Information Structure & Prosody
For my MA, I investigated information structural effects on the utterance intonation patterns in Turkish, with particular attention on sentence topics. The findings revealed that not only the content that is discourse-given, in the common ground and salient, but also contrastive topics and some discourse-new units in an utterance may exhibit deaccentuation (i.e. low levelled flat F0/pitch compression). This is striking, especitally considering that in Intonational languages, e.g. English and German, contrastive topics receive (low) accent. Additionally, although overt subject pronouns are known to mark ‘topic introduction or shift’ in Turkish (Enç 1986), I found that the pronunciation of subject pronouns alone cannot license topic shift in Turkish. In cases of topic shift, discourse-given objects (which otherwise bear nuclear sentential prominence) are found to be deaccented but not deleted. Considering that the ellipsis of discourse-given objects that mark topic shift is banned, I take this as a case in which discourse-givenness leads to deaccentuation, but not necessarily ellipsis in Turkish.
As a continuation to the investigation of the correlation between information structure and prosody, in two papers, I show that topic and foci have no unique prosodic correlate / accentual signature in Turkish. In fact, the shape of the prosodic template within declaratives is oblivious to information structure. Based on this, I propose that, from a prosodic typological perspective, Turkish is a ‘Phrase Language’.
On another work, in collaboration with Nicole Dehé, I investigate whether ellipsis is an instance of radical deaccentuation in Icelandic. Considering that the discourse anaphoric part of the elliptical utterances are given in the previous discourse, they are often deaccented in the non-elliptical counterparts of such utterances in Intonation Languages. This observation lead some scholars to conclude that ellipsis is a form of Radical Deaccentuation of given material. This idea is based on the prosodic behaviour of givenness in Intonation Languages such as English and German. Icelandic, being another Intonation Language, poses a challenge to this conclusion because it is claimed not to deaccent discourse given material, yet it allows clausal ellipsis. In a production experiment, we have tested whether the given parts of utterances that usually get ellided bear any accentuation or not when they are fully pronounced. Our results show that, even if the given parts of utterances are indeed accented, their overall pitch register is much lower when compared to non-given contexts. We interpret this as a form of marking givenness via prosody. This result weakens the stronger claim of Radical Deaccentuation accounts, and lead us to make a more general statement, which involves other prosodic cues and not simply lack of accentuation.
Güneş, G. 2010. The pragmatic and prosodic analysis of sentence topics in Turkish: An investigation based on real-life conversations. MA thesis, Boğaziçi University. [please contact me for a copy]
Güneş, G. 2013. Limits of Prosody in Turkish. In the Journal of Linguistic Research (D.A.D.), special issue "Updates in Turkish Phonology" E. Erguvanlı Taylan (ed.), Boğaziçi University Press, Istanbul.
Güneş, G. 2013. On the Role of Prosodic Constituency in Turkish. In U. Özge (ed.), The Proceedings of WAFL8, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, Cambridge, MA.
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Phonetic correlates of deaccentuation in Icelandic and its relation to givenness. Ms., Tübingen University.
Güneş, G. 2023. A minimalist approach to reprise fragments in English, Hungarian and Turkish. Language. (with James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták).
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Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Don’t deaccent Given: A challenge to Radical Deaccentuation accounts from Icelandic. Paper to be presented at the WS 5: Experimental and Corpus-Based Approaches to Ellipsis, 55th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 24–27 August 2022 University of Bucharest.
Güneş, G. 2020. Focus and quotation in English echo questions. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. DGFS 2020 – WS 12: Expressing the use-mention-distinction: An empirical perspective. Hamburg University – Germany, March.
Güneş, G. 2018. Syntax versus information structure: the prosodic landscape of Turkish clauses. Research Seminar. University of Geneva – Switzerland, October.
Güneş, G. 2018. English reprise Fragments in Minimalism: an in-situ analysis. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Generative Linguistics in the Old World, GLOW41. Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Hungary, April. [poster]
Güneş, G. 2018. A Minimalist approach to reprise fragments. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. AG12 "Relating Elliptical Utterances to Information in Context" at the 40th DGfS-Jahrestagung. Universität Stuttgart – Germany, March.
Güneş, G. 2013. Morphoprosodic delimitation of the focus domain in the WORD: In the footsteps of Sebüktekin (1984). With Aslı Göksel. LINGDAY 2013: 45 years of Linguistics at Boğaziçi University in honour of Prof. Dr. Hikmet Sebüktekin. Istanbul-Turkey, June.
Güneş, G. 2013. Expressing Discourse Structure & Information Structure within the WORD. Poster. With Aslı Göksel. 9th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting. Dubrovnik-Croatia, Sep 2013.
Güneş, G. 2012. Information Structure, Prosodic Domains and Parenthesis. (Mis)matches in clause linkage, Berlin-Germany, April.
Güneş, G. 2011. Pragmatic and Prosodic Analysis of Sentence Topics in Turkish. CLCG Syntax Meetings, Groningen-The Netherlands, March.
Güneş, G. 2011. The Use of Topics: Null-Objects and Null-Subjects in Turkish. Poster. 4th Conference on Syntax, Phonology and Language Analysis, Budapest-Hungary, September.
Güneş, G. 2010. Prosodic Analysis of Sentence Topics in Turkish. International LoT Conference, University of Cyprus, Nicosia-Cyprus, March.
As a continuation to the investigation of the correlation between information structure and prosody, in two papers, I show that topic and foci have no unique prosodic correlate / accentual signature in Turkish. In fact, the shape of the prosodic template within declaratives is oblivious to information structure. Based on this, I propose that, from a prosodic typological perspective, Turkish is a ‘Phrase Language’.
On another work, in collaboration with Nicole Dehé, I investigate whether ellipsis is an instance of radical deaccentuation in Icelandic. Considering that the discourse anaphoric part of the elliptical utterances are given in the previous discourse, they are often deaccented in the non-elliptical counterparts of such utterances in Intonation Languages. This observation lead some scholars to conclude that ellipsis is a form of Radical Deaccentuation of given material. This idea is based on the prosodic behaviour of givenness in Intonation Languages such as English and German. Icelandic, being another Intonation Language, poses a challenge to this conclusion because it is claimed not to deaccent discourse given material, yet it allows clausal ellipsis. In a production experiment, we have tested whether the given parts of utterances that usually get ellided bear any accentuation or not when they are fully pronounced. Our results show that, even if the given parts of utterances are indeed accented, their overall pitch register is much lower when compared to non-given contexts. We interpret this as a form of marking givenness via prosody. This result weakens the stronger claim of Radical Deaccentuation accounts, and lead us to make a more general statement, which involves other prosodic cues and not simply lack of accentuation.
Güneş, G. 2010. The pragmatic and prosodic analysis of sentence topics in Turkish: An investigation based on real-life conversations. MA thesis, Boğaziçi University. [please contact me for a copy]
Güneş, G. 2013. Limits of Prosody in Turkish. In the Journal of Linguistic Research (D.A.D.), special issue "Updates in Turkish Phonology" E. Erguvanlı Taylan (ed.), Boğaziçi University Press, Istanbul.
Güneş, G. 2013. On the Role of Prosodic Constituency in Turkish. In U. Özge (ed.), The Proceedings of WAFL8, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, Cambridge, MA.
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Phonetic correlates of deaccentuation in Icelandic and its relation to givenness. Ms., Tübingen University.
Güneş, G. 2023. A minimalist approach to reprise fragments in English, Hungarian and Turkish. Language. (with James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták).
----
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Don’t deaccent Given: A challenge to Radical Deaccentuation accounts from Icelandic. Paper to be presented at the WS 5: Experimental and Corpus-Based Approaches to Ellipsis, 55th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 24–27 August 2022 University of Bucharest.
Güneş, G. 2020. Focus and quotation in English echo questions. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. DGFS 2020 – WS 12: Expressing the use-mention-distinction: An empirical perspective. Hamburg University – Germany, March.
Güneş, G. 2018. Syntax versus information structure: the prosodic landscape of Turkish clauses. Research Seminar. University of Geneva – Switzerland, October.
Güneş, G. 2018. English reprise Fragments in Minimalism: an in-situ analysis. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Generative Linguistics in the Old World, GLOW41. Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Hungary, April. [poster]
Güneş, G. 2018. A Minimalist approach to reprise fragments. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. AG12 "Relating Elliptical Utterances to Information in Context" at the 40th DGfS-Jahrestagung. Universität Stuttgart – Germany, March.
Güneş, G. 2013. Morphoprosodic delimitation of the focus domain in the WORD: In the footsteps of Sebüktekin (1984). With Aslı Göksel. LINGDAY 2013: 45 years of Linguistics at Boğaziçi University in honour of Prof. Dr. Hikmet Sebüktekin. Istanbul-Turkey, June.
Güneş, G. 2013. Expressing Discourse Structure & Information Structure within the WORD. Poster. With Aslı Göksel. 9th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting. Dubrovnik-Croatia, Sep 2013.
Güneş, G. 2012. Information Structure, Prosodic Domains and Parenthesis. (Mis)matches in clause linkage, Berlin-Germany, April.
Güneş, G. 2011. Pragmatic and Prosodic Analysis of Sentence Topics in Turkish. CLCG Syntax Meetings, Groningen-The Netherlands, March.
Güneş, G. 2011. The Use of Topics: Null-Objects and Null-Subjects in Turkish. Poster. 4th Conference on Syntax, Phonology and Language Analysis, Budapest-Hungary, September.
Güneş, G. 2010. Prosodic Analysis of Sentence Topics in Turkish. International LoT Conference, University of Cyprus, Nicosia-Cyprus, March.