<p>Abstract</p><p>The aim of this essay is to establish whether or not the word foxy can serve to illustrate gender differences and gender stereotypes in English. The analysis is conducted by using one American English corpus and one British English corpus in order to make a comparison of the two English varieties. Apart from the comparative study, foxy is examined and categorized according to gender and a number of features to help answering the research questions which are:</p><p>• What difference in meaning, if any, does the word foxy carry when used for males, females and inanimate things?</p><p>• Can the word foxy serve to illustrate gender stereotypes in English?</p><p>• Are there any differences regarding how foxy is used in American English compared to British English?</p><p>Throughout the essay previous studies are presented, terms and tools that have been used are defined and argued for. One of the conclusions drawn in this study is that there is a significant difference in meaning when foxy is used in American English compared to British English. There are, however, also differences concerning the use of foxy when referring to males, females and inanimate things.</p><p>Keywords: Collocation, corpus studies, foxy, gender, language, linguistics, semantic prosody, stereotypes.</p>

Thesis--Heidelberg.

This dissertation provides experimental evidence for the validity of an intonational phonology. The widely used Autosegmental-Metrical theory con- tends that the phonological structure of intonation can be expressed with two tonal targets (L/H tones and derivatives) and retrieved from its phonetic im- plementations. However, it has not been specifically demonstrated so far in a systematic way. This dissertation argues that this view on intonational phonol- ogy considers the phonetic forms of intonation as instances of phonologically structured intonational units forming functionally discrete categories (tones and derivatives). The model of Pattern Recognition for Intonation (PRInt) applies the concepts of categorization (vagueness, prototype, degrees of typicality) to in- tonation in order to abstract the phonological structure of intonational cate- gories from the ranking, by degree of typicality, of their variations in phonetic implementation. First, instances belonging to an intonation category are collected. Sec- ond, a pattern recognition module, relying on the 4-layer structure protocol, extracts a feature vector from the phonetic data of each instance: a sequence of structurally organized tones (L/H tones and derivatives). Third, a fuzzy classifier, using two functions (frequency and similar- ity), organizes the data from the feature vectors of all instances by degree of typicality (grade of membership of values in multisets) and generates the phonological structure of the intonation category, the prototypical pattern, ex- tracted from all instances, and that subsumes them all. It also re-creates the phonetic implementations of the phonological structure but with their features ranked by degree of typicality. This allows the model to distinguish phono- logically distinct structures from phonetic variations of the same phonological structure. The model successfully extracted the phonological intonation structure associated to three modalities of closed questions in French: neutral, doubt- ful, and surprised. It found that neutral and doubtful closed questions are phonologically distinct while surprise is a phonetic allocontour of the neutral modality, in line with prior characterizations of these patterns. It demon- strated that a bi-tonal phonological structure of intonation can be retrieved from phonetic variations. A versatile modeling tool, PRInt will be developed to use its acquired knowledge to evaluate the categorical status of novel instances and to extract multiple phonological units from mixed corpora. / text

本文旨在探討現代漢語近義詞「買賣」、「交易」、「貿易」的異同，透過它們的搭配現象以及語意韻律的表現來進行討論。本文的語料來自「中央研究院漢語平衡語料庫」，根據搭配詞本身與「買賣」、「交易」、「貿易」的句法及語意關係來做為搭配詞的判斷，接著對於搭配詞的句法行為、語意功能以及框架要素再去做近一步的探討。 「買賣」、「交易」、「貿易」的前後搭配詞在句法上經常做名詞使用，在語意功能及框架要素方面，「買賣」及「交易」經常呈現交換者(exchanger)以及交換品(theme)兩個要素，「貿易」主要凸顯的是交換者(exchanger)。在語料裡，大部分的框架要素都呈現在前置搭配詞，主要有交換者(exchanger)、交換品(theme)、處所(location)、時間(time)、方式(manner)、頻率(frequency)；後置搭配詞有交換者(exchanger)、交換品(theme)、處所(location)、時間(time)、方式(manner)、頻率(frequency)、組織(organization)、條例(regulation)。在語意韻律方面，「買賣」及「交易」傾向和負面語意的前置搭配詞出現，而「貿易」則是有較多負面的後置搭配詞。透過共現行為及語意韻律的分析，本文系統性地呈現了「買賣」、「交易」、「貿易」的相似與相異處。 / This thesis explores three near-synonymous transaction words in Mandarin Chinese, maimai, jiaoyi, and maoyi. These three words are defined in a circular manner in the dictionary, and their meanings are not distinguishable. The present study aims to detect the similarities and differences among them via the examination of their collocational behaviors and semantic prosody. The data are extracted from Sinica Corpus, and the left-sided and right-sided collocates based on their syntactic and semantic relation to the node words are identified. Then, the collocated words are discussed in terms of their syntactic behaviors, semantic functions, and frame elements. The collocates of maimai, jiaoyi, and maoyi frequently function as nouns on both sides. The semantic functions and frame elements of both maimai and jiaoyi frequently express exchanger and theme in their instances, while for maoyi, exchanger and manner make up the majority of its frame elements. Most frame elements are profiled in the collocates. On the left side, there are exchanger, theme, location, time, manner and frequency. On the right side, there are exchanger, theme, location, time, manner, frequency, organization, and regulation. As for semantic prosody, most collocates are neutral. The left-sided collocates of maimai and jiaoyi tend to be negative words. Regarding the right-sided collocates, maoyi has more negative collocates than maimai and jiaoyi. With the collocational behaviors and semantic prosody analyzed, the study presents the similarities and differences of the three synonymous words in a systematic way.

The field of spoken language processing is concerned with creating computer programs that can understand human speech and produce human-like speech. Regarding the problem of understanding human speech, there is currently growing interest in moving beyond speech recognition (the task of transcribing the words in an audio stream) and towards machine listening—interpreting the full spectrum of information in an audio stream. One part of machine listening, the problem that this thesis focuses on, is the task of using information in the speech signal to infer a person’s emotional or mental state. In this dissertation, our approach is to assess the utility of prosody, or manner of speaking, in classifying speaker affect. Prosody refers to the acoustic features of natural speech: rhythm, stress, intonation, and energy. Affect refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes such as happiness, frustration, or uncertainty. We focus on one specific dimension of affect: level of certainty. Our goal is to automatically infer whether a person is confident or uncertain based on the prosody of his or her speech. Potential applications include conversational dialogue systems (e.g., in educational technology) and voice search (e.g., smartphone personal assistants). There are three main contributions of this thesis. The first contribution is a method for eliciting uncertain speech that binds a speaker’s uncertainty to a single phrase within the larger utterance, allowing us to compare the utility of contextually-based prosodic features. Second, we devise a technique for computing prosodic features from utterance segments that both improves uncertainty classification and can be used to determine which phrase a speaker is uncertain about. The level of certainty classifier achieves an accuracy of 75%. Third, we examine the differences between perceived, self-reported, and internal level of certainty, concluding that perceived certainty is aligned with internal certainty for some but not all speakers and that self-reports are a good proxy for internal certainty. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

Foreign accent can be everything from hardly detectable to rendering the second language speech unintelligible. It is assumed that certain aspects of a specific target language contribute more to making the foreign accented speech intelligible and listener friendly, than others. The present thesis examines a teaching strategy for Swedish pronunciation in second language education. The teaching strategy “Basic prosody” or BP, gives priority to temporal aspects of Swedish prosody, which means the temporal phonological contrasts word stress and quantity, as well as the durational realizations of these contrasts. BP does not prescribe any specific tonal realizations. This standpoint is based on the great regional variety in realization and distribution of Swedish word accents. The teaching strategy consists virtually of three directives: · Stress the proper word in the sentence. · Stress proper syllables in stressed words and make them longer. · Lengthen the proper segment – vowel or subsequent consonant – in the stressed syllable. These directives reflect the view that all phonological length is stress-induced, and that vowel length and consonant length are equally important as learning goals. BP is examined in the light of existing findings in the field of second language pronunciation and with respect to the phonetic correlates of Swedish stress and quantity. Five studies examine the relation between segment durations and the categorization made by native Swedish listeners. The results indicate that the postvocalic consonant duration contributes to quantity categorization as well as giving the proper duration to stressed syllables. Furthermore, native Swedish speakers are shown to apply the complementary /V: C/ - /VC:/ pattern also when speaking English and German, by lengthening postvocalic consonants. The correctness of the priority is not directly addressed but important aspects of BP are supported by earlier findings as well as the results from the present studies. / <p>För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se</p>

La presente tesis tiene por objetivo identificar para la enseñanza del español una serie de características prosódicas que son comunicativamente importantes. El trabajo también se propone poner de relieve el papel central de la prosodia en la comunicación, así como la necesidad de incorporar esta destreza en las competencias comunicativas de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. La tesis integra una colección de cinco estudios, tres de los cuales realizados con un enfoque empírico experimental y dedicados a los temas siguientes: (a) las diferencias en la realización de prominencia prosódica por parte de hablantes de español L2 y español L1 (Estudio I), (b) la transferencia de estrategias pragmáticas del sueco L1 al español L2, manifestada en la realización de los tonos de frontera ascendentes (Estudio II), y (c) la contribución de rasgos prosódicos al acento extranjero percibido en hablantes suecos de español L2 con especial atención al rol desempeñado por los tonos de frontera ascendentes y sus correspondientes valores pragmáticos (Estudio III). El objetivo de estos tres estudios es, por un lado, identificar cuáles son las características prosódicas más importantes para conseguir una interacción exitosa en la L2 y, por el otro, investigar en qué medida estas características han sido adquiridas por los aprendientes investigados. Estudio IV resalta que, a pesar del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza LE, se abordan los aspectos suprasegmentales en el currículo sueco así como en los cinco libros de enseñanza E/LE analizados como una competencia aislada que no está integrada en la competencia comunicativa. El Estudio V, al combinar los resultados de los Estudios I-III con los de otros estudios temáticamente relevantes, busca identificar unas características principales, unos Core Prosodic Features, para la enseñanza de la prosodia española a los aprendientes suecos. El estudio recomienda un enfoque basado en la atención a la forma para la enseñanza de estas características en contextos interaccionales. / This thesis sets out to identify a series of communicatively important prosodic features for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish context. The present work also aims to highlight both the central role played by prosody in communication and the need for this skill to be integrated in the communicative competences of second language teaching and learning. The thesis comprises a collection of five studies, three of which use an experimental approach to investigate the following: (a) differences in the realization of prosodic prominence by L2 and L1 speakers of Spanish (Study I); (b) the transfer of pragmatic strategies from L1 Swedish to L2 Spanish, manifested in the realization of rising boundary tones (Study II); and (c) the contribution of the type of L2 prosody displayed by Swedish learners to a percieved foreign accent, focusing, focusing especially on the role played by rising boundary tones and their pragmatic values  (Study III). These initial studies describe some of the main prosodic characteristics of the L2 product as compared to Spanish L1, and identify prosodic features of Spanish L1 that are of importance to acquire for interactional success in the L2. Study IV highlights the fact that, despite the emphasis on a communicative approach in L2 teaching, the approach to the teaching of prosody in the Swedish curriculum and the L2 Spanish text books studied tends to be addressed as a separate skill, that is not integrated in the descriptions of the communicative competences. Study V, by combining the results of Studies I-III with those of other thematically relevant studies, proposes some main features, so-called Core Prosodic Features (CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedish learners. The identification of the CPFs also enables a future evaluation of the form-focused teaching approach suggested.

Yucatec Maya (YM) is an indigenous language of Mexico that features both phonemic tonal distinctions and phonemic vowel length. These features are primarily associated with the phonetic cues of pitch and duration, which are also considered the primary correlates of stress in language. Though scholars have noted the existence of stress or accent since it was first documented centuries ago, no detailed account of stress as either a separate or related entity to tone or length has been made. This dissertation presents a unique view into YM prosody by looking at loan word incorporation in conjunction with native speaker intuitions, and production data. A case study of Spanish loan words into Yucatec finds that when Spanish words are incorporated into the YM prosodic system, the initial syllable undergoes lengthening. Statistical analyses performed on data from native speaker intuitions and production data, however, find no concrete pattern of obligatory stress on the word level in Yucatec Maya words.

H διαρκώς αυξανόμενη ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών όπως τα συστήματα μετατροπής κειμένου σε ομιλία (TTS systems) ή τα συστήματα αυτόματης αναγώρισης ομιλίας (ASR systems) κάνουν επιτακτική την ανάγκη της μελέτης χαρακτηριστικών της ομιλίας που δεν περιορίζονται σε συντακτικούς ή λεξιλογικούς κανόνες, αλλά σηματοδοτούνται από διαφορετικές διαδικασίες, όπως είναι η προσωδία. Τα προσωδιακά χαρακτηριστικά της ομιλίας είναι αυτά που πέρα από το λεξιλογικό περιεχόμενο των προτάσεων, επισημαίνουν άλλα σημαντικά στοιχεία που αφορούν στην εστίαση και την έμφαση, εισάγωντας με αυτό τον τρόπο ένα δευτερεύον υποκείμενο κανάλι στην επικοινωνία. Επιπλεόν, συνδέονται σε μεγάλο βαθμό με την έκφραση συναισθήματος στην ομιλία. Γι'αυτό το λόγο είναι σημαντικό το να διερευνηθούν τα χαρακτηριστικά αυτά, τόσο στην ουδέτερη ομιλία, όσο και στις περιπτώσεις ομιλίας σε ορισμένες συναισθηματικές καταστάσεις. Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία γίνεται τεμαχιοποίηση μιας συναισθηματικής ομιλίας, σε επίπεδο φωνημάτων και επιτονική επισημείωση των προσωδιακών γεγονότων που λαμβάνουν χώρα σε επίπεδο συλλαβών, προκειμένου να εξαχθούν οι παράμετροι εκείνες που θα μας επιτρέψουν να μελετήσουμε τα προσωδιακά χαρακτηριστικά παρουσία συναισθηματικής κατάστασης, σε σύγκριση με την ουδέτερη ομιλία. Στη συνέχεια πραγματοποιείται επεξεργασία των δεδομένων και μελέτη των προσωδιακών χαρακτηριστικών, μέσω σύγκρισης των χαρακτηριστικών που παρατηρούνται απο συναίσθημα σε συναίσθημα και μέσω της κατασκευής μοντέλων πρόβλεψης της διάρκειας των φωνημάτων και από αυτές τις διαδικασίες προκύπτουν και παρουσιάζονται κάποια συμπεράσματα σχετικά με την προσωδιακή πτυχή της συναισθηματικής ομιλίας. / The continuously rising development of applications such as Text-to-Speech systems (TTS systems) or Automatic Speech Recognition systems (ASR systems), make imperative the investigation of characteristics of speech which are not limited within the syntactic οr lexical rules, but are signaled by different processes, such as prosody. The prosodic features of speech are those which, beyond the lexical content of utterances, point out other important elements concerning the focus and the accent, implying in that way a secondary subjacent channel of communication. Moreover, they are connected to a great extent with the expression of emotion in speech. Thus, it is important to investigate these features, in neutral speech as well as in cases of speech under emotional conditions. In this thesis, took place the segmentation of a database of emotional speech in phonemic level and the intonational annotation of the prosodic events that occur in the syllabic level, in order to extract the parameters that allow us to study the prosodic features in the presence of emotional state compared to the neutral speech. Following, the extracted data were processed and the prosodic features were studied, through comparing the characteristics that are observed in the different emotional conditions and by building duration prediction models of phonemes and the conclusions drawn through these processes are presented, with regard to the prosodic aspect of emotional speech.

Η παρούσα εργασία βασίζεται στην παραδοχή ότι οι ποικίλες υφολογικές επιλογές ενός ομιλητή, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των προσωδιακών του επιλογών, λειτουργούν ως ενδείκτες συμφραστικοποίησης (contextualization cues) (βλ. Gumperz, 1982). Ως δείκτες συμφραστικοποίησης, καθοδηγούν τον ακροατή να εντάξει το λόγο που προσλαμβάνει κατάλληλα στην περίσταση, αλλά και στα κατάλληλα γνωστικά και γλωσσικά συμφραζόμενα ώστε να καταλήξει στην προσδοκώμενη ερμηνεία. Βασική υπόθεση της εργασίας είναι ότι μέσα σε χιουμοριστικές συνομιλιακές αφηγήσεις, συγκεκριμένα προσωδιακά χαρακτηριστικά μπορούν να αποτελέσουν δείκτες συμφραστικοποίησης για το χιούμορ (βλ. Norrick, 2004). Βασιζόμενη στην Γενική Θεωρία για το Γλωσσικό Χιούμορ (GTVH) (βλ. Attardo 1994, 2001), κατά την οποία το χιούμορ στηρίζεται στην ασυμβατότητα ανάμεσα σε αυτό που αναμένεται να συμβεί και σε αυτό που τελικά συμβαίνει, χρησιμοποιώ ως βασική μονάδα ανάλυσης των αφηγήσεών μου τη χιουμοριστική φράση (jab line), η οποία θεωρείται ότι εμπεριέχει την γνωστική αντίθεση στην οποία στηρίζεται το χιούμορ. Στόχος μου είναι να δείξω αν συγκεκριμένα προσωδιακά χαρακτηριστικά, όπως οι παύσεις, η ταχύτητα και η ένταση, συμβάλλουν στην (ανα)δείξη του χιούμορ μέσα σε μία αφήγηση, και αν κάτι τέτοιο γίνεται με συστηματικό τρόπο. Με άλλα λόγια, στόχος μου είναι να δείξω αν το χιούμορ οριοθετείται και προβάλλεται προσωδιακά συγκριτικά με το υπόλοιπο μη χιουμοριστικό κείμενο, και ποια είναι αυτά τα προσωδιακά χαρακτηριστικά που συμβάλλουν σε αυτό. / -