The Complex Tones of E ast/ Southeast Asian Languages Current - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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The Complex Tones

• f E

ast/ Southeast Asian Languages

Current Challenges for Typology and Modelling

Alexis Michaud, CNRS‐LACITO & CNRS‐CEFC

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Photos: Martine Toda

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4 Naxi, Na, Laze Naxi, Na, Laze 纳西、纳（摩梭）、 拉热（“水田话”） Tamang Tamang

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So where’s the challenge?

« Conventional methods of description of tones have not attained the degree of accuracy and generality that have been accomplished for segmental features of speech of various languages, as evidenced by the most recent version of the International Phonetic Alphabet

• symbols. »

(H. Fujisaki, W. Gu, and S. Ohno 2007: 240) Hiroya Fujisaki, Wentao Gu, and Sumio Ohno (2007), « Physiological and physical bases of the command‐response model for generating fundamental frequency contours in tone languages: implications for the phonology of tones », in Experimental Approaches to Phonology, ed. by Maria‐Josep Sole, Patrice Speeter Beddor and Manjari Ohala, Oxford University Press, pp. 228‐245

First step: typology of tone.

(William Wang: « possible tone systems »)

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• 1. The diversity of tonal systems
• Prototypical tone languages?

H M L

Tones defined by F0: Bantu; Naxi; & many others

Phonation type: irrelevant for Naxi

Not just F0: Vietnamese: bundle of F0 and phonation type characteristics; Tamang: F0; phonation type; consonant realization consonant realization

Mazaudon, Martine and Alexis Michaud. 2008. "Tonal contrasts and initial consonants: a case study of Tamang Tamang, a ‘missing link’ in tonogenesis." Phonetica 65:4, pp. 231‐256.

• pen quotient (%)

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Tamang: allophonic variation of initial consonants

2cu‐ri 3pa‐pa 2cu‐ri 1pa‐pa

/c u r i p a p a / u r i p a p a /

8 8

unvoiced unvoiced voiced voiced

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‘polydimensional approach’ (P. Rose) F0 Oq

Caveat: Not all tones are reducible to F0.

Tamang (1 speaker)

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• Currently widespread viewpoint: all contours to be analyzed as sequences of levels.
• Remarkable successes: positive evidence in many

many languages

• Unwarranted extension to Sinitic (Chinese), Thai…
• common‐sense view: contours should be viewed as units unless there is positive

evidence to the contrary (Nick Clements, p.c. 2008)

Tamang word‐ tone. ←

Caveat: Not all contours are decomposable.

Mazaudon, Martine. 2012. “Paths to Tone in the Tamang Branch of Tibeto‐Burman (Nepal).” In Dialects as a Testing Ground for Theories of Language Change, ed. Gunther de Vogelaer and Guido Seiler, 139–177. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

The analysis of tones into features

“… in spite of the vast amount of work on tone languages over the past thirty years, the number of phenomena that appear to require tone features has become significantly reduced, raising the issue whether the notion of tone features is at all useful. This paper first reviews the basic functions for which segmental features have been proposed, and then examines the evidence that tone features are needed to serve these or other functions in tone languages. The discussion focuses successively on level tones, contour tones, and register, building on examples from Africa and Asia. Our current evaluation of the evidence is that tone features, to the extent that they appear motivated at all, do not serve the same functions as segmental features.”

Clements, Nick †, Alexis Michaud, and Cédric Patin. 2011. “Do We Need Tone Features?” In Tones and Features, ed. Elizabeth Hume, John Goldsmith, and W. Leo Wetzels, 3–24. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Hyman, Larry. 2011. “Do tones have features?” Same volume

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Diachronic evolution: contour tones

Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2007. Directionality of tone change. International Conference

• f the Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrücken.

Gradual, continuous evolution of contours. Not categorical Not categorical (no addition/deletion of levels). Direction Direction of tone change: some regularities.

Bangkok Thai

Erickson, Donna. 1976. A Physiological Analysis of the Tones of Thai: University of Connecticut. Santitham Prom‐On & Yi Xu. This conference. Pitch target representation of Thai tones.

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Categorical evolution Categorical evolution of levels. Phonetic pool of variation; diachronic change change: by transphonologization.

LM H H LM H L

→ further investigation: diachronic models of tone change diachronic models of tone change for various tone systems.

Rialland, Annie. 2001. "Anticipatory Raising in Downstep Realization: Evidence for Preplanning in Tone Production." Proceedings of the symposium “Cross‐linguistic studies of tonal phenomena” ed. by

• S. Kaji, 301‐322. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.

H XH

Diachronic evolution: level tones

• 2. From tonal typology

to intonation

• Studies of intonation: borrow from

analyses of lexical tones.

• Broadening tonal typology
• pens perspectives for intonation models.

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Lexical tones and intonation: a thin line

B2: with final constriction Two « difficult » tones: C1: low, long, with final rise → like assertion .

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→ ạ → like interrogation ?

? → ả

[conservative realization] de Rhodes, Alexandre. 1651. Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum. Rome.

Relationship: phonetic? mnemonic? metaphorical?

Haudricourt, André‐Georges. 1949. "L'origine des particularités de l'alphabet vietnamien." Dân Viêt‐Nam 3.61‐68.

Vietnamese tones

16 Tone 1 ā : « speaker gets to know something pleasant » Tone 2 á : « call for repetition » Tone 3 ǎ : « surprise or disbelief » Tone 4 à : « sudden realization of sthg » Interjection 啊, /a/: Approximating intonation by means of tone. Attraction of the tonal system. (Transfer to L2)

‐《精选法汉‐汉法词典》（Dictionnaire concis français‐chinois‐français）,商务印书馆、拉鲁斯出版社，1994 ‐ 林語堂 《 當代漢英詞典》香港中文大學, 一九七二年第一版

Described by some dictionaries as different tones:

啊！我考过了！ Wow! I passed the exam! 啊？ 你在这儿干吗? Huh? What are you doing here? 啊， 这样可以 。 All right, that’s fine.

Potential for tonal reinterpretation of intonation: an example Potential for tonal reinterpretation of intonation: an example

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Tonal and non‐tonal intonation

(i) marking of boundaries/junctures – strongly linked to syntax syntax; (ii) marking of information structure – pragmatics pragmatics;

(iii) expression of attitudes and emotions.

Major difference across languages: to what extent (if at all) these are structured in tonal terms. tonal intonation tonal intonation=addition of tones of intonational origin; =addition of tones of intonational origin; ‘Intonational tones’: intonational origin; structurally similar to lexical tones.

DEF.

Intonation:

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Tonal intonation

• Marginally present in Naxi:

from: /hɑ̄.pɑ̀/ ‘Han, Chinese’

• “rampant in African tone systems” (L. Hyman, p.c.)

E.g. Luganda: /òmùlìmì/ ‘farmer’; with boundary H: /òmúlímí/ L L L L L H H H

Extension, by analogy, of a tonal, categorical treatment Extension, by analogy, of a tonal, categorical treatment… … … … to intonation, which is originally nontonal, noncategorical to intonation, which is originally nontonal, noncategorical

Interpretation Interpretation (hypothesis): (hypothesis):

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Telling apart tonal and non‐tonal phenomena: An experiment comparing Vietnamese, Naxi, and English

Comparing « careful » and « emphatic » renderings of the same words in carrier sentences (This is ___ ): ‐ 1st context: teaching a student how to pronounce a word ‐ 2nd context: answering s.o. for the umpteenth time. Aim: ‐ Illustrating intonational malleability of tone (Vietnamese, Naxi). ‐ Comparing phonetic correlates of tone and of intonation. (in particular: F0, I)

20 Tone D2 (=nonglottalized), careful (nonemphatic) reading.

Mid-range open quotient.

Emphatic reading.

Open quotient: same range. F0: higher.

50 50

140 140 42 items in each graph.

Time in ms Time in ms

Vietnamese:

21 Overall acoustic intensity (RMS amplitude): difference across reading conditions

(experimental settings unchanged)

Time in ms

Tone D2

( Vietnamese data: difference > 5 dB on average

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H

sec. Open quotient (%)

↑ Naxi: differences in F0 (register + contour). English: various strategies. →

High tone

Blue: careful reading, red: emphatic reading

23 Differences in intensity and in F0

F0 I

Tone H Tone M Tone L Tone H Tone M Tone L Expected ratios of intensity / F0, Naxi language

F0 I

Expected ratios of intensity / F0, English language

careful emphatic

F0 I

in Vietnamese :

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Emphasis: relies proportionally more on intensity in languages with tone.

F0 I

High values = high increase in I

(I in dB, F0 in musical tones)

Effect of emphasis Effect of tones ENGLISH VIETNAMESE NAXI Lexical tone (Naxi H vs. M) Observed ratios of intensity / F0 Lexical tone: proportionally less bearing on intensity.

English Naxi Vietn. TONES

Differences in intensity and in F0

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Modelling non‐tonal intonation: the case of Mandarin Chinese [4 lexical tones]

Chilin Shih, April 2003, Oxford University

Tone 3: lowest tone; tone 4: high, sharply falling Speech synthesis for Mandarin:

Shih Chilin et al. 1 template +strength coefficient (based on: informational prominence). Less strong = more coarticulated.

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Conclusion: Conclusion: debate over tonal approaches to intonation debate over tonal approaches to intonation

Languages differ in whether – and to what extent – they have intonational tones*. Intonational tones* strictly speaking: relatively rare.

*tones of intonational origin; structurally similar to lexical tones. DEF.

‘Superpositional’ approaches to prosody, tone‐sequence (‘autosegmental’) approaches: different field of typological application.

Rialland, Annie. 1995. "Review of Autosegmental Studies on Pitch Accent, ed by Harry van der Hulst and Norval Smith, Dordrecht and Providence: Foris Publications, 1988." Journal of Phonetics 23.367‐372.

Thank you for your attention!

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Ladd, Robert. 1992. "An introduction to intonational phonology." Papers in laboratory phonology II: Gesture, segment, prosody ed. by G. J. Docherty and R. Ladd, 321‐334. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

« In the most restrictive versions of current intonational phonology, it is explicitly assumed that independently chosen global shapes—e.g. a declination component—are not needed anywhere in the phonological description.

In effect, the restrictive linear view says that all languages have tonal strings; the main difference between languages with and without lexical tone is simply a matter of where the tonal specifications* come from. » (Ladd 1992)

Final upward tilt of Vietnamese tone C1: « due to final H »? Final rise in interrogative intonation (English, French): « due to final H »?

*Tone: understood as levels, « like H(igh) and L(ow) » (Gussenhoven 2004:xvii)

Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2004. The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

crossing the line? crossing the line? Contemporary linguistics:

Ladd, Robert. 1978. "Stylized intonation." Language 54:3.517‐540.

• Lexical tones and intonation: a thin line.

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Goldsmith, John. 1981. "English as a tone language." Phonology in the 1980s

• ed. by D. L. Goyvaerts, 287‐308. Ghent: Story‐Scientia.
• J. Goldsmith

PPT presentation on « English and tone languages », Introduction to Linguistics 2: Winter 2004

humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/goldsmith/Intro2/

Unified account

• f lexical tones

and intonation

crossing the line? crossing the line? Contemporary linguistics:

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Hyman, Larry M. and Kemmonye C. Monaka. 2008. Tonal and non‐tonal intonation in Shekgalagari, handout of presentation at: Tone and Intonation in Europe (TIE) 3, University of Lisbon, Sept. 15‐17, 2008.

Can F Can F0

0 be isolated from other phonetic correlates?

be isolated from other phonetic correlates?

Term « Tonal » « Non‐tonal » Definition of Hyman et

• al. 2008: in phonetic

terms Realized by F0 Realized by parameters

• ther than F0, e.g.

phonation types Meaning under a functional approach: in structural terms Contrastive tones, whatever their correlates All other phenomena, whatever their correlates

Pike: Pike: « « tonemes tonemes » »

→

• 1. Background

crossing the line? crossing the line? Contemporary linguistics: