Workshop on the phonetics and phonology of prosody

[dan everett]

     Workshop on the phonetics and phonology of prosody, 2001

     First Announcement


     The analysis of stress, intonation, and tone in natural languages is
     notoriously difficult. Yet these phenomena and others closely
     associated with them are vital for a thorough understanding of the
     grammar of many languages. The difficulties of analysis in these
     domains are both phonological and phonetic. Phonologically, a proper
     understanding of prosody requires analysis of many interlocking areas
     of linguistics.  The research needs to know about syllables, moras,
     morphophonology, syntax, and, quite often, discourse to make headway.
     Consequently, prosody is  frequently underanalyzed and misanalyzed
     crosslinguistically. More generally, understanding in this area is
     impeded when there is a lack of systematic analysis of the phonetics
     underlying the phonology of prosody.

     The 'Phonetics and Phonology of Prosody' workshop offered through the
     University of North Dakota-SIL International  Summer 2001 Session will
     offer the following helps for researchers from any part of the world:

     1) Instruction in the acoustic phonetics bases and correlates of
     intonation, stress, and tone crosslinguistically, along with hands-on
     learning of PC and MAC tools for speech analysis (especially SIL
     International's _Speech Analyzer_ software and the _PRAAT_ program
     developed by researchers at the University of Amsterdam);
     2) Regular individual sessions with participants on analyzing prosodic
     features of their languages of concern;
     3) Presentations from workshop organizers and participants on the
     phonological and phonetic nature of prosody in different areas of the
     world;
     4) Help and instruction in writing research results for publication.
     Helped will be offered for writing either descriptive or more
     theoretically-oriented reports. We hope to edit and publish a volume
     of research reports from the workshop.

     This workshop is available to linguists currently engaged in fieldwork
     who have a minimum of one course each in phonology and
     grammar/morphosyntax. No particular theoretical background is
     required, nor is any previous training in acoustics phonetics.
     Participants in the workshop must be enrolled as students of the
     University of North Dakota - SIL summer session. Those linguists who
     do not need or wish to receive academic credit for their participation
     will still need to enroll to audit the workshop as a course. (This
     will enable them to receive special rates for room & board during the
     workshop.) Participants wishing to receive academic credit for the
     workshop may enroll for 2-5 graduate credits, depending on the type
     and level of research they plan to engage in. The workshop will begin
     during the second week of June and will run until the second week of
     August, 2001. Exact dates will be provided in a later announcement.

     For further information, contact dan_everett at sil.org or visit the
     website of the University of North Dakota - SIL summer session:
     http://www.nd.sil.org