Discusses semiotics, which, in dealing with how meaning is communicated, views language as only one component of communication activity. Gives special attention to the new perspectives which semiotics has given to the study and teaching of intonation. (FB)

Native English speakers' and foreign students' perceptions of 14 English intonation signals, recorded free of verbal context, show foreign students may be misinterpreting or missing much information communicated with nonlexical signals. (Author/MSE)

Different types of stress, rhythm, and intonation used by Nigerian speakers of English are analyzed, and lexical differences are discussed. Problems with vowels, consonants, and syllable structure are also covered. (SW)

Drawing on reflections of a teacher-researcher in a community-based adult ESL classroom in Toronto, Canada, explores the relationship between identity and intonation. Presents an account of teaching intonation to a group of predominantly Chinese immigrant women, and discusses an activity that develops awareness of sentence-level intonation as a…

This study compared tone choice in parallel readings of scripted dialog by 12 speakers of British English and 12 learners of English from Korea, Greece, and Indonesia. It found that the nonnative speakers failed to use rising tones for socially integrative purposes in the way observed in the data from native speakers. Contains 27 references. (MDM)

An auditory comprehension task was used to determine the ways in which first and fifth graders and adults use topic continuity and contrastive emphasis in the assignment of referents for pronouns in sentences. The finding of significant differences in performance for emphasized and unemphasized pronouns suggests that subjects use constrastive…

Minimal feedback in English (e.g., "yeah, mm hm") are common in conversation but rarely found in second-language instructional materials. They can be examined best through the turn-taking system in English. We now know enough about minimal feedback to teach its use. Examples of use are presented here, with attention to intonation…

Reviews research on the acquisition of suprasegmentals by second language learners and the potential of computer-based instructional materials for improving intonation; describes and critiques some of the software previously available for this purpose; and suggests criteria for the conceptualization of multimedia software and concomitant research…

Modal and falsetto registers are the basic vocal qualities used in female speaking voices. The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency at which modal register changed to falsetto register and the frequency range of each modal and falsetto register produced under three loudness levels: soft, comfortable and loud phonations in normal and…

This paper compares the production and perception of the rise-fall contour of contrastive statements and the final rise-fall part of polar questions in Greek. The results show that these superficially similar rise-falls exhibit fine phonetic differences in the alignment of tonal targets with the segmental string, and that these differences can be…

It is acknowledged that contrast plays an important role in understanding discourse and information structure. While it is commonly assumed that contrast can be marked by intonation only, our understanding of the intonational realization of contrast is limited. For German there is mainly introspective evidence that the rising theme accent (or…

Intonation, long thought to be a key to effectiveness in spoken language, is more and more commonly addressed in English language teaching through the use of speech visualization technology. While the use of visualization technology is a crucial advance in the teaching of intonation, such teaching can be further enhanced by connecting technology…

Sound symbolism is the study of the relationship between the sound of an utterance and its meaning. In this interdisciplinary collection of new studies, 24 leading scholars discuss the role of sound symbolism in a theory of language. Contributions and authors include the following: "Sound-Symbolic Processes" (Leanne Hinton, Johanna…

A study investigated the validity of three theories in predicting the structure of language tone systems containing level tones. The theories include the following: that (1) phonetic elements are arranged so they are maximally separated in a fixed phonetic space; (2) a system with a larger number of phonetic elements will use a larger phonetic…

The concept of "prominence" in intonation is discussed. It treats the prominence of a syllable as a feature determined by the speaker separate from the word itself, and meaningful in and of itself. The decision by a speaker to assign or not assign prominence to a syllable (selectivity) is seen as related to the immediacy of spoken…