Prosody (linguistics)

In linguistics, prosody (pronounced /ˈprɒsədi/, PROSS-ə-dee) is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of a speaker; whether an utterance is a statement, a question, or a command; whether the speaker is being ironic or sarcastic; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of language that may not be encoded by grammar or choice of vocabulary.

Acoustic attributes of prosody

In terms of acoustics, the prosodics of oral languages involve variation in syllable length, loudness, pitch, and the formant frequencies of speech sounds. In sign languages, prosody involves the rhythm, length, and tension of gestures, along with mouthing and facial expressions. Prosody is typically absent in writing, which can occasionally result in reader misunderstanding. Orthographic conventions to mark or substitute for prosody include punctuation (commas, exclamation marks, question marks, scare quotes, and ellipses), typographic styling for emphasis (italic, bold, and underlined text), and emoticons.

The detail of a language's prosody depends upon its phonology. For example, in a language with phonemic vowel length, this must be marked separately from prosodic syllable length. In similar manner, prosodic pitch must not obscure tone in a tone language if the result is to be intelligible. Although tone languages such as Mandarin have prosodic pitch variations in the course of a sentence, such variations are long and smooth contours, on which the short and sharp lexical tones are superimposed. If pitch can be compared to ocean waves, the swells are the prosody, and the wind-blown ripples in their surface are the lexical tones, as with stress in English. The word dessert has greater stress on the second syllable, compared to desert, which has greater stress on the first; but this distinction is not obscured when the entire word is stressed by a child demanding "Give me dessert!" Vowels in many languages are likewise pronounced differently (typically less centrally) in a careful rhythm or when a word is emphasized, but not so much as to overlap with the formant structure of a different vowel. Both lexical and prosodic information are encoded in rhythm, loudness, pitch, and vowel formants.

The prosodic domain

Prosodic features are suprasegmental. They are not confined to any one segment, but occur in some higher level of an utterance. These prosodic units are the actual phonetic "spurts", or chunks of speech. They need not correspond to grammatical units such as phrases and clauses, though they may; and these facts suggest insights into how the brain processes speech.

Prosodic units are marked by phonetic cues, such as a coherent pitch contour – or the gradual decline in pitch and lengthening of vowels over the duration of the unit, until the pitch and speed are reset to begin the next unit. Breathing, both inhalation and exhalation, seems to occur only at these boundaries where the prosody resets.

"Prosodic structure" is important in language contact and lexical borrowing. For example, in Modern Hebrew, the XiXéX verb-template is much more productive than the XaXáX verb-template because in morphemic adaptations of non-Hebrew stems, the XiXéX verb-template is more likely to retain — in all conjugations throughout the tenses — the prosodic structure (e.g., the consonant clusters and the location of the vowels) of the stem.

Prosody and emotion

Emotional prosody is the expression of feelings using prosodic elements of speech. It was recognized by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man as predating the evolution of human language: "Even monkeys express strong feelings in different tones – anger and impatience by low, – fear and pain by high notes." Native speakers listening to actors reading emotionally neutral text while projecting emotions correctly recognized happiness 62% of the time, anger 95%, surprise 91%, sadness 81%, and neutral tone 76%. When a database of this speech was processed by computer, segmental features allowed better than 90% recognition of happiness and anger, while suprasegmental prosodic features allowed only 44%–49% recognition. The reverse was true for surprise, which was recognized only 69% of the time by segmental features and 96% of the time by suprasegmental prosody. In typical conversation (no actor voice involved), the recognition of emotion may be quite low, of the order of 50%, hampering the complex interrelationship function of speech advocated by some authors.

Neurology of prosody

Aprosodia is an acquired or developmental brain disorder that results a lack of comprehending or generating the emotion conveyed in spoken language. Producing this nonverbal element of speech requires neurologically intact motor areas of the face, mouth, tongue, and throat. This neurological region is associated with Brodmann areas 44 and 45 (Broca's area), located in the left frontal lobe of the brain. Broca's area is the area where expressive language is produced. Damage to Broadman areas 44/45 produces motor aprosodia, with the nonverbal elements of speech being disturbed (facial expression, tone, rhythm of voice).

Understanding these nonverbal elements requires an intact and properly functioning Brodmann area 22 - found in Wernicke's area, located in the right brain hemisphere. Right-hemispheric area 22 aids in receptive language and the interpretation of prosody; damage in this location causes sensory aprosodia, with the patient unable to comprehend and detect changes in voice and body language.

Prosody is dealt with by a right-hemisphere network that is largely a mirror image of the left perisylvian zone. Damage to the right inferior frontal gyrus impedes expressive language with prosody by causing a diminished ability to convey emotion or emphasis by voice or gesture. Damage to the right superior temporal gyrus impedes receptive languages with prosody by causing problems comprehending emotion or emphasis in the voice or gestures of others.

See also

• Intonation
• Phonological hierarchy
• Prosody (poetry)

Further reading

• NESPOR, Marina. Prosody: an interview with Marina Nespor ReVEL, vol. 8, n. 15, 2010.
• Nolte, John. The Human Brain 6th Edition

External links

• Lessons in Prosody (at the University of Freiburg)
• Prosody on the Web - (a tutorial on prosody)