Kristine Yu writes:
Prosodic structure and its broader cognitive context
Jelena Krivokapić
Yale University
Prosody refers to the level of linguistic structure above the segmental level, such as phrasal organization, rhythmic structure, and prominence. In this talk I examine the temporal and structural properties of phrasal organization and rhythmic structure as reflected in speech production and perception, as well as in the broader cognitive context of language use. I will present a series of experimental studies examining a) the effect of prosodic structure on pause duration in utterances, b) the extent of boundary effects as shown in the articulation of gestures near phrase junctures, c) categoricity and gradiency in the perception of prosodic boundaries, d) recursion in prosodic structure, and e) prosodic convergence. The results inform our understanding of the linguistic representation of prosodic structure and its relation to processes involved in producing spoken language.