Admission requirements
Research Master Linguistics students only
Description
Speech melody—variation in pitch—plays a central role in human communication. It operates across multiple levels, from marking sentence-level functions such as asking questions, highlighting information, signaling intentions, and conveying attitude or emotion (intonation) to distinguishing word meanings (lexical tone, stress, and pitch accent).
This course offers an in-depth introduction to key theoretical advancements, ongoing debates, and experimental findings on how languages use melody to convey multiple layers of meaning in speech, with a particular emphasis on Sinitic varieties. We will begin with foundational concepts of tone and intonation, exploring how speakers of tonal languages encode both tone and intonation within the same melodic signal. We will then delve into various types of tonal and intonational variations in speech, examining how listeners process these variations to recognize words and interpret utterances.
Students will critically read and discuss a series of articles on tone and intonation. They will develop acoustic data analysis skills through assignments and hands-on sessions. For the final assignment, students will write a research proposal that addresses unresolved issues in the study of tone and intonation.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will:
Learn about the theoretical and methodological foundations of tone and intonation.
Critically evaluate research designs, findings, and their theoretical implications.
Deliver an oral presentation on a scientific paper to peers and provide constructive feedback to peer presentations.
Familiarize with some technical skills for analyzing tone and intonation production and perception data.
Summarize and synthesize existing literature to identify relevant research questions of their own interest.
Design an empirical investigation addressing key issues in tone and intonation.
Submit the experimental design as a pre-registered research proposal.
Students with a strong interest in the topic are welcome to continue the research as an intern project or thesis by conducting the proposed experiment and reporting the results.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
This seminar includes a combination of lectures, student presentations, and problem-based teamwork.
Assessment method
Assessment
Oral presentation
Two hands-on assignments
Final project proposal
Weighing
Oral presentation (15%)
Two hands-on assignments (15%)
Final project proposal (70%)
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
In case of an insufficient grade on the final paper (below 5.5), a resit can be taken. The partial grades for the presentation and assignments cannot be retaken.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
TBA in Brightspace
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Reuvensplaats