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Syntactic properties of spontaneous speech in the Language into Act Theory

Data on Italian complements and relative clauses
  • Emanuela Cresti
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Spoken Corpora and Linguistic Studies
This chapter is in the book Spoken Corpora and Linguistic Studies

Abstract

In comparison with writing the performance of spontaneous speech is characterized by a strong reduction of the syntax , anyway a clear and general representation of speech syntax does not emerge with evidence from literature. Our framework , the theory of Language into Act (L-AcT), which is an extension of the Speech act theory (Austin, 1962), it is derived from corpus-based research carried out on large spontaneous speech corpora. Utterance is assumed as the reference unit; it is pragmatically defined such as corresponding to a speech act and is identified through prosodic devices. In the L-AcT perspective, the syntactic reduction can start finding its explication in favor of pragmatic information functionality, because the final linguistic nature of the utterance corresponds to the combination of semantic/syntactic islands, going hand by hand with the information units (IU), taking part to its Information Pattern (IP), and being characterized each for a pragmatic function. Therefore also the study of syntax is carried out considering the information performance of the utterance. First of all the most common syntactic structures, in reality occurring in speech, are expounded in a general survey, with data resulting from corpus-based research. But the central topic of the paper is the explication of the two different types of subordination (linearized and patternized): actually both types of completive clauses (objective, subjective, indirect interrogative but also reported speech, spoken thought and exemplification) and types of relative clauses (restrictive and non-restrictive) are analyzed according to the feature to be performed in a linearized way within a same IU, or in a patternized way across two IUs. The deriving syntactic and semantic implications are commented. Finally, on the base of the IPIC-DB, general quantitative data regarding all kinds of completive and relative clauses are presented , making emerge their low frequency.

Abstract

In comparison with writing the performance of spontaneous speech is characterized by a strong reduction of the syntax , anyway a clear and general representation of speech syntax does not emerge with evidence from literature. Our framework , the theory of Language into Act (L-AcT), which is an extension of the Speech act theory (Austin, 1962), it is derived from corpus-based research carried out on large spontaneous speech corpora. Utterance is assumed as the reference unit; it is pragmatically defined such as corresponding to a speech act and is identified through prosodic devices. In the L-AcT perspective, the syntactic reduction can start finding its explication in favor of pragmatic information functionality, because the final linguistic nature of the utterance corresponds to the combination of semantic/syntactic islands, going hand by hand with the information units (IU), taking part to its Information Pattern (IP), and being characterized each for a pragmatic function. Therefore also the study of syntax is carried out considering the information performance of the utterance. First of all the most common syntactic structures, in reality occurring in speech, are expounded in a general survey, with data resulting from corpus-based research. But the central topic of the paper is the explication of the two different types of subordination (linearized and patternized): actually both types of completive clauses (objective, subjective, indirect interrogative but also reported speech, spoken thought and exemplification) and types of relative clauses (restrictive and non-restrictive) are analyzed according to the feature to be performed in a linearized way within a same IU, or in a patternized way across two IUs. The deriving syntactic and semantic implications are commented. Finally, on the base of the IPIC-DB, general quantitative data regarding all kinds of completive and relative clauses are presented , making emerge their low frequency.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction: Spoken corpora and linguistic studies 1
  5. Section I: Experiences and requirements of spoken corpora compilation
  6. Methodological issues for spontaneous speech corpora compilation 27
  7. A multilingual speech corpus of North-Germanic languages 69
  8. Methodological considerations for the development and use of sign language acquisition corpora 84
  9. Section II: Multilevel corpus annotation
  10. The grammatical annotation of speech corpora 105
  11. The IPIC resource and a cross-linguistic analysis of information structure in Italian and Brazilian Portuguese 129
  12. The variation of action verbs in multilingual spontaneous speech corpora 152
  13. Section III: Prosody and its functional levels
  14. Speech and corpora 191
  15. Corpus design for studying the expression of emotion in speech 210
  16. Illocution, attitudes and prosody 233
  17. Exploring the prosody of stance 271
  18. Section IV: Syntax and Information Structure
  19. Prosody and information structure 297
  20. The notion of sentence and other discourse units in corpus annotation 331
  21. Syntactic properties of spontaneous speech in the Language into Act Theory 365
  22. Prosodic constraints for discourse markers 411
  23. Appendix 468
  24. Index 496
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.61.13cre

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction: Spoken corpora and linguistic studies 1
  5. Section I: Experiences and requirements of spoken corpora compilation
  6. Methodological issues for spontaneous speech corpora compilation 27
  7. A multilingual speech corpus of North-Germanic languages 69
  8. Methodological considerations for the development and use of sign language acquisition corpora 84
  9. Section II: Multilevel corpus annotation
  10. The grammatical annotation of speech corpora 105
  11. The IPIC resource and a cross-linguistic analysis of information structure in Italian and Brazilian Portuguese 129
  12. The variation of action verbs in multilingual spontaneous speech corpora 152
  13. Section III: Prosody and its functional levels
  14. Speech and corpora 191
  15. Corpus design for studying the expression of emotion in speech 210
  16. Illocution, attitudes and prosody 233
  17. Exploring the prosody of stance 271
  18. Section IV: Syntax and Information Structure
  19. Prosody and information structure 297
  20. The notion of sentence and other discourse units in corpus annotation 331
  21. Syntactic properties of spontaneous speech in the Language into Act Theory 365
  22. Prosodic constraints for discourse markers 411
  23. Appendix 468
  24. Index 496
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