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This course looks at the prosody and intonation of English both in a purely empirical hands-on way, and from a more theoretical point of view. As for the first point we shall look at phonetic aspects of word stress, accent types, and phrasing in English by using the sound program PRAAT (freely available online) with the aim of training our ears to the way we realize stress, for instance in words like 'permit' (noun) vs. 'permit' (verb), and the way we realize accents, for instance in statements vs. questions vs. exclamatives. With regard to the second point we shall look at phonological theories that account for the placement of stress and the occurrence of stress shift as in 'Pete is nineTEEN' vs. 'This book costs NINEteen dollars'. We shall also look at theories that investigate the interaction of phonology with syntax and semantics for instance to explore the occurrence of different accent types and their interpretation as in 'John called his WIFE' (neutral intonation with falling, main accent on 'wife') vs. '\JOHN called his wife' (falling, main accent on 'John') vs. '/JOHN called his \WIFE' (rising accent on 'John' and falling accent on 'wife'); or as in 'John only introduced BILL to Ann' vs. 'John only introduced Bill to ANN'. To broaden our minds, we shall every now and then look at languages other than English, to see what is 'out there' and is part of the human language faculty.
Literature: Will be made available on Moodle.
Credits: Course credits are given for homework, and short voluntary oral presentations, and discussion in class.
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