The prosodic contours of Jaminjung, a language of northern Australia
This thesis is a description of the prosodic patterns in Jaminjung, a language spoken in the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is a quantitative and qualitative examination of the features associated with the intonational phenomena in Jaminjung. It is based on the idea that, while some aspects of prosody may be universal, each language has its unique characteristics. In this study I will make use of the PENTA model of intonation, a recent development that places communicative functions and articulatory constraints at the core of prosody, thus providing a clear explanation of prosodic phenomena, linking phonetics to semantics. The analyses are based on carefully selected representative tokens of the speech used in specific communicative situations by the Jaminjung speakers from recordings of spontaneous speech. The features associated with the grouping function, that is, in the demarcation or organization of a string of words (or rather syllables) into chunks, are examined. Four main prosodic constituents are recognized: the prosodic word, the phrasal constituent, the intonation unit, and the prosodic sentence. They are distinguished at their left boundaries by pitch resets
Simard, Candide
Prosody ; Australian languages ; Information structure ; PENTA model ; Intonation ; Intonational typology
The prosodic contours of Jaminjung, a language of northern Australia. This thesis is a description of the prosodic patterns in Jaminjung, a language spoken in the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is a quantitative and qualitative examination of the features associated with the intonational phenomena in Jaminjung. It is based on the idea that, while some aspects of prosody may be universal, each language has its unique characteristics. In this study I will make use of the PENTA model of intonation, a recent development that places communicative functions and articulatory constraints at the core of prosody, thus providing a clear explanation of prosodic phenomena, linking phonetics to semantics. The analyses are based on carefully selected representative tokens of the speech used in specific communicative situations by the Jaminjung speakers from recordings of spontaneous speech. The features associated with the grouping function, that is, in the demarcation or organization of a string of words (or rather syllables) into chunks, are examined. Four main prosodic constituents are recognized: the prosodic word, the phrasal constituent, the intonation unit, and the prosodic sentence. They are distinguished at their left boundaries by pitch resets
prosodic contour language northern australia description prosodic pattern language_speak river district northern territory australia quantitative_qualitative examination feature associate intonational phenomenon base_idea aspect prosody may universal language unique_characteristic study make_use model intonation recent_development place communicative_function articulatory constraint core prosody thus_provide clear explanation prosodic phenomenon link phonetics semantics analysis base carefully select representative token speech use specific communicative situation speaker record spontaneous_speech feature associate group function demarcation organization string word rather syllable examine four_main prosodic constituent recognize prosodic word phrasal constituent intonation unit prosodic sentence distinguish left boundary pitch reset