Prosody indexes both competence and performance. Issue 3 (27th November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Watson, Duane G.; Jacobs, Cassandra L.; Buxó‐Lugo, Andrés
• Is Part Of: Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Volume 11:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-11-27
• Subjects: competence -- language -- performance -- prosody; Cognitive science -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1522
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1939-5086

Abstract

Abstract: Prosody is an important feature of language that conveys a wide range of information. However, prosody is widely considered to be a difficult domain of study within the language sciences. One consequence of this is that existing grammatical theories of prosody fail to explain prosodic choices that seem to arise from nonlinguistic cognitive demands, such as communicative context, top‐down expectations, and recent articulatory and acoustic experience. We provide an account of some of these phenomena and argue that linguistic theories that do not incorporate these factors into models of prosody are likely to mischaracterize its role in language. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Language Linguistics > Linguistic Theory Abstract : The rhythm, volume, and intonation of speech convey a wealth of linguistic information; however, we also need to understand the cognitive factors that affect how people process and produce these cues.