Phonetic manifestation of word accents in sentence perspetive

-a comparison of Tokyo and Kochi Japanese

Yasuko Nagano-MadsenDept. Of Oriental & African Languages,

Göteborg University

Accent is weakened *in the following cases(for text reading and for learners of Japanese)

*appears at the reduced pitch register/downstep, catathesis

from Kori (1997:189)

1. When a noun is modified by a preceding ajective or with the genitive particle no

aoi doresu ’a blue dress’

watashi no doresu ’my dress’

2. When a predicate verb is modified by a preceding adverb(ial) element or with the particle .

kinou yonda ’I read (it)yesterday’

hitori de yonda ’I read (it) alone’

3. The second word in a parellel expression :

nihon to amerika ’Japan and USA’aka ka shiro ’red or white’

4. group of words after a focused word

******************************************1-3 are syntactically conditioned 4 is pragmatically conditioned

Tokyo vs. Osaka Japanese

• Kori (1989:120)– In Osaka Japanese, the magnitude of

reduction is not as great as that in Tokyo Japanese

• Sugito(2001:204-5)– Tokyo Japanese -> intonation lang.– Osaka Japanese->(word)accent lang.

Purpose of the present study

• Pilot study to examine dialectal differences regarding accent manifestation in relation to syntax (modifier)

• Tokyo vs. Kochi Japanese• Hypotheses

– 1. Syntax prosody mapping is manifested less in Kochi dialect (sf. Sugito 2001)

– The magnitude of accent reduction for the second accent is less in Kochi dialect

– (cf. Kori 1989)

Meterial1. NP consisting of a noun modified by another noun with

the genetive particle no

oka’asan no presento ’mother’s present’oka’asan no huku’ ’mother’s dress’ne’ko no prezento ’present from a cat’ne’o no huku’ ’a dress for cat’

2. When a predicate verb is modified by a preceding adverb(ial) element or with the particle .

iso’ide aruita ’I walked fast’do’ndon aruita ’I walked fast’

• 3. NP(subject) ga V (predicate)Hanako ga aruita

’Hanako walked (it is Hanako who walked, not Taro)’

1 and 2 appeared in isolation, as subject phrase, part of sentence modifier, and in focal position. 36 sentences.

Speakers and recording procedure

• Recordings were made in summer 2006• Speakers were university teachers,

administrative staffs, and students• 20 – 65 years• Both male and female speakers• Speakers took a look of wordlist (5 minutes)• Slow and fast speaking rates, sometimes

speakers had to re-read the utterance

measurements

• PRAAT

• Accent peaks were measured both in Hz and semitone

Pitch range in semitone scale

-Chinese (Lin 2004) spontaneous speech

-Japanese (Nagano-Madsen & Ayusawa 2005)simulated emotional speech by voice actors

Male

average

Female

average

Chinese 125.7 Hz

16.4 st(N=37)

217.9Hz

16.2 st(N=42)

Japanese 13.9 st(N=3)

14.3 st(N=3)

Results

• Tokyo 4 speakers, • Kochi 5 speakers

• NP (N no N)• Ad V

• Sentence modifier

1. Syntax prosody mappingN no N (98 vs. 94%)

Ad. V (100% vs 90%)

50

60

70

80

90

100

N no N Ad V

dialect

%Tokyo

Kochi

Great difference in syntax prosody mapping was found for sentence modifier (relative clause)

• Example

• Oka’asan no pure’zento ga todo’ita a’sa datta• Mother-Gen present-Nom arrived morning it

was

• =It was the morning when mother’s present arrived.

Tokyo (speaker S.B.)

F0 contours (fast speech) for oka’asan no pure’zento ga todo’ita a’sa datta’It was the morning when mother’s present arrived’

slow fast

Kochi

QuickTime och enTIFF (okomprimerat)-dekomprimerare

krävs för att kunna se bilden.

slow fast

F0 contours (fast speech) for oka’asan no pure’zento ga to’doita asa’ yatta’It was the morning when mother’s present arrived’

(speaker Y.K.)

Sentence modifier consisting of 3 or 4 accentsN no N V N or (N ga) Ad V N1 unit = no F0 reset2 units=1 F0 reset3 units=2 F0 resets

Sentence modifier as one prosodic unit?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3

number of units

%Tokyo

Kochi

2. Magnitude of reduction in semitoneNP (N no N)

e.g. oka’asan no pure’zento ’mother’s present’

Tokyo (average 5.2 semitones)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

YY my SB MM

speaker (capital initial=female speaer)

accent reduction in semitone

slow

3.4

Kochi Japanese

Kochi (average 3.5 semitones)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

YK MN mi mc yk

speakers (capital initial=female speaker)

accent reduction in semitone

slow

fast

Magnitude of accent reduction (in semitone)N no N (5.2 vs. 3.5)Ad V (6.4 vs. 4.2)NP (subject) ga V (predicate)(2.9 vs. 2.5)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

N no N Ad V NP ga V

reduction in semitone

Tokyo

Kochi

Conclusion

• 1. Syntax prosody mapping was manifested less in the Kochi dialect

• 2. The magnitude of accent reduction (downstep) was consistently less for the Kochi dialect.