34.3207, Calls: Prosodic augmentation: The Systematic Expression of Evaluation through Prosodic Means
The LINGUIST List
linguist at listserv.linguistlist.org
Sat Oct 28 13:05:05 UTC 2023
LINGUIST List: Vol-34-3207. Sat Oct 28 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 34.3207, Calls: Prosodic augmentation: The Systematic Expression of Evaluation through Prosodic Means
Moderators: Malgorzata E. Cavar, Francis Tyers (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Justin Fuller
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Steven Franks, Everett Green, Daniel Swanson, Maria Lucero Guillen Puon, Zackary Leech, Lynzie Coburn, Natasha Singh, Erin Steitz
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
Editor for this issue: Zackary Leech <zleech at linguistlist.org>
================================================================
Date: 27-Oct-2023
From: Martin Kohlberger [martin.kohlberger at usask.ca]
Subject: Prosodic augmentation: The Systematic Expression of Evaluation through Prosodic Means
Full Title: Prosodic augmentation: the systematic expression of
evaluation through prosodic means
Date: 21-Aug-2024 - 24-Aug-2024
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact Person: Martin Kohlberger
Meeting Email: martin.kohlberger at usask.ca
Linguistic Field(s): Phonology; Semantics; Typology
Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2023
Meeting Description:
SLE 2024 Workshop Proposal
Organizers: Olga Lovick (University of Saskatchewan);
olga.lovick at usask.ca
Martin Kohlberger (University of
Saskatchewan); martin.kohlberger at usask.ca
The study of evaluation in linguistics has focused primarily on
morphological means, e.g. Scalise (1984), Bauer (1997), or Grandi and
Körtvélyessy (2015). Yet there are a number of languages where
evaluation is expressed systematically by prosodic means. Lovick
(2023) describes a process she calls “prosodic augmentation” in Upper
Tanana (Dene/Athabascan, USA/Canada), where evaluation is expressed
only through prosodic means. Stem vowels are lengthened to at least
three times their usual length and often pronounced with noticeably
raised pitch; in the practical orthography this is represented through
colons following the vowels (1) and (2).
(1a) Dineh cho:::h!
man big
‘An enormously big man!’ ‘A big
man.’
(1b) Dineh choh.
man big
‘A big man.’
(2a) Altha:::::ł!
‘She was running as hard and far as she could!’
(2b) Altthał!
‘She was running!’
The semantic effects depend somewhat on the lexical item. With
adjectives and verbs describing property concepts, prosodic
augmentation expresses that the quality expressed is present in
abundance. With other verbs, it can express increased intensity or
speed or repetition. With nouns, it indicates abundant quantity, and
with directional adverbs, increased distance. The data shows that
prosodic augmentation is an iconic pattern, where some sort of
semantic increase (in amount, length of time, distance, intensity, or
number of repetitions) is signaled through special prosody.
In other languages, prosodic augmentation might be restricted to
certain word classes but is still systematic and pervasive.
Kohlberger (2020) notes that in Shiwiar (Chicham, Ecuador) quantifiers
such as nukap ‘much’ and maʃ ‘all’ may be intensified in two ways:
either by a process of reduplication (e.g. nukap nukap ‘very much’ maʃ
maʃ ‘absolutely all’) or by producing a sudden and extreme high pitch
excursion on the accented syllable of the word, often accompanied by
an increase in vowel duration (e.g. [nuka̋ːp] or [ma̋ːʃ]). However, in
a 30-hour corpus of natural discourse, the prosodic strategy is by far
the more frequent.
These patterns differ from similar uses in Indo-European languages in
their systematicity. Gussenhoven (1999) describes such a pattern as an
ad-hoc strategy for the expression of evaluation in English, which is
usually expressed morphosyntactically. In Upper Tanana and Shiwiar,
prosodic augmentation is a highly systematic process and, more
importantly, the main strategy for prosodic augmentation.
Comparable phenomena with some systematicity have also been reported
in Yup’ik (Eskaleut, Woodbury 1985), Japhug (Tibeto-Burman, Jacques
2013) and Nivkh (isolate;Gruzdeva 1998). Woodbury’s (1985) careful
account of prosodic patterns in Yup’ik discourse illustrates several
pragmatic functions, such as the expression of increased intensity and
surprise. Jacques (2013) finds a special prosodic pattern associated
with the first use of an ideophone in Japhug discourse. While in
Japhug, this pattern is used only for ideophones, Gruzdeva (1998)
observes that in Nivkh, a similar prosodic pattern applies to many
different lexical categories.
Clearly, such patterns are not infrequent in the world’s languages,
and have intrigued linguists for almost four decades. Yet at the same
time, a broad understanding of such phenomena is lacking. We suspect
that this may reflect a bias toward written and/or major languages,
similar to what has been argued by Fischer (2011) with respect to
reduplication.
The main goal of this workshop is to arrive at a more nuanced
understanding of this phenomenon from a typological perspective.
Call for Papers:
We aim to bring together researchers working on prosodic augmentation
and similar processes to investigate the following questions:
- How common is the expression of evaluation through (solely)
prosodic means in the world’s languages?
- Are such patterns typically restricted to certain lexical
categories or to certain types of discourse?
- Which evaluative functions are expressed prosodically? Are
some functions more common than others?
- Does prosodic augmentation compete with other
(morphosyntactic) evaluative strategies? If so, under what conditions
is the prosodic strategy preferred?
- Which prosodic means (manipulation of pitch, segment or
syllable duration, nasality, vowel or consonant modification, etc.)
are being employed in this process?
- What methodological considerations are necessary in order to
collect and analyse data that accurately represent the use of prosodic
augmentation in natural discourse?
We invite submissions for 20-minute talks that address any of the
above questions or related issues. In-depth studies of one particular
language or language group as well as areal (or other) overviews are
welcome. Please submit a 300-word abstract (excluding references) to
the workshop organizers (olga.lovick at usask.ca;
martin.kohlberger at usask.ca) by 15 November 2023. If the workshop
proposal is accepted, contributors will be asked to resubmit a
500-word abstract by 15 January 2024.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please consider donating to the Linguist List https://give.myiu.org/iu-bloomington/I320011968.html
LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:
American Dialect Society/Duke University Press http://dukeupress.edu
Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group) http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/
Brill http://www.brill.com
Cambridge Scholars Publishing http://www.cambridgescholars.com/
Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics
Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/
De Gruyter Mouton https://cloud.newsletter.degruyter.com/mouton
Dictionary Society of North America http://dictionarysociety.com/
Edinburgh University Press www.edinburghuniversitypress.com
Elsevier Ltd http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics
Equinox Publishing Ltd http://www.equinoxpub.com/
European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info
Georgetown University Press http://www.press.georgetown.edu
John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/
Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/
Linguistic Association of Finland http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/
MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/
Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/
Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/
Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Oxford University Press http://www.oup.com/us
SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications
Springer Nature http://www.springer.com
Wiley http://www.wiley.com
----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-34-3207
----------------------------------------------------------
More information about the LINGUIST
mailing list