Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Zeynab Jafari ¹
• Batool Alinezhad ²
• Rezvan Motavallian Naeini ³

¹ Linguistics Department, the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

² Linguistics Department. the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

³ Linguistics Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan. Iran

Abstract

Many studies have shown the effect of prosodic cues on the disambiguation of syntactically ambiguous sentences. Following previous research, this study therefore tried to investigate how pitch and duration affect the disambiguation of the syntactic attachment differences (low attachment and high attachment) in Persian. To reach the purpose of this survey, two types of syntactically ambiguous strings with two different meanings were examined. Expressions Type 1 was composed of N1-N2-conj-N3 and Expressions Type 2 was composed of N1-conj-N2-Adj. In a speech production experiment, a total of 264 utterances were produced by 11 female Persian speakers (6 sentences × 2 conditions × 2 repetitions × 11 speakers). All the target expressions (conjoined noun phrases) were extracted, word-segmented by hand in Praat software, and subjected to phonetic analysis. The duration and mean f0 of the segmented words were measured and compared across two conditions. Differences in measurements were statistically analyzed by using Independent t-test. Generally, the outcomes of this paper supported the previous studies. The speakers resolved the ambiguity by significantly altering their production of the utterances in ways consistent with the intended meaning and structure. The statistical comparison revealed a higher pitch excursion on and a longer duration of the target noun phrases in low attachment condition as opposed to high attachment one. Specifically, in Expressions Type 1, the duration of N2, the conjunction, and N3 was longer and the mean f0 of the conjunction and N3 was higher in low attachment condition. In addition, a pause was produced between N2 and the conjunction to mark a prosodic boundary. In Expressions Type 2, N1 and N2 duration was longer and the mean f0 of the conjunction and N2 was higher in low attachment condition. Moreover, a pause was inserted between N1 and the conjunction to mark a prosodic boundary. In sum, the insertion of pauses, pre-boundary word lengthening, post-conjunction word lengthening, and f0 rise were used to disambiguate the utterances.

Keywords

• "
• syntactic ambiguity"
• disambiguation"
• prosodic cues"
• pitch"
• duration"
• low attachment"
• , "
• high attachment"