Effects of distributional information on categorization of prosodic contours.

ABSTRACT: Although prosody clearly affects the interpretation of utterances, the mapping between prosodic representations and acoustic features is highly variable. Listeners may in part cope with this variability by adapting to distributions of acoustic features in the input. We examined whether listeners adapt to distributional changes using the construction It looks like an X. When pronounced with an H* pitch accent on the final noun and a low boundary tone, the construction supports an affirmative interpretation (e.g., It looks like a ZEBRA [and I think it is one]). Conversely, when pronounced with a L+H* pitch accent and a rising boundary tone, it suggests a negative interpretation (e.g., It LOOKS like a zebra.... [but it is not]). Experiment 1 elicited pragmatic interpretations of resynthesized

SUBMITTER: Kurumada C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5720936 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature