A prosódia do metadiscurso

Este trabalho investigou a prosódia da metadiscursividade. O objetivo foi analisar as características prosódicas dos enunciados metadiscursivos ladeados por não-metadiscursivos. Partindo da hipótese de que existiriam padrões de f0 e de duração que permitiriam caracterizar o enunciado metadiscursivo no contexto de fala relatado acima, este estudo analisou as propriedades de pitch range, pitch reset, distribuição entoacional, tons de fronteira, taxa de elocução e ocorrência e duração de pausas. As análises tomaram por fundamento as teorias de fonologia prosódica e autossegmental e métrica da entoação. Sete inquéritos foram selecionados do portal do Projeto NURC Digital, dos quais foram retirados trechos com três enunciados (o pré-metadiscursivo, o metadiscursivo e o pós-metadiscursivo). As análises estatísticas lançaram mão dos testes modelo linear misto e regressão logística binomial. A investigação constatou que os enunciados metadiscursivos são realizados, prosodicamente, como estruturas independentes das demais que o ladeiam. Essa independência é evidenciada por meio de uma taxa de elocução maior e por tons de fronteira não-baixos em suas delimitações. Somado a isso, constatou também, em cerca da metade dos contextos analisados, um concurso de pausas silenciosas e tons de fronteira não-baixos nos limites do enunciado metadiscursivo. Não foram observados, no entanto, padrões de pitch range e de distribuição entoacional associados a este tipo de enunciado. Embora houvesse pitch reset entre os enunciados, a atuação desse elemento prosódico não foi significativa. Esses resultados contribuem para a descrição da prosódia da metadiscursividade no português brasileiro e para o ensino da constituição e do funcionamento dos gêneros discursivos da oralidade.

Parents’ hyper-pitch and vowel category compactness in infant-directed speech are associated with 18-month-old toddlers’ expressive vocabulary

The present study examines the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) in Norwegian parents of 18-month-old toddlers, and whether these properties relate to toddlers’ expressive vocabulary size. Twenty-one parent- toddler dyads from Tromsø, Northern Norway participated in the study. Parents (16 mothers, 5 fathers), speaking a Northern Norwegian dialect, were recorded in the lab reading a storybook to their toddler (IDS register), and to an experimenter (ADS register). The storybook was designed for the purpose of the study, ensuring identical linguistic contexts across speakers and registers, and multiple representations of each of the nine Norwegian long vowels. We examined both traditionally reported measures of IDS: pitch, pitch range, vowel duration and vowel space expansion, but also novel measures: vowel category compactness and vowel category distinctiveness. Our results showed that Norwegian IDS, as compared to ADS, had similar characteristics as in other languages: higher pitch, wider pitch range, longer vowel duration, and expanded vowel space area; in addition, it had less compact vowel categories. Further, parents’ hyper-pitch, that is, the within-parent increase in pitch in IDS as compared to ADS, and vowel category compactness in IDS itself, were positively related to toddlers' vocabulary. Our results point towards potentially facilitating roles of parents’ increase in pitch when talking to their toddler and of consistency in vowel production in early word learning.

Prosodic Characteristics of Sentences with Communicatively Marked and Communicatively Unmarked Alignment

The paper presents the results from a study of the interaction between intonation and information structure in SVO and OVS sentences with communicatively (un)marked alignment of information structure elements. We analyzed the prosodic features of pre-nuclear and nuclear pitch accents. The information structure elements were characterized using Steedman’s (2000) model which classifies sentence constituents as belonging to one of the following categories: theme-background, theme-focus, rheme-background and rheme-focus. Our study found that unmarked and marked alignment has no effect on the pitch range of the rheme-focus. In cases of communicatively unmarked alignment, the pitch range of the theme-background (and rheme-background) group in OVS sentences is wider than in SVO sentences. Word order has no effect on the duration of the accented syllable. Topicalized constituents belonging to the theme-background in OVS sentences with unmarked alignment form separate intermediate phrases. In cases of marked alignment, the rheme-focus ends with a phrase accent and sometimes a pause. The rheme-background and rheme-focus always take a pitch accent, whereas the theme-background is marked by a pitch accent only in cases of communicatively unmarked alignment. The theme-background is deaccented when the sentence is communicatively marked.

Prognostic Indicators of Non-Transection Nerve Injury and Vocal Fold Motion Impairment After Thyroid Surgery – Correlation Between Intraoperative Neuromonitoring Findings and Perioperative Voice Parameters

ObjectivesIn patients with recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury after thyroid surgery, unrecovered vocal fold motion (VFM) and subjective voice impairment cause extreme distress. For surgeons, treating these poor outcomes is extremely challenging. To enable early treatment of VFM impairment, this study evaluated prognostic indicators of non-transection RLN injury and VFM impairment after thyroid surgery and evaluated correlations between intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) findings and perioperative voice parameters.Methods82 adult patients had postoperative VFM impairment after thyroidectomy were enrolled. Demographic characteristics, RLN electromyography (EMG), and RLN injury mechanism were compared. Multi-dimensional voice program, voice range profile and Index of voice and swallowing handicap of thyroidectomy (IVST) were administered during I-preoperative; II-immediate, III-short-term and IV-long-term postoperative periods. The patients were divided into R/U Group according to the VFM was recovered/unrecovered 3 months after surgery. The patients in U Group were divided into U1/U2 Group according to total IVST score change was <4 and ≥4 during period-IV.ResultsCompared to R Group (42 patients), U Group (38 patients) had significantly more patients with EMG >90% decrease in the injured RLN (p<0.001) and thermal injury as the RLN injury mechanism (p=0.002). Voice parameter impairments were more severe in U Group compared to R Group. Compared to U1 group (19 patients), U2 Group (19 patients) had a significantly larger proportion of patients with EMG decrease >90% in the injured RLN (p=0.022) and thermal injury as the RLN injury mechanism (p=0.017). A large pitch range decrease in period-II was a prognostic indicator of a moderate/severe long-term postoperative subjective voice impairment.ConclusionThis study is the first to evaluate correlations between IONM findings and voice outcomes in patients with VFM impairment after thyroid surgery. Thyroid surgeons should make every effort to avoid severe type RLN injury (e.g., thermal injury or injury causing EMG decrease >90%), which raises the risk of unrecovered VFM and moderate/severe long-term postoperative subjective voice impairment. Using objective voice parameters (e.g., pitch range) as prognostic indicators not only enables surgeons to earlier identify patients with low voice satisfaction after surgery, and also enable implementation of interventions sufficiently early to maintain quality of life.

Distinctive prosodic features of people with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis study

In this systematic review, we analyzed and evaluated the findings of studies on prosodic features of vocal productions of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to recognize the statistically significant, most confirmed and reliable prosodic differences distinguishing people with ASD from typically developing individuals. Using suitable keywords, three major databases including Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus, were searched. The results for prosodic features such as mean pitch, pitch range and variability, speech rate, intensity and voice duration were extracted from eligible studies. The pooled standard mean difference between ASD and control groups was extracted or calculated. Using I2 statistic and Cochrane Q-test, between-study heterogeneity was evaluated. Furthermore, publication bias was assessed using funnel plot and its significance was evaluated using Egger’s and Begg’s tests. Thirty-nine eligible studies were retrieved (including 910 and 850 participants for ASD and control groups, respectively). This systematic review and meta-analysis showed that ASD group members had a significantly larger mean pitch (SMD = − 0.4, 95% CI [− 0.70, − 0.10]), larger pitch range (SMD = − 0.78, 95% CI [− 1.34, − 0.21]), longer voice duration (SMD = − 0.43, 95% CI [− 0.72, − 0.15]), and larger pitch variability (SMD = − 0.46, 95% CI [− 0.84, − 0.08]), compared with typically developing control group. However, no significant differences in pitch standard deviation, voice intensity and speech rate were found between groups. Chronological age of participants and voice elicitation tasks were two sources of between-study heterogeneity. Furthermore, no publication bias was observed during analyses (p > 0.05). Mean pitch, pitch range, pitch variability and voice duration were recognized as the prosodic features reliably distinguishing people with ASD from TD individuals.

PSI-Guided Mandible-First Orthognathic Surgery: Maxillo-Mandibular Position Accuracy and Vertical Dimension Adjustability

In orthognathic surgery, patient-specific osteosynthesis implants (PSIs) represent a novel approach for the reproduction of the virtual surgical planning on the patient. The aim of this study is to analyse the quality of maxillo-mandibular positioning using a hybrid mandible-first mandibular-PSI-guided procedure on twenty-two patients while the upper maxilla was fixed using manually bent stock titanium miniplates. The virtual surgical plan was used to design PSIs and positioning guides, which were then 3D printed using biocompatible materials. A Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scan was performed one month after surgery and postoperative facial skeletal models were segmented for comparison against the surgical plan. A three-dimensional cephalometric analysis was carried out on both planned and obtained anatomies. A Spearman correlation matrix was computed on the calculated discrepancies in order to achieve a more comprehensive description of maxillo-mandibular displacement. Intraoperatively, all PSIs were successfully applied. The procedure was found to be accurate in planned maxillo-mandibular positioning reproduction, while maintaining a degree of flexibility to allow for aesthetics-based verticality correction in a pitch range between −5.31 and +1.79 mm. Such a correction did not significantly affect the achievement of planned frontal symmetry.

Pitch Range and Voice Quality in Dimasa Focus Intonation

This paper presents an analysis of Dimasa focus intonation. The acoustic analysis shows that narrow focus sentences undergo a jump in the pitch range irrespective of the underlying tonal value of the morpheme it attaches to. In addition to f0 expansion, the prosodic property of focus in Dimasa was found to have different (tense) phonation in morphologically marked narrow focus sentences when compared to the broad focus context. Thus, the tense phonation property of sentences bearing morphological focus is not only an acoustic property of a higher pitch range but may also be an acoustic cue of discourse-level intonation.

Aspects of New Zealand English Intonation and Its Meanings: an Experimental Investigation of Forms and Contrasts

<p>The first aim of this thesis was to examine the form of New Zealand English intonation. The results of the first series of experiments illustrated several distinctive features of NZE intonation and the preferential tonal use within this language variety. The results from the first experiment suggests that NZE intonation can be characterised as having a narrow pitch range within the phrase and a wide pitch range at the end of the phrase in relation to British English. The findings in the second analysis illustrate that tonal composition, not sentence type affects the pitch range that NZE speaker uses. In addition to pitch range preferences, NZE speakers were also found to prefer an H*L-L% nuclear tonal composition on statements and an L*L-H% for two types of questions when conversational cues were not required by the task type. The second aim of the thesis was to define the tonal features which may adequately describe the semantic contrasts used in this variety. Five experiments were carried out with this aim in mind. The results revealed that NZE listeners use the height of pitch target values when interpreting the meaning of intonation and that the heights of three tonal constituents would be useful in notating the semantic contrasts in this language variety. First, the pitch accent target is used in this variety to indicate speaker involvement, whereby higher (H*) or later (L+H*) pitch accent targets indicate a greater degree of involvement than lower (L*) or earlier targets (H*), respectively. This claim was supported by a production experiment (Chapter 5) in which speakers were asked to convey contrasting meanings on identical utterances. The results were such that higher and later pitch peaks were produced to convey concern, emphasis and an impressed attitude, while lower and earlier pitch accent peaks indicated an absence of these three meanings. Further support for this claim was provided in a perception experiment (Chapter 7), which investigated how listeners interpret conversational markers indicating discourse completeness. The results show that NZE listeners interpret higher H* targets as indicating speaker involvement and, subsequently, listener-oriented turn cues. However, a non-emphatic H*, or a high pitch accent which is lower in pitch than a preceding high pitch accent, does not convey such cues. Second, the boundary target is used to contrast continuation with high phrase-final targets and finality with low phrase-final targets in NZE. This assertion was supported by a perception experiment (Chapter 6) which examined categorical boundaries determined by the boundary tone height. The results suggest that there is at least one categorical boundary at the IP-Final position, which is marked by the pitch movement to the boundary target from the preceding H*. In addition, the semantic contrast of the boundary target height was illustrated in two experiments. First, a production experiment (Chapter 5) illustrated how NZE speakers indicate conversational continuation cues and concern with high boundaries whereas low boundaries indicated conversational cessation cues and a lack of concern. A separate perception experiment (Chapter 7) showed that NZE listeners interpret higher boundary targets as speaker continuation cues and listener-oriented speaking cues whereas lower boundary targets again indicated conversational cessation cues for the speaker and to the listener. Third, the phrase accent may prove useful in distinguishing a further semantic contrast used in this language variety, with a level pitch movement from H* to the IP-Final boundary target categorised with the H% stimuli (suggested in Chapter 6) while the distinction between H-L% and L-L% may be best defined as a pitch movement which does not fall to the F0 minimum and a movement which does fall to this low value (Chapter 5). Although the existence of a phrase accent could not be proved in this thesis, the results illustrate support for this tonal feature.</p>

Aspects of New Zealand English Intonation and Its Meanings: an Experimental Investigation of Forms and Contrasts

<p>The first aim of this thesis was to examine the form of New Zealand English intonation. The results of the first series of experiments illustrated several distinctive features of NZE intonation and the preferential tonal use within this language variety. The results from the first experiment suggests that NZE intonation can be characterised as having a narrow pitch range within the phrase and a wide pitch range at the end of the phrase in relation to British English. The findings in the second analysis illustrate that tonal composition, not sentence type affects the pitch range that NZE speaker uses. In addition to pitch range preferences, NZE speakers were also found to prefer an H*L-L% nuclear tonal composition on statements and an L*L-H% for two types of questions when conversational cues were not required by the task type. The second aim of the thesis was to define the tonal features which may adequately describe the semantic contrasts used in this variety. Five experiments were carried out with this aim in mind. The results revealed that NZE listeners use the height of pitch target values when interpreting the meaning of intonation and that the heights of three tonal constituents would be useful in notating the semantic contrasts in this language variety. First, the pitch accent target is used in this variety to indicate speaker involvement, whereby higher (H*) or later (L+H*) pitch accent targets indicate a greater degree of involvement than lower (L*) or earlier targets (H*), respectively. This claim was supported by a production experiment (Chapter 5) in which speakers were asked to convey contrasting meanings on identical utterances. The results were such that higher and later pitch peaks were produced to convey concern, emphasis and an impressed attitude, while lower and earlier pitch accent peaks indicated an absence of these three meanings. Further support for this claim was provided in a perception experiment (Chapter 7), which investigated how listeners interpret conversational markers indicating discourse completeness. The results show that NZE listeners interpret higher H* targets as indicating speaker involvement and, subsequently, listener-oriented turn cues. However, a non-emphatic H*, or a high pitch accent which is lower in pitch than a preceding high pitch accent, does not convey such cues. Second, the boundary target is used to contrast continuation with high phrase-final targets and finality with low phrase-final targets in NZE. This assertion was supported by a perception experiment (Chapter 6) which examined categorical boundaries determined by the boundary tone height. The results suggest that there is at least one categorical boundary at the IP-Final position, which is marked by the pitch movement to the boundary target from the preceding H*. In addition, the semantic contrast of the boundary target height was illustrated in two experiments. First, a production experiment (Chapter 5) illustrated how NZE speakers indicate conversational continuation cues and concern with high boundaries whereas low boundaries indicated conversational cessation cues and a lack of concern. A separate perception experiment (Chapter 7) showed that NZE listeners interpret higher boundary targets as speaker continuation cues and listener-oriented speaking cues whereas lower boundary targets again indicated conversational cessation cues for the speaker and to the listener. Third, the phrase accent may prove useful in distinguishing a further semantic contrast used in this language variety, with a level pitch movement from H* to the IP-Final boundary target categorised with the H% stimuli (suggested in Chapter 6) while the distinction between H-L% and L-L% may be best defined as a pitch movement which does not fall to the F0 minimum and a movement which does fall to this low value (Chapter 5). Although the existence of a phrase accent could not be proved in this thesis, the results illustrate support for this tonal feature.</p>

Effect of pitch range on dogs’ response to conspecific vs. heterospecific distress cries

Distress cries are emitted by many mammal species to elicit caregiving attention. Across taxa, these calls tend to share similar acoustic structures, but not necessarily frequency range, raising the question of their interspecific communicative potential. As domestic dogs are highly responsive to human emotional cues and experience stress when hearing human cries, we explore whether their responses to distress cries from human infants and puppies depend upon sharing conspecific frequency range or species-specific call characteristics. We recorded adult dogs’ responses to distress cries from puppies and human babies, emitted from a loudspeaker in a basket. The frequency of the cries was presented in both their natural range and also shifted to match the other species. Crucially, regardless of species origin, calls falling into the dog call-frequency range elicited more attention. Thus, domestic dogs’ responses depended strongly on the frequency range. Females responded both faster and more strongly than males, potentially reflecting asymmetries in parental care investment. Our results suggest that, despite domestication leading to an increased overall responsiveness to human cues, dogs still respond considerably less to calls in the natural human infant range than puppy range. Dogs appear to use a fast but inaccurate decision-making process to determine their response to distress-like vocalisations.