Prosody, the structures governing the pitch and rhythm of speech, is essential to the correct and authentic use of a language. Unfortunately, many students of a second language find it difficult to learn these patterns, particularly when they differ significantly from their mother tongue. Several pedagogical models are now widely used, but only within the confines of a conventional classroom environment. Dramatisation, the process of preparing a full theatrical performance, has already shown itself to be useful in the acquisition of second language grammar and vocabulary. This thesis demonstrates by means of a qualitative case study that this approach to language teaching also results in a statistically significant improvement in the area of prosody. The results were obtained by analysing the digitised speech of four students who participated in a course employing dramatisation in order to teach French as a second language.

Communiquer efficacement nécessite de produire une multitude d’inférences pragmatiques. Celles-ci reposent sur la capacité à prendre en compte un grand nombre d’indices, tels que le contexte ou l’état mental et physique du locuteur. Dans le cas du langage oral, l’interlocuteur s’appuie également sur les indices prosodiques. Ainsi, une prosodie enthousiaste associée à l’énoncé « Excellent. » aidera un interlocuteur à inférer que le locuteur est content tandis qu’une intonation plate le conduira au contraire à penser qu’il était ironique. Ces situations peuvent être particulièrement délicates pour les patients atteints d’un Trouble du Spectre Autistique (TSA) qui éprouvent des difficultés pour reconnaître et interpréter les états mentaux d’autrui. Nous prédisons donc que l’interprétation des indices prosodiques est délicate dans les TSA. Cependant, tous les aspects de l’interprétation prosodique ne requièrent pas d’attribuer des états mentaux. Par exemple, la distinction entre « PREsent » et « preSENT » (en anglais) est basée sur une simple connaissance du lexique, indépendante des pensées du locuteur. Dans ce travail, j’explore différents aspects de la prosodie afin de déterminer si les personnes avec un TSA sont spécifiquement atteintes dans leur capacité à comprendre les signaux prosodiques reposant sur la compréhension des intentions du locuteur. Je présente une série de travaux traitant de la prosodie grammaticale (Article 1), de la transmission accidentelle d’informations (Article 2), de l’accent contrastif (Articles 3 et 4), et de l’identification des états mentaux du locuteur (Article 5). Les résultats présentés dans ces travaux me conduisent ensuite à discuter des questions plus générales concernant la Théorie de l’Esprit (Article 6) et à proposer une explication alternative des déficits sociaux observés dans les TSA (Article 7). / Efficient communication requires a great deal of pragmatic inferencing. This is rooted in the ability to take into account a variety of cues, such as the context and the speaker’s mental or emotional states. Crucially, in spoken language, hearers can also rely on prosodic cues. For instance, if someone utters “That was brilliant”, using an enthusiastic prosody, this will help the hearer to decipher that the speaker is happy. In contrast, if the speaker’s comment is uttered in a deadpan tone of voice, she will be thought to be ironical. These situations can be especially challenging for people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Indeed, these individuals have well-known difficulties in recognising and interpreting others’ mental states. This leads to the prediction that interpreting prosodic cues should be problematic in ASDs. However, not all aspects of prosodic interpretation involve mental states attribution. For instance, differentiating “PREsent” from “preSENT” merely requires one to be aware of the fact that these words stand for different things, without needing to attribute any particular thoughts to the speaker. In this work, I explore the various components of prosody and assess whether people with an ASD are specifically impaired in interpreting prosodic cues that rely on the understanding of the speaker’s intentions. I present a series of papers focusing on grammatical prosody (Paper 1), accidental information transmission (Paper 2), contrastive stress (Papers 3 and 4), and identification of the speaker’s attitude and emotional state (Paper 5). The results presented in these papers then lead me to address more general questions concerning Theory of Mind (Paper 6) and to discuss the possible origins of the social impairments found in ASDs (Paper 7).

The vast majority of work on question formation examines interrogatives from the perspective of just one single component of grammar, usually the syntax or the prosody. The present dissertation offers a comprehensive account of question formation addressing both the syntax and the prosody of interrogatives and the interaction between these two components of grammar in signalling the question meaning of an utterance. The present work examines question formation on the basis of four genealogically related and geographically closely located Romance varieties spoken in northern Italy: Gherdëina, Badiot, Fascian and Nònes. Given that these varieties differ only with respect to certain microparametric values whereas others remain constant, they constitute an ideal research area to study the interaction between the syntax and the prosody in question formation. The syntactic and prosodic analyses proposed are based on new empirical data. The syntactic analysis is couched within the cartographic approach and the prosodic analysis is based on Autosegmental-Metrical Phonology. This dissertation is motivated by five main research goals: <ol type=i><li>to provide a detailed description of the syntactic variation found in interrogatives in the four varieties Gherdëina, Badiot, Fascian and Nònes based on data collected by the author;</li> <li>to propose a unified syntactic analysis of the interrogatives;</li> <li>to offer a prosodic analysis of statements and questions providing new data from varieties not studied up to now in the literature;</li> <li>to establish the relation between the syntax and the prosody in question formation;</li> <li>to determine how the syntax and the prosody interact in providing clues to interrogative force for the listener as well as the speaker.</li></ol> The main conclusions are as follows: The syntactic structure and the intonational tune are autonomous in question formation. Three aspects matter for interrogative clause typing: (i) syntactic marking, (ii) prosodic marking and (iii) tune-text-alignment.

Lexical access, the matching of auditory information onto lexical representations in the brain, is a crucial component of online language processing. To understand the nature of lexical access, it is important to identify the kind of acoustic information that is stored in the long-term memory and to study how the brain uses such information. This dissertation investigates the contribution of prosodic information to lexical access and examines language-specific processing mechanisms by studying three typologically distinct languages: English, Turkish, and Swedish. The main research objective is to demonstrate the activation of long-term memory traces for words on the sole basis of prosodic information and to test the accuracy of typological phonological descriptions suggested in the literature by studying electrophysiological measurements of brain activation. A secondary research objective is to evaluate three distinct electrophysiological recording systems. The dissertation is based on three papers, each examining neural responses to prosodic changes in one of the three languages with a different recording system. The first two papers deal directly with the interplay between prosody and the lexicon, and investigate whether prosodic changes activate memory traces associated with segmentally identical but prosodically different words; the third paper introduces morphology to this process and investigates whether prosodic changes activate memory traces associated with potential lexical derivations. Neural responses demonstrate that prosodic information indeed activates memory traces associated with words and their potential derivations without any given context. Strongly connected neural networks are argued to guarantee neural activation and implementation of long-term memory traces. Regardless of differences in prosodic typology, all languages exploit prosodic information for lexical processing, although to different extents. The amount of neural activation elicited by a particular piece of prosodic information is positively correlated with the strength of its lexical representation in the brain, which is called lexical specification. This dissertation could serve as a first step towards building an electrophysiological-perceptual taxonomy of prosodic processing based on lexical specification.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivos (i) descrever e analisar o contorno entoacional das sentenças declarativas neutras do português falado na ilha de São Tomé (PST), em São Tomé e Príncipe, especificamente a relação entre associação de eventos tonais ao contorno entoacional e a formação de domínios prosódicos, tanto em fala controlada quanto em fala espontânea, assim como (ii) comparar os resultados encontrados para o PST com aqueles descritos na literatura para outras variedades de português já estudadas sob a mesma perspectiva teórica: variedades lusitanas, brasileiras e de Guiné-Bissau, variedade africana assim como o PST. Nossa hipótese é que do ponto de vista entoacional o PST se distancie do SEP (standard european portuguese, o português falado em Lisboa), embora esta seja considerada a variedade de prestígio no país e tida como alvo pela população, ensinada nas escolas e veiculada na mídia. Para alcançar os objetivos estabelecidos, nos valemos do aparato teórico da Fonologia Entoacional Autossegmental e Métrica, para a investigação da associação de eventos tonais ao contorno entoacional, numa abordagem integrada à Fonologia Prosódica, para verificarmos a formação dos constituintes prosódicos e identificação dos domínios relevantes na atribuição de eventos tonais. Dentre as características prosódicas e entoacionais que encontramos, destacamos (i) a alta densidade tonal do contorno entoacional das sentenças declarativas neutras em PST; (ii) a associação de acentos tonais (pitch accents) a todas as palavras prosódicas nas sentenças de fala controlada;(iii) a associação obrigatória de acento tonal à palavra prosódica cabeça de sintagma entoacional, seguido de um tom de fronteira associado à sua fronteira direita; (iv) a possibilidade de associação de acento frasal (phrasal accent) à fronteira de sintagmas fonológicos; (v) a configuração de contorno nuclear majoritariamente baixa (L* L%), embora também seja possível a realização de um contorno nuclear descendente (H+L* L%) para as sentenças declarativas neutras dessa variedade de português. Através desta dissertação, apontamos características entoacionais e prosódicas do PST que o afastam do SEP e que podem ser consideradas como argumentos para a consolidação do PST como uma variedade que possui (assim como o PB) uma gramática entoacional própria, não se tratando de uma produção considerada irregular da variedade tida como padrão. / This study aims to (i) describe and analyze the intonational contour on neutral declarative sentences in the Portuguese spoken on São Tomé island, in São Tomé & Principe (PST), specifically the relation between the association of tonal events with the intonational contour and the formation of prosodic domains, either on controlled or spontaneous speech and (ii) compare the results achieved on PST with the ones described on previous papers on other Portuguese varieties already studied under the same theoretical perspective: lusitanic varieties, Brazilian varieties, and from Guinea-Bissau, an African Portuguese variety, like PST. Our hypothesis is that from the intonational point of view, PST stands far away from the SEP (standard European Portuguese), although that is the prestige variety and seen as a goal by the population, taught in schools and used by the media. To accomplish these objectives, we used the theoretical apparatus supplied by the Metric and Autosegmental Intonation Phonology to investigate the association of tonal events to the intonational contour, approaching it while integrated to the Prosodic Phonology, to verify the formation of prosodic constituents and the identification of relevant domains to the tonal event attribution. Among the prosodic and intonation characteristics we found, we highlight (i) the high tonal density of the intonational contour of the neutral declarative sentences in PST; (ii) the association of pitch accents with every prosodic word in the controlled speech sentences; (iii) the mandatory association of pitch accent to the intonational phrase head prosodic word, followed by a boundary tone associated to its right-side edge; (iv) the possibility of associating the phrasal accent to the phonological phrase edge; (v) predominantly low nuclear contour configuration (L* L%), although it is also possible to perform a top-down nuclear contour (H+L* L%) to the neutral declarative sentences in this Portuguese variety. With this paper, we point out PSTs intonational and prosodic characteristics that ward it off from SEP that may be considered as arguments for the consolidation of PST as a variety possessing (just like the PB) its own intonational grammar, proving it is not a production considered as irregular when compared to the standard one.

O presente estudo procura reconstituir o sistema de categorias da melodia tonal a partir da investigação de algumas propriedades comuns ao aparelho fonador humano e aos instrumentos musicais reais e virtuais. Analisando essas propriedades à luz da teoria Glossemática (Hjelmslev, 1975) e da fonologia prosódica (Nespor & Vogel, 1986), a investigação chegou aos seguintes resultados: (I) dado que o sistema musical e o sistema fonológico possuem categorias comuns, pode-se sustentar a existência de um parentesco genético entre expressão verbal e expressão musical; (II) os sistemas apresentam orientações opostas: no sistema fonológico das línguas naturais, a categoria dos segmentos (ou constituintes) é relativamente expandida, enquanto a categoria dos suprasegmentos (ou caracterizantes) é concentrada. Inversamente, no sistema da melodia tonal é a categoria dos suprasegmentos que é relativamente expandida, enquanto a categoria dos segmentos é concentrada, (III) o efeito de sentido característico da melodia tonal é fruto de uma configuração sintagmática de suprasegmentos(cronemas, tonemas e dinamenas) hierarquicamente organizados; (IV) outras categorias do sistema melódico (andamento, dinâmica e timbre) ocupam um papel à parte ne hieraquia melódica e são as principais responsáveis pelas marcas deixadas no enunciado pela instância intérprete do sujeito da enunciação. / This work aims to discuss the tonal melodic system of categories by investigating some of the properties that are common to both the human vocal tract and to musical instruments - real or virtual. The analysis of these properties from the standpoint of the Glossematics theory (Hjelmslev, 1975) and of the prosodic phonology (Nespor & Vogel, 1986) led us to the following results: (I) because the music system and the phonological system comprise common categories it is possible to establish a genetic kinship between verbal and musical expression; (II) both systems present opposite properties: in the phonological system of natural languages the segmental categories (or constitutives) are relatively expanded whereas the suprasegmental categories (or characterizers) are concentrated. Conversely, in the tonal melodic system the suprasegmental categories are the ones that are relatively expanded whereas the segmental categories are concentrated; (III) the characteristic meaning effect of tonal melodies comes as a result of a hierarchly structured syntagmatic configuration of suprasegments (chronemes, tonemes, dynamenes); (IV) other categories of the melodic system (tempo, dynamics, timbre) play a distinct role in the melodic hierarchy and are the main responsible for the marks left on the text by the performer instance of the enunciation subject.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:37:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Socha.pdf: 941438 bytes, checksum: 175509405785f608c01a71312adbd772 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-29 / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo / This theoretical essay proposes an investigation of the human voice and speech, based on its melodic sound and prosody. At first, their historical and cultural aspects will be raised, to then walk towards psychoanalysis and the place which vocal phenomenon occupies in clinical practice. The recognition of sonority and vocal gesture in primary relationships and in the constitution of the self crosses through several issues approached in this research. During this course, an emphasis will be given to communication between mother and baby, particularly seized by the concept of "maternal speech . Underscoring its importance in human development, this study also seeks to think about possible clinical consequences of such understanding of sonority and vocal phenomenon. As much as reference and theoretical support, the work of D.W. Winnicott will be assumed as a central axis, from which dialogues with other authors who have dedicated themselves to the theme will be made / Este ensaio teórico tem como proposta a investigação da voz e do falar humano, partindo de sua sonoridade melódica e de sua prosódia. Em um primeiro momento, serão abordados seus aspectos históricos e culturais, para em seguida caminharmos em direção à psicanálise e ao lugar que o fenômeno vocal ocupa na prática clínica. O reconhecimento da sonoridade e do gesto vocal nas relações primordiais e na constituição do self atravessa os diversos assuntos abordados no decorrer desta pesquisa. Durante o seu percurso, uma ênfase será dada à comunicação entre mãe e bebê, apreendida sobretudo pelo conceito de fala materna . Ressaltando sua importância no desenvolvimento humano, o presente estudo busca também refletir sobre as possíveis implicações clínicas decorrentes de tal compreensão da sonoridade e do fenômeno vocal. No que concerne à referência e sustentação teórica, a obra de D.W. Winnicott será adotada como o eixo central para, a partir dela, serem estabelecidos diálogos com outros autores que se dedicaram ao tema

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta__o de Metrado_Jael Gon_alves.pdf: 2772407 bytes, checksum: f376f063021a78a3db19e96e67e45340 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-25 / The present research focuses on the speech prosodic and intonational characterization under suspicion, being suspicious the condition in which the formally accused individual is due to the practice of an act contrary to the legal system. In the prosodic characterization, there is the analysis of the training tone of the first Intonational Phrases (Is) of the speech under suspicion, in order to find the relationship between the prosodic and the intonational structure of this speech, according to the theoretical outline of the Prosodic Phonology, from Nespor and Vogel (1986) and the Intonational Phonology, from Ladd (1996, 2008). Concerning the intonational characterization, the analysis of values of the Fundamental Frequency is proposed (F0) for the statements under suspicion. To do the research, statements produced by a suspect individual (B) in a TV interview were selected, in which, along with the subject accused of coauthorship (A), responded to questions concerning the crime for which the subject was being charged: homicide. As it consisted of an interview, two categories of suspicion: the Latent Suspicion (LS), existing in the statements which directly respond to the interviewer&#8223;s question, and the Non-Latent Suspicion (NLS), present in the statements produced in the turn changes between B and A, which have a content that is not related to the interviewer&#8223;s question. According to selection criteria of I, 15 LS statements and 13 NLS statements were selected to compose the corpus of the present study, which were transcribed according to the ToBI (Tone and Break Indices) notation, with the use of the software PRAAT. The obtained results in the training tone analysis of the Is either LS as well as NLS showed that, predominantly, the speech under suspicion presents the same tone characterization described in the literature about intonational outlines of statements in the Brazilian Portuguese (BP), as mentioned by Tenani (2002), Fernandes (2007) and Serra (2009), which demonstrates the explanatory power of the Prosodic Phonology and the Intonational Phonology for the prosodic characterization of BP statements. In LS, the attention was drawn for the presence of the hybrid&#8223; tone L+H L%, in the small Is which constitute composed Is; hybrid as it presents pitch accent of beginning of I and a frontier tone for the end of I. In terms of the measures analysis of F0 of LS and NLS, the results showed that the presence of discourse marker is connected to the decrease of F0 values of the statement. On the other hand, if the LS and the NLS statements without a discourse marker are compared, it had also been noticed that the first ones have a higher F0 value, which highlights the relevance of the proposed suspicion categorization: LS and NLS. Besides this, the present research indicates study possibilities still not developed concerning the prosody and intonation of BP statements, specially involving the implications of the presence or not of discourse marker or of paralinguistic elements, common to the spontaneous speech / A presente pesquisa tem como tema a caracterização prosódica e entoacional da fala sob suspeição, sendo suspeição a condição jurídica em que está o indivíduo acusado formalmente pela prática de ato contrário ao ordenamento jurídico. Na caracterização prosódica, tem-se a análise da formação tonal das primeiras Frases Entoacionais (Is) da fala sob suspeição, na busca da relação entre estrutura prosódica e entoacional dessa fala, segundo o arcabouço teórico da Fonologia Prosódica, de Nespor e Vogel (1986) e da Fonologia Entoacional, de Ladd (1996, 2008). Quanto à caracterização entoacional, propõe-se a análise dos valores de Frequência Fundamental (F0) das sentenças sob suspeita. Para a realização da pesquisa, foram selecionadas sentenças produzidas por um sujeito suspeito (B) em uma entrevista televisiva, em que, juntamente com o sujeito acusado de coautoria (A), respondia a questionamentos acerca do fato criminoso que lhe era imputado: homicídio. Por se tratar de uma entrevista, são consideradas duas categorias de suspeição: a Suspeição Latente (SL), existente nas sentenças que respondem diretamente à pergunta do entrevistador, e a Suspeição Não-Latente (SNL), presente nas sentenças produzidas entre as trocas de turno entre B e A, que não têm conteúdo relacionado à intervenção do repórter. Segundo critérios de seleção de I, foram selecionadas para compor o corpus deste estudo 15 sentenças de SL e 13 sentenças de SNL, que foram transcritas segundo a notação ToBI (Tone and Break Indices), com uso do software PRAAT. Os resultados obtidos na análise da formação tonal das Is tanto de SL como em SNL mostraram que, predominantemente, a fala sob suspeição apresenta a mesma caracterização tonal descrita na literatura sobre contornos entoacionais de sentenças no PB, como em Tenani (2002), Fernandes (2007) e Serra (2009), o que demonstra o poder explicativo da Fonologia Prosódica e da Fonologia Entoacional para a caracterização prosódica de sentenças do PB. Em SL, chamou atenção a presença do que o presente estudo denomina de tom híbrido&#8223; L+H L%, nas Is pequenas que constituem Is compostas; híbrido porque apresenta pitch accent de início de I e tom de fronteira de final de I. Quanto à análise das medidas de F0 de SL e SNL, os resultados mostraram que a presença de marcador discursivo tem relação com a diminuição dos valores de F0 da sentença. Por outro lado, se comparadas as sentenças de SL e SNL sem marcador discursivo, também se verificou que as primeiras têm valor de F0 maior, o que evidencia a pertinência da categorização de suspeição proposta: SL e SNL. Além disso, a presente pesquisa indica possibilidades de estudos ainda não realizados sobre a prosódia e entoação de sentenças do PB, especialmente no que diz respeito às implicações da presença ou não de marcador discursivo ou de elementos paralinguísticos, comuns à fala espontânea

O presente trabalho levanta a questão da derivação sintática em diferentes contruções de tópico. Essa diferenciação foi estabelecida por Frascarreli & Hinterhölzl (2007) com base na abordagem de Rizzi (1997) que propõe uma estrutura mais articulada para o complexo CP. Assim Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl (2007) realizam um levantamento de corpora determinando três tipos de tópico em sentenças do italiano e do alemão, a saber: a) Tópico conversacional (aboutness topic): informação que é o tema da sentença (REINHART, 1981); b) Tópico contrastivo: constituinte que cria um par opositivo a outro tópico (CHAFE, 1987) c) Tópico familiar: constituinte acessível, geralmente realizado em uma forma pronominal (PESETSKY, 1987). Para dar uma ideia do problema considere os exemplos, abaixo: 1) O JOÃO (*ele) leu o livro de sintaxe (não o Pedro). Foco contrastivo 2) O livro de sintaxe, o João leu ø/ele ontem. Tópico 3) O João, ele leu o livro de sintaxe. Tópico 4) O João, ø leu o livro de sintaxe ontem. Tópico Os autores avaliam o contorno entoacional de cada uma das construções (2 e 3) e a sentença (4) que coloca uma ambiguidade estrutural entre moviemnto e geração na base. Os autores, então, propõem que todas sejam geradas na base deixando a estrutura de cujo sintagma é inequivocamente movido para a expressão de foco, sentença (1). Com base nesse trabalho realizamos um estudo comparativo entre as estruturas de tópico em PB. Contrapomos a entoação de sentenças como as decritas acima e avaliamos se existe um melhor tratamento sintático para tais estruturas, seja derivação via movimento, ou geração na base. No primeiro capítulo apresentamos o problema e a arquitetura da fonética articulatória, autossegmental e métrica e prosódica que embasam o estudo. Em seguida apresentamos alguns estudos já realizados nessa matéria que contam com a descrição prosódica de sentenças neutras do PB e sentenças com foco prosódico sobre o sujeito, além de sentenças com tópicos já levantadas em pesquisas anteriores. No segundo capítulo apresentaremos a teoria sintática que ampara nosso entendimento das estruturas envolvidas e o tipo de derivação em jogo. A teoria gerativa formulada por Chomsky servirá como guia balizador da derivação, especialmente a partir do programa minimalista (COMSKY 1995 e posteriores) Após essa introdução aprsentaremos algns estudos sobre esse conjunto de sentenças os possíveis caminhos a serem seguidos. No terceiro capítulo descrevemos o experimento, no quarto apresentamos e discutimos os resultados. Por fim, o quinto e último capítulo oferece um panorama geral do que foi exposto e as conclusões. / This study is about different topic constructions and their darivations. This differentiation was established by Frascarreli & Hinterhölzl (2007) based on the approach developed by Rizzi (1997), which proposes a more articulated CP structure. So Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl (2007) conducted corpora syrvey and unveal three types of topics in the Italian and German: a) shifting topic (aboutness topic): information that is the subject of the sentence, relativaly (Reinhart, 1981); b) contrastive topic: a phrase that creates a opposition to another pharse (Chafe, 1987) c) familiar topic: a given or accessable constituint (PESETSKY, 1987). To give an ideato this problem, please, consider the examples, below: 1) JOHN (* he) reads the syntax book (not Peter). Contrastive focus 2) The syntax book, John read ø / it yesterday. Topic 3) John, he read the syntax book. Topic 4) John ø syntax read the book yesterday. Topic These sentences ar all fine in BP. Sentence (1) can not have the strong pronoun. Sentence (2) is accetable in both forms either with a strong pronoun or wth the empity category. Sentence (3) is accetable because John is based generated at spell out. Sentence (4) is ambiguous bettween movment or base generation. The authors evaluate the intonation of each one of the structures like (2, 3 and 4) and propose that: they are all based generated leaving the derivation via movment to express focus, sentence (1). Based on this work, we carried out a comparative study of the topic structures in BP. Analizing sentences like (2-4) we stabilishs the intonational contour of them and look for a better treatment for such syntactic structures: derivation via movement, or base generation. In the very first chapter we present the problem and the architecture of the phonetic articulation, the autossegmental and metric phonology and prosodic structure that will guide this study. Then, some previous studies in this area are show wtih the descriptions of the PB neutral sentences and sentences with prosodic focus on the subject, and, also, sentences with already raised topics in the recent past. In the second chapter, we will present the syntactic theory that supports our understanding of the structures involved here and the type of analisys envolved. The generative theory formulated by Chomsky will serve as base line, especially from the Minimalist Program (COMSKY 1995 and laters). After this introduction, we will present some findings on this set of sentences and two possible paths to follow. In the third chapter we describe the experiment, in the fourth we present and discuss the results. Finally, the fifth and final chapter offers an overview of the foregoing and the conclusions.

Trust and speech are both essential aspects of human interaction. On the one hand, trust is necessary for vocal communication to be meaningful. On the other hand, humans have developed a way to infer someone’s trustworthiness from their voice, as well as to signal their own. Yet, research on trustworthiness attributions to speakers is scarce and contradictory, and very often uses explicit data, which do not predict actual trusting behaviour. However, measuring behaviour is very important to have an actual representation of trust. This thesis contains 5 experiments aimed at examining the influence of various voice characteristics — including accent, prosody, emotional expression and naturalness — on trusting behaviours towards virtual players and robots. The experiments have the "investment game"—a method derived from game theory, which allows to measure implicit trustworthiness attributions over time — as their main methodology. Results show that standard accents, high pitch, slow articulation rate and smiling voice generally increase trusting behaviours towards a virtual agent, and a synthetic voice generally elicits higher trustworthiness judgments towards a robot. The findings also suggest that different voice characteristics influence trusting behaviours with different temporal dynamics. Furthermore, the actual behaviour of the various speaking agents was modified to be more or less trustworthy, and results show that people’s trusting behaviours develop over time accordingly. Also, people reinforce their trust towards speakers that they deem particularly trustworthy when these speakers are indeed trustworthy, but punish them when they are not. This suggests that people’s trusting behaviours might also be influenced by the congruency of their first impressions with the actual experience of the speaker’s trustworthiness — a "congruency effect". This has important implications in the context of Human–Machine Interaction, for example for assessing users’ reactions to speaking machines which might not always function properly. Taken together, the results suggest that voice influences trusting behaviour, and that first impressions of a speaker’s trustworthiness based on vocal cues might not be indicative of future trusting behaviours, and that trust should be measured dynamically.