230557 Linguistic Theory: Models of Prosody (S) (WiSe 2006/2007)

Objectives and Contents

The aim of the course is to deepen knowledge and skills in an area of spoken language which is often neglected, involving properties of language such as intonation and accentuation, in other words: "tone of voice", melody, tempo, rhythm, intensity...

In literature, "prosody" refers to highly stylised features of verse such as metre and rhyme: terms such as iambic, trochaic, dactylic and anapaestic feet, iambic pentameter, are characteristic of this domain. Contemporary literary studies tend to concentrate more on the pragmatics and, as it were, the "sociolinguistics" of literature in its cultural and social context rather than on its form, and in this way is nicely complementary to the topics which are dealt with in linguistics.

The course will concentrate mainly on two areas, from both theoretical and practical points of view:

1. intonation: the organisation of the melody of speech in relation to words, sentences, texts and dialogues;
2. rhythm: the temporal organisation of speech.

In each of these two areas, practical description of speech recordings will be made, and differences in form and functionality of these systems of speech in different languages (and dialects) will be investigated.

Organisation and Qualifications

On the one hand, for more theoretical issues the course will be partly lecture-based and partly group work based. On the other hand, there will be a strong focus on practical descriptive work, involving the analysis of speech recordings using modern phonetic methods of speech annotation and "annotation mining".

In order to get the full qualification of 3 credit points, the following is expected of all participants:

1. Regular attendance.
2. Production of a "Learner Diary" or "Portfolio" as follows:

• The portfolio will contain summaries of class materials, answers to exercises, illustrations and examples of relevant points, and a glossary of technical terms and definitions. Each participant must place the portfolio on his/her web site. If the participant does not yet have a web site, a web site must be created.
• The main reason for putting portfolios on a web site is to permit efficient checking and feedback by me.
• The portfolio must be formatted according to professional criteria using OpenOffice, MS-Word, or a similar word processor.
• The portfolio will be graded.

See also

External comments page

http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2006WS/LinguisticTheoryModelsOfProsody/