L700: Contrast & Prosody (3 cr)
Instructor: K. De Jong
TR 2:30-3:45P
BH 316
Section 2912

Recommended: LING L541 and LING L542 or equivalent

Description:
Many of the bits of speech and language which are most poorly
understood fall into the category of prosody.  This term denotes
aspects of how linguistic contrasts are organized into fluent
utterances appropriate to particular circumstances; thus,
Œprosodyš covers everything from stress and focus, to phrasing and
grouping, to intonation.

The point of this seminar is to explore ways in which prosody can
be examined.  Throughout the semester we will discuss a relatively
small number of readings illustrating recent (production and
perception) approaches to eliciting information about prosodic
effects.  This seminar will emphasize trying out such approaches
on various linguistic structures and situations, and evaluating
them with respect to the possible functions of a prosodic effect.

Students who have particular language interests or interests in a
particular aspect of language (first or second language
acquisition, discourse, lexical access, computational parsing, or
a variety of others) will be encouraged to pursue these interests
further through this course.  For students who have not pursued
individual projects, this class will work as an introduction to
doing so, and perhaps provide a detailed topic or series of topics
which are worth pursuing later on.

Requirements: Regular involvement in class meetings and pilot
projects, presentation of a small number of articles (< 5), and
development of a research project throughout the semester
culminating in a write-up of such progress.