This course has two aims and two parts. There are no prerequisites for either part, other than a very basic background in linguistics or speech science and a willingness to work very hard. One part aims to introduce and review the intonational system of (many standard varieties of) English. The other part is aimed at students who want to learn about the intonation system of another language (or of other varieties of English not covered in the first part). Students can sign up for just the English part (for 3 credit hours) or sign up for both parts (for 5 credit hours). (Students who want to participate The class sessions will be divided evenly between the two parts to reflect this division of
The English part will focus on practical aspects of E-ToBI, the "Tones and Break Indices" intonational transcription system for many varieties of English which is widely used in academic research and speech technology. The primary objective of this part of the course is for students to become competent in using the E-ToBI system, giving them a common language for sharing work on intonation, for transcribing data for individual research, and for adapting the ToBI framework for developing a comparable tool for analyzing the prosody/intonation of another variety of English (or even another language). Students will learn to analyze and interpret the acoustic properties of speech needed to make accurate prosodic transcriptions. Exercises will use many types of read and spontaneous speech produced by many speakers in a variety of contexts, so that different styles, registers, and dialects of English can be transcribed and compared. As a final project, students who have signed up for only this part will work alone or in small groups recording, digitizing, and analyzing a particular aspect of English intonation relevant to their individual interests.
The other part of the course will focus on using the ToBI framework to learn about other languages, or about other varieties of English that are radically different from the varieties for which the original E-ToBI was developed. The particular languages that are covered will depend upon the interests of the students who take the course, and anyone who plans to sign up for both parts should contact the instructor so that she can prepare to accommodate all student interests. As a final project, students who have signed up for both parts will work alone or in small groups recording, digitizing, and analyzing utterances in the language or variety that is relevant to their individual interests.