LINGUIST List 11.1679

Wed Aug 2 2000

Confs: Phonetics and Phonology of Prosody

Editor for this issue: Lydia Grebenyova <lydialinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. dan everett, Workshop on the Phonetics and Phonology of Prosody

Workshop on the phonetics and phonology of prosody, 2001
 
First Announcement
 
 
The analysis of stress, intonation, and tone in natural languages is 
notoriously difficult. Yet these phenomena and others closely 
associated with them are vital for a thorough understanding of the 
grammar of many languages. The difficulties of analysis in these 
domains are both phonological and phonetic. Phonologically, a proper 
understanding of prosody requires analysis of many interlocking areas 
of linguistics. The research needs to know about syllables, moras, 
morphophonology, syntax, and, quite often, discourse to make headway. 
Consequently, prosody is frequently underanalyzed and misanalyzed 
crosslinguistically. More generally, understanding in this area is 
impeded when there is a lack of systematic analysis of the phonetics 
underlying the phonology of prosody. 
 
The 'Phonetics and Phonology of Prosody' workshop offered through the 
University of North Dakota-SIL International Summer 2001 Session will 
offer the following helps for researchers from any part of the world: 
 
1) Instruction in the acoustic phonetics bases and correlates of 
intonation, stress, and tone crosslinguistically, along with hands-on 
learning of PC and MAC tools for speech analysis (especially SIL 
International's _Speech Analyzer_ software and the _PRAAT_ program 
developed by researchers at the University of Amsterdam);
2) Regular individual sessions with participants on analyzing prosodic 
features of their languages of concern; 
3) Presentations from workshop organizers and participants on the 
phonological and phonetic nature of prosody in different areas of the 
world;
4) Help and instruction in writing research results for publication. 
Helped will be offered for writing either descriptive or more 
theoretically-oriented reports. We hope to edit and publish a volume 
of research reports from the workshop.
 
This workshop is available to linguists currently engaged in fieldwork 
who have a minimum of one course each in phonology and 
grammar/morphosyntax. No particular theoretical background is 
required, nor is any previous training in acoustics phonetics. 
Participants in the workshop must be enrolled as students of the 
University of North Dakota - SIL summer session. Those linguists who 
do not need or wish to receive academic credit for their participation 
will still need to enroll to audit the workshop as a course. (This 
will enable them to receive special rates for room & board during the 
workshop.) Participants wishing to receive academic credit for the 
workshop may enroll for 2-5 graduate credits, depending on the type 
and level of research they plan to engage in. The workshop will begin 
during the second week of June and will run until the second week of 
August, 2001. Exact dates will be provided in a later announcement.
 
For further information, contact dan_everettsil.org or visit the 
website of the University of North Dakota - SIL summer session: 
http://www.nd.sil.org