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Information Structure in Lesser-described Languages: Studies in prosody and syntax
Edited by Evangelia Adamou, Katharina Haude and Martine Vanhove
[Studies in Language Companion Series 199] 2018
► pp. 85–118

Chapter 4
On being first

| The University of the South Pacific, Fiji

This paper reconsiders first position (Baker & Mushin 2008) in the Australian language Ngarinyman, concentrating on prosody. Making use of a prosodic unit of reference helps clarify its ordering patterns, according to the given-before-new (Gundel 1988) and more-newsworthy-first (Mithun 1987) typology. Based on natural data, it examines the phrasing patterns of Noun Phrases (nps) in the same position but of different Information Structure (IS) categories: topics, including Framesetting (establishing time and place), Aboutness (the referent which the proposition is about) and Contrastive (selecting among a set of alternatives), or Argument Focus. An instrumental analysis of the durational cue reveals that Framesetting topics form a unique Intonation Unit; and gradience in the phrasing of nps according to their IS category.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Unit of reference
    • 1.2Instrumental analysis
    • 1.3Boundary markers
  • 2.Intonation units and PENTA
    • 2.1Reviewing ius
      • 2.1.1 ius in previous studies
      • 2.1.2Other prosodic units
      • 2.1.3Identifying prosodic units boundaries
    • 2.2Theoretical model
  • 3.Ngarinyman and information structure categories
    • 3.1Ngarinyman
    • 3.2Information structure categories
    • 3.3Examples of IS categories in Ngarinyman
  • 4.Methodology and analyses
    • 4.1Datasets and methodology
    • 4.2Step 1: Analysis by measurements
      • 4.2.1Test 1 Aboutness topics vs first word in predicate focus/comment
      • 4.2.2Test 2: Aboutness topics vs np argument focus
      • 4.2.3Test 3 subtypes of topics
    • 4.3Step 2: From measurements to resynthesis: PENTAtrainer2
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.199.04sim
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