R2.6 - recommendations: add examples of prosody signaling additional pragmatic functions

[jvcasillas]

p. 4, 47-50 I think it could be useful to include some concrete examples of the various meanings here, to demonstrate the plethora of meanings that can arise

Action: add examples (refers to: "As touched upon above, a speaker can use prosody to signal numerous additional pragmatic functions as well.")

[RobertEspo]

Here are a few papers documenting some Spanish varieties, and you can look at the end of each paper for a rough and dirty contour-to-meaning mapping http://prosodia.upf.edu/home/arxiu/publicacions/prieto/transcription_intonation_spanish.php.

To demonstrate differences, maybe something like the following:

A: Fui al club con Jon anoche. B: Con Jon? L+¡H L% = echo question, speaker is clarifying who A went with because they didn't hear. L+H HH% = counterexpectational, speaker is surprised A went with Jon and not someone else. L+H* LM% = statement of the obvious, speaker is unsurprised that A went with Jon.

[jvcasillas]

Thanks @RobertEspo

[isabelleschang]

@RobertEspo Thanks for the example! Was this cited from a source or did you come up with it?

[isabelleschang]

fixed via https://github.com/RAP-group/empathy_intonation_perc/pull/75, may need to add citation for example

[RobertEspo]

Unfortunately, made up. I don't know a specific example that could be cited, but you could go into one of the studies published in Prieto's intonation handbook thing and specify something like, "In X dialect, an information seeking yes-no question is signaled by X nuclear contour, whereas an echo yes-no question using the same words is signaled by X nuclear contour."

[jvcasillas]

I think the second option here (writing it out in a couple of sentences) is better than giving an AB-type conversation. @isabelleschang would you like to follow @RobertEspo advice and look for a few examples in Prieto's book? (basically just filling in the blank for X in Robert's last response)

[isabelleschang]

Sure thing! Any varieties you'd recommend?

[jvcasillas]

No preferences on my end. Whatever you find first and seems the easiest?

[isabelleschang]

Ready to put these three examples in the manuscript:

In Argentine Spanish, an information seeking yes-no question is signaled by L+¡H HL%, whereas an echo yes-no question using the same words is signaled by L+¡H HL%.

In Chilean Spanish, an information seeking yes-no question is signaled by L+H HH%, whereas an echo yes-no question using the same words is signaled by L HH%.

In Mexican Spanish, an information seeking yes-no question is signaled by L LH%, whereas an echo yes-no question using the same words is signaled by L LH%.

However, I'm thinking about whether this information would be better represented in table form (one column per language and one row per sentence type, or the other way around). Thoughts?

[jvcasillas]

Thanks @isabelleschang. This is great. I'd prefer to avoid a table. In fact, I will try to reduce the info here to one or two sentences (but Im open to any suggestions, @RobertEspo)

[RobertEspo]

If I'm understanding correctly, I think that Chilean example looks good to me. Something like, "As touched upon above, a speaker can use prosody to signal numerous additional pragmatic functions as well. For example, an information-seeking yes-no question can be contrasted with an echo-question yes-no question in Chilean Spanish by using L+H HH% or L HH% nuclear contour, respectively."

[jvcasillas]

Looks good to me. Included via https://github.com/RAP-group/empathy_intonation_perc/pull/76.

Following the reviewers suggestion, we have included a concrete example in this section of the introduction. The relevant excerpt now reads as follows:

As touched upon above, a speaker can use prosody to signal numerous additional pragmatic functions as well. For example, an information-seeking yes-no question can be contrasted with an echo yes-no question in Chilean Spanish by using L+H* HH\% or L* HH\% nuclear contour, respectively.