Friday 3rd April 2009

Friday 3rd April 2009
Contents
1 MA catalogue copy and image submission
2 reviewing new research
3 Peer critique (Sheila Kendrick, PHd student
and colleague, University of Derby)


MA catalogue copy
Tracy Allanson-Smith MA RPT Graphic Design
‘Typographic Conversations’
My project explores the relationship of the typographic representation of oral language through the medium of animation. During unscripted spoken discourse I reflect upon layers of information from the data such as: syntax, lexical information and intonation of voice. Can scale, composition, layout, selection of letterforms and visual metaphor represent personality, individuality and subtleties integral to human speech? t.d.allanson-smith@derby.ac.uk http://tasmania40.blogspot.com

Reviewing new research
Jannedy, S & Mendoza-Denton, N (2005) Structuring Information through Gesture and Intonation, Humboldt University, Berlin & University of Arizona
The first paper highlights the importance of auditory cues to aid comprehension of discourse analysis.
‘greater information density can be achieved by presenting part of the information acoustically and part of it (possibly complementary or reinforcing information) visually, bringing us closer to modelling the online workings of face-to-face conversation.’ p.201-2

‘Further, the acoustic signal transmits social content, that is, it also carries social information pertaining to the speaker (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and their interlocutors.’ p. 204

The final information is not poignant to the project but nevertheless I find it fascinating, the gestural movements we use to accompany speech are aligned with intonation.

‘gestures strongly correlate with grammar and grammatical structures: it was found that the stroke (peak of effort) of a gesture occurs with the intonationally most prominent syllable of the aligned speech segment.’
(Kendon, 1980; McNeill, 1992, Cassell 2000; Loehr 2004).
Known also at the ‘apex’ (Browman & Goldstein, 1990)

History of Intonational Grammar (useful references)
Pierrehumbert (1980) the initial framework for English language intonation was carried out was then formalised as Transcription system in Beckham & Ayers (1994)
McNeill (gestural transcription)
Praat display of multitier transcription of intonation and gesture
ANVIL programme allows video and audio to be time aligned in preparation for transcription.

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Sanchez-Ayala, I (2003) Constructions as a resource for Interaction: lists in English and Spanish Conversation, Sage publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi. University of California (Linguistics Department, Santa Barbara)

The second paper has been significant in re-examining previous discourse analysis terminology and has unearthed new information particularly relevant for Ken’s speech patterns.

The ultimate lexical stress in each intonation unit is lengthened (in English and Spanish)

Interlocutors (listeners) produce ‘reactive tokens’(Clancy et al) or ‘continuers’ (Schlegoff, 1983) to encourage more conversation.

Transcription notations adapted by author based on Du Bois (see in Research file 4)

Basic concepts of discourse follow:
Intonation unit, Chafe (1987:22) can be defined thus ‘a sequence of words combined under a single, coherent intonation contour, usually preceded by a pause’
Tone groups - Crystal
Intonation groups - Cruttenden
Intonation Phrases – Couper-Kuhlen

BASIC CONCEPTS
Du Bois et al defines the difference between intonation units into four sections
1 A coherent intonational contour throughout the unit
2 A reset in pitch
3 Anacrusis (definition below) at the beginning of new intonation units
anacrusis: in classical prosody, the up (or weak) beat, one or more syllables at the beginning of a line of poetry that are not regarded as a part of the metrical pattern of that line. Some scholars do not acknowledge this phenomenon. The term is from the Greek anakrousis, meaning "the act of pushing back," or "beginning of a tune."
4 Intervening pause between units

Tones
‘Tone is defined as the relative height of pitch in accented syllables with respect to surrounding syllables.” There are three combinations to tonal values;
1 High to Low
2 Low to High
3 Low High Low
These combinations occur during pre-nuclear, nuclear and post nuclear or tail syllable (Couper-Kuhlen, 1985)

Pitch
Pitch identifies the loudness of the words spoken, therefore helping to identify prominent types of accent within intonation units.
‘Syllables within intonation units have different degrees of prominence. Prominence correlates with greater loudness and duration as well as with pitch obtrusion on the prominent syllable.’

Prosody
1. the science or study of poetic meters and versification.
2. a particular or distinctive system of metrics and versification:
Milton's prosody.
3. Linguistics. the stress and intonation patterns of an utterance

Abruptness of speech patterns: (of particular relevance to the project)***
Sometimes speech is abrupt and appears as ‘step’ and opposed to gradient transitions or ‘glides’

Rhythm-based pattern
English language seems to reflect a distinctive rhythmic pattern.
English discourse displays a slower tempo, with an increase in loudness for nuclear syllables within the intonation unit. ‘Forte-lento’-Sanchez Ayala
List making patterns in Spanish and English display a ‘clearly distinct prosodic profile marked by its stylization or musicality.’

Syntax
Linking intonation units can be indicated using the comma (Chafe:1988) and the use of ‘connectives’ and, or then etc.

Lexicon
GLC’s Generalized List completers (Jefferson: 1990) GLC’s are used almost in place of etc and ‘so on’ ‘this and that’, ‘stuff’ ‘whatever’. They indicate a lexical clue to the end of the topic. This features heavily in Ken’s speech patterns.


Word search fillers – lexico-grammatical devices (Chafe, Kotschi, Clark)
Delaying the conversation can be implemented by the following means:
1 pauses between intonation unit
2 fillers such as ‘um’ ‘er’ ‘and’
3 Lengthened last syllables of each intonation unit
4 Repeating portion of parallel intonation unit
‘Note that (1) to (4) are based on lack of material, material with a very low semantic content or repetition of old material.’

Pauses – lexico-grammatical devices
Pauses play an important role by delaying the conversation, which allows the speaker to plan the rest of the conversation. Pauses display a forte-lento rhythmic pattern and are upbeats at the beginning of the intonation unit.

Lengthening
‘Kotschi has noted that intonation units usually show a lengthening in the penultimate syllable that serves to gain some time for the planning of the upcoming intonation unit.’

Parallelism
Parallelism or repetition is a key factor in list-making and also features in Ken’s speech patterns. Researchers in this field include:
Johnstone (1983), Rains (1992) and Sanchez Ayala (1997)

Coda
1. Music. a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close.
2. Ballet. the concluding section of a ballet, esp. the final part of a pas de deux.
3. a concluding section or part, esp. one of a conventional form and serving
as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature
or drama.
4. anything that serves as a concluding part.
5. Phonetics. the segment of a syllable following the nucleus, as the d-sound in good.

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Feedback with S. Kendrick, P.H.D student
My peer reviewed the proposal, all sketchbooks and animations. The project proposal was met with engagement and enthusiasm. Further scope for research beyond the MA was discussed briefly.

Successes of the animation mentioned were:
Deployment of letterpress to denote age and lifestyle
The fluidity and offset nature of the ‘ha ha ha’s’
The rationale and inclusion of the narrator’s voiceover
The transparency of research (transcription convention)

Areas to consider:

Give the audience more visual clues to content
(tea related and ‘Englishness’, also grimy glib context with faded wallpaper, show alcohol when drink is mentioned of at least imply it. I suggested that a tea ring stain could form part of the words ‘I know it is’.

Give the audience more auditory clues to content
(tea related , stirring a cup of tea, kettle boiling, perhaps wine bottle being
de-corked)

More emphasis on ‘Mug’ is required as this is a key word, perhaps this needs a 3d element?

Deleting the video of the handwriting helps the viewer concentrate on the animation and was not adding more to the content. It was see as a blackboard, due to the inverted colouring.

Sheila’s perception of Ken from the audio data:
“He reminds me of a lonely sink with washing up for one and yellow net curtains.
He’s a very lonely man.” SK