36.3145, Books: Prosody and Attention Orienting: Lialiou (2025)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3145. Fri Oct 17 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3145, Books: Prosody and Attention Orienting: Lialiou (2025)

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Date: 15-Oct-2025
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [support at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Prosody and Attention Orienting: Lialiou (2025)


Title: Prosody and Attention Orienting
Subtitle: The role of rising intonation in speech processing
Series Title: Studies in Laboratory Phonology
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/516

Author(s): Maria Lialiou

Abstract:

Humans are confronted everyday with an influx of sounds coming from
several sources. In a given auditory environment, some of the sound
events might be unexpected, rare, or new. Our cognitive system has the
ability to detect such sounds, and consequently activate an attention
orienting response.
This book provides an in-depth investigation of the interplay between
prosody and attention orienting during online speech processing by
using two complementary experimental methods, electrophysiology and
pupillometry. In particular, it examines the cognitive and functional
relevance of intonation for the orienting response in speech,
emphasising the crucial role of rising contours. More specifically, it
investigates the influence of prosodic structure, showing that rising
tones at constituent edges attract attention similarly to accentual
rising tones, challenging important tenets of prosodic theory and
typology.
The book shows that contextual expectations shape the orienting
response, extending insights beyond purely acoustic cues to
pragmatically meaningful linguistic signals. Finally, much like cues
from auditory cognition, rising tones activate both involuntary and
voluntary attentional mechanisms – the former driven by signal-based
acoustic cues, while the latter arise from contextual influences
guiding voluntary attention orienting.
Taken together, the findings in this book enhance our understanding of
the role of intonation in attention orienting, emphasising the
significance of rising tones. The book establishes key connections to
general cognition and individual variability while exploring potential
extensions for an architecture of attention orienting in spoken
language.

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
                     Phonology

Written In: English (eng)



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