37.2799, Books: Individual Variability in the Encoding and Decoding of Prosodic Prominence Relations: Lorenzen (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2799. Wed Sep 02 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2799, Books: Individual Variability in the Encoding and Decoding of Prosodic Prominence Relations: Lorenzen (2026)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Daniel Swanson <daniel at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 01-Sep-2026
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [support at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Individual Variability in the Encoding and Decoding of Prosodic Prominence Relations: Lorenzen (2026)


Title: Individual Variability in the Encoding and Decoding of Prosodic
Prominence Relations
Series Title: Studies in Laboratory Phonology
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/611

Author(s): Janne Marike Lorenzen

eBook

Abstract:

This book investigates inter-individual variability in the encoding
and decoding of prosodic prominence relations. Formally, prosodic
prominence relations are redundantly expressed by several acoustic
parameters, such as changes in fundamental frequency, duration, and
intensity. Functionally, prominence relations encode meaning, e.g.,
the information status of a word or referent. Both the formal and the
functional side of prominence facilitate inter-individual variability.
On the one hand, redundancy inherent in prominence marking enables
individuals to use different parameters in their production and
perception. On the other hand, differences in communicative skills may
influence which meaning aspects language users pay attention to and
how strongly they encode them.
In this book, inter-individual variability is analyzed in two
production studies and one perception study. Production data is
elicited in listener-directed reading tasks and analyzed using
prosodic annotation and acoustic analyses. Perception is probed via a
prominence rating task. Individual differences are explored via
careful descriptive inspection of the data and statistically via
cluster analyses. Results indicate that speakers differ in how
strongly they encode prominence relations, which parameters they use
to do so, and which meaning aspects they predominantly mark - which in
turn is partially modulated by their communicative skills. Listeners
also vary in their sensitivity to prominence cues.
These findings highlight the importance of looking at the individual
speaker or listener in prosodic research and allow for a new
perspective on established concepts in prosodic theory, such as the
dichotomy of tune and metrical structure, relationality and redundancy
in prominence encoding and decoding, and the probabilistic nature of
form-meaning mapping.

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
                     Phonology

Written In: English (eng, stan1293)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Australian Linguistics Society https://als.asn.au/Home

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

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/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2799
----------------------------------------------------------