Transcribing Prosodic Structure of Spoken Utterances with ToBI

Exercise 2.5

Exercises: 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.9

Section 2.5 Exercises: L+H* and L*+H (ZIP - 1.8 MB) (The ZIP file contains: 10 .textgrid, 6 .wav, and 1 .pdf files.)

A. Listening Exercises

L*+H vs. L+H*

1. ex5a1millionaire: this file contains 2 versions of the same text (only a millionaire), produced by the same speaker, that differ by the pitch accent on the word millionaire. Listen to them (before you look) and try to identify which has L+H* and which has L*+H.
2. ex5a2proenglish: this file contains 2 versions of the same text (Eileen’s pro-English), produced by 2 different speakers, that differ by the pitch accent on the word Eileen. Listen to them (before you look) and try to identify which has L+H* and which has L*+H.

B: Labelling Exercises

Label the following files, using the TextGrids provided. (For each file, you should find TextGrid with the words tier filled.) These files each contain multiple Intonational Phrases. Phrases may have more than one pitch accent. (Use any label listed in the inventory at the end section 2-5, as listed in “Introduced so far.” However, these files concentrate on the L+H* vs H* distinction, so expect to find many of those. A note about the answer keys: The prosody of an utterance is sometimes ambiguous, and different labellers may disagree on the preferred labels to capture the f0 pattern and other aspects of the acoustic signal. Because of this, some of the Intonational Phrases show more than one possible set of tone or break labels. In each case, the labels on the higher tier reflect the “preferred” answer, and those on the lower tier reflect a second reasonable parse.)

1. ex5b1bananas (a banana another banana a banana another banana another little banana-twice another greenish banana)
2. ex5b2amelias (3 versions of Amelia knew him)
3. ex5b3veg1 (some beans-twice, some arugula-3 times)
4. ex5b4veg2 (an onion-twice, no an onion, no a rutabaga, a rutabaga-twice)

C: Further Exercises: Context, Contrast and Variation

• Read (and record) the following words and short phrases in sequence:
  • a melody
    another melody
    another little melody
    beautiful
    a beautiful melody
    a strangely beautiful melody
    another strange melody
    an unusual melody

Next, read the same words and phrases in a different order, such as the one below:

• beautiful
  a strangely beautiful melody
  another melody
  another little melody
  a melody
  another strange melody
  an unusual melody
  a beautiful melody

Look at (and try to label if you’re feeling adventurous) each of the pairs of short phrases (from the first order compared to the second order). Did you produce them with the same intonation both times? Think about what might lead to the variation, if you see it.

For a further look at your own variation or consistency, go back at a later time and read the same 2 sequences and see if you produce them the same way you did the first time.

• Produce (and record) the same text in response to a variety of context questions and statements. This works best with a partner to produce the contexts. Use any or all of the contexts below-feel free to add your own. (Tired of Marianna and her marmalade? Make up your own contexts and response.) Note: try not to just read the sentence, but to produce it as a response. As a point of comparison first produce the sentence as you would read it without any particular background or context: Marianna made the marmalade.

  • A: Who made the marmalade?
    B: Marianna made the marmalade

    A: What did Marianna make?
    B: Marianna made the marmalade.

    A: The marmalade Marianna bought is fabulous.
    B: Marianna made the marmalade.

    A: Bob made some great marmalade.
    B: Marianna made the marmalade.

    A. Who made what?
    B: Marianna made the marmalade, Bob made the jelly, and Amelia
    made the jam.

    A: Marianna always makes either marmalade or salsa. What did
    she make this time?
    B: Marianna made the marmalade.

    A: Marianna made some great marmalade.
    B: Marianna made the marmalade? I thought she was allergic
    to citrus fruits.

Compare your various renditions (and label as many of them as you can). How did they vary by context? Did you find, for example, that some contexts led you to produce L+H* vs H*? Did some contexts result in more pitch accents in the sentence? Did you see different boundary tones?

• save your soundfiles as .wav files, and any associated TextGrids, named with “ex5c”, the exercise number, your initials, and a number or keyword if you produce more than one sound file (eg. ex5c2amb2.wav or ex5c2amb_allergic.wav).