a single phonological category in Nepali.
The palatographic studies show that in the production of the two phonetic categories, the lingual configuration is more important than the place of articulation. The specification of the latter, in this case a passive articulator, is determined by the lingual configuration in question. The further the tongue is curled back, the more posterior is the place of articulation.
Analysing the role of attribution in the construction of stance in scientific popularizations in English
Izaskun Elorza (University of Salamanca, Spain)
My aim is to show how popularizations make use of the meaning potential of both newspaper discourse and scientific discourse in order to construct stance along the narration of scientific findings, with a special emphasis on the aspects of these polyphonic texts referring to the use of speech (re)presentation of external voices as a crucial rhetorical strategy which seeks to comply with the expectations of newspaper readers.
