German case ambiguities at the interface: Production and comprehension
-
Tina Bögel
Abstract
This article discusses a new approach to the interface between phonology/ prosody and syntax with regard to two perspectives: production and comprehension. Themodel assumes two transfer processes responsible for the exchange of information at the interface: the transfer of vocabulary, which operates at the word-level and below, and the transfer of structure, which is concerned with the association of syntactic and prosodic phrasing above the word-level. These transfer processes at the interface are illustrated by means of syntactically ambiguous German genitive/dative case constructions which can be resolved via prosodic phrasing. The relevant prosodic cues for the disambiguation were determined via a production experiment which also showed that the use of acoustic cues is not uniform across speakers. The proposedmodel allows for a straightforward and elegant resolution of the syntactic ambiguities at the interface to the prosodic module and can furthermore be extended to include speaker variability as well.
Abstract
This article discusses a new approach to the interface between phonology/ prosody and syntax with regard to two perspectives: production and comprehension. Themodel assumes two transfer processes responsible for the exchange of information at the interface: the transfer of vocabulary, which operates at the word-level and below, and the transfer of structure, which is concerned with the association of syntactic and prosodic phrasing above the word-level. These transfer processes at the interface are illustrated by means of syntactically ambiguous German genitive/dative case constructions which can be resolved via prosodic phrasing. The relevant prosodic cues for the disambiguation were determined via a production experiment which also showed that the use of acoustic cues is not uniform across speakers. The proposedmodel allows for a straightforward and elegant resolution of the syntactic ambiguities at the interface to the prosodic module and can furthermore be extended to include speaker variability as well.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Prosody in syntactic encoding 1
- Sentence stress in presidential speeches 17
- German case ambiguities at the interface: Production and comprehension 51
- Ambiguity resolution via the syntax-prosody interface: The case of kya ‘what’ in Urdu/Hindi 85
- Focus structure affects comparatives: Experimental and corpus work 119
- The ordering of interface mapping rules in German object fronting 159
- Interaction at the syntax–prosody interface 189
- Syntacticizing intonation? Tag questions in Glasgow Scots 219
- A prosodic constraint on prenominal modification 245
- Cartography cannot express scrambling restrictions – but interface-driven relational approaches can 265
- Head movement as a syntax-phonology interface phenomenon 303
- Index 331
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Prosody in syntactic encoding 1
- Sentence stress in presidential speeches 17
- German case ambiguities at the interface: Production and comprehension 51
- Ambiguity resolution via the syntax-prosody interface: The case of kya ‘what’ in Urdu/Hindi 85
- Focus structure affects comparatives: Experimental and corpus work 119
- The ordering of interface mapping rules in German object fronting 159
- Interaction at the syntax–prosody interface 189
- Syntacticizing intonation? Tag questions in Glasgow Scots 219
- A prosodic constraint on prenominal modification 245
- Cartography cannot express scrambling restrictions – but interface-driven relational approaches can 265
- Head movement as a syntax-phonology interface phenomenon 303
- Index 331
