…It’s how you say it Julia Hirschberg CS 4706 9/21/2018

Intonational Contours Intonation Features Intonational Contours Pitch accents (f0, intensity,duration) Phrasing (pause, f0, duration) Minor (intermediate) phrases Major (intonational) phrases/breath groups Other Pitch variation (f0) Pitch range Final lowering Intensity/loudness (rms,db) 9/21/2018

Voice quality (degree/manner of glottal closure) Timing Speaking rate (syls per sec) Pausal duration Voice quality (degree/manner of glottal closure) Hoarseness, breathiness Pressed, creaky, tense, harsh, whispery voice 9/21/2018

Intonation and Syntactic Structure PP attachment: You should buy the ticket with the discount coupon. Clause attachment If you need me when you get there call me. Modifier scope: This fare is restricted to retired politicians and civil servants Relative clauses My friend who likes to cook came to visit. 9/21/2018

Acoustic/Prosodic Phenomena Phrasing Accent Speaking rate We only suspected they all knew that a burglary had been committed. Simple complement Parenthetical Right node raising We only suspected, they all knew, that …. (Parenthetical) We only suspected, they all knew that… (Complement) WE only SUSPECTED, THEY all KNEW, that… (RNR) 9/21/2018

Intonation and Semantics Scope ambiguities Negation You aren’t booked through Rome because of the fare. Quantifiers John only introduced Mary to Sue. Modals Dogs must be carried. 9/21/2018

Acoustic/Prosodic Phenomena Accent Phrasing 9/21/2018

Intonation and Discourse Information status Given/new information S: Do you need a return ticket. U: No, thanks, I don’t need a return. Contrast (narrow focus) U: No, thanks, I don’t need a RETURN…. (I need a time schedule, receipt,…) Discourse markers Now what I’d like is a nice piece of pizza. Whatever I said I’d like a pizza. 9/21/2018

Speech acts (statements, questions, requests) Reference resolution Strict/sloppy interpretations of ellipsis People who live in Los Angeles adore it’s beaches and so do people who live in New York. George likes his mother and so does Sue. George did his homework and so did Sue. Speech acts (statements, questions, requests) That’ll be credit card Can you open that window 9/21/2018

Discourse/topic structure I’m afraid we don’t have time to finish the experiment today. What a shame. We can’t pay you the $10. Can you come back tomorrow? 9/21/2018

Acoustic/Prosodic Phenomena Pitch range, final lowering Timing Intonational contour, phrasing, pitch accent 9/21/2018

‘Paralinguistic’ Information Emotion (anger, happiness, love) Propositional attitude (uncertainty) Did you feed the animals? I fed the goldfish (Rise/Fall/Rise) Level of speaker engagement Really REALLY Personality 9/21/2018

How do these phenomena generalize? Across individuals and groups? Across languages? Across cultures? Get a3 and a4 for disambig gw for other 9/21/2018

Prosodic Disambiguation of Syntactic and Semantic Ambiguity Intonational disambiguation across languages: Spanish, Italian and English (w/Avesani & Prieto) William isn’t drinking because he’s unhappy 9/21/2018

Bill doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. The Phenomenon Bill doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. The presence of none of the professors will embarrass her. He only wounded Anne. He even embraced the policeman. He managed to find the woman with the binoculars. He had spoken to her quite clearly. The professor who loves jelly beans died in terrible agony. 10 or 15 years ago we talked about talking to machines, we studied the problems involved, and we even built demo dialogue systems. Today when you talk to a machine, you have a chance of getting a useful answer -- about travel arrangements or your email or your finances. What’s made this possible? 9/21/2018

The Issues Do speakers consistently disambiguate potentially ambiguous utteranced intonationally? Do native speakers of different languages employ similar methods of disambiguation for similar ambiguities? 9/21/2018

Avesani et al 1995; Hirschberg&Avesani 1997 Studies Avesani et al 1995; Hirschberg&Avesani 1997 Production studies comparing English, Italian and Spanish speakers (4 per language) and then English and Italian Potentially ambiguous utterances embedded in contexts to disambiguate: 9/21/2018

English I know William very well. Since his girlfriend left him, he’s done nothing but drink. It’s been such a long time since his separation, that he’s used to living alone. Now, William doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. He drinks because he’s an alcoholic. There’s something about William that puzzles me. When he’s happy, he has a good time with his friends, and certainly he doesn’t dislike drinking. I think I understand what’s wrong. William doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. 9/21/2018

Spanish Conozco a Guillermo muy bien. Desde que su novia le dejo, no ha hecho nada mas que beber. Despues de tanto tiempo de su separacion, se ha acostumbrado a vivir solo. Ahora, Guillermo no bebe porque esta triste. Simplement, porque es un alcoholico. Ha algo de Guillermo que no me convence. Cuando le veo feliz, se que se lo pasa, bien con sus amigos, y que no le desagrada beber. Creo que se lo que le pasa. Guillermo no bebe porque esta triste. 9/21/2018

Target utterances excised and labeled for Analysis Target utterances excised and labeled for Intonational contour Relative prominence of pitch accents Different ambiguity contexts compared within languages to find common patterns Common patterns compared across languages 9/21/2018

Results Scope of negation similarly disambiguated between wide and narrow readings by variation of intonational phrasing (one phrase vs. two) Spanish and Italian speakers also varied nuclear stress placement (on verb for wide) English speakers also used continuation rise for wide, falling for narrow Bill doesn’t drink because he’s unhappy. •    PP-attachment disambiguated by phrasing variation (for Italian speakers) 9/21/2018

Association with focus: only consistently disambiguated by all three Quantifier scope disambiguated by varying nuclear stress placement and phrases (for Italian, Spanish, 2 English subjects) Association with focus: only consistently disambiguated by all three 9/21/2018

How do other languages use intonation to convey information? Syntactic ambiguity Semantic ambiguity Discourse phenomena ‘Paralinguistic’ information 9/21/2018

Readings: Johnson, Chapters 1 and 2 Next class Readings: Johnson, Chapters 1 and 2 9/21/2018