Department of English, NCCU

Time： March 9,2021 (Tue.)12:30~14:00

Place： Ji-Tao Buidling 340313 (The vedio-audio room of Graduate Institue of Linguistics) 

Organizers：Graduate Institute of Linguistics/ Department of English, NCCU

Topic： The Frequency Code and Beyond Presentation in Memory of John J. Ohala (1941-2020)

Speaker： Professor Carlos Gussenhoven National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen

Abstract： Like non-verbal communication, paralinguistic communication is rooted in anatomical and physiological factors. Paralinguistic form-meaning relations arise from the way these affect speech production, with modifications deriving from the cultural and linguistic context. In 2002, I classified these effects into ‘biological codes’, following the terminological lead of John Ohala’s Frequency Code. Intonational morphemes, though arguably non-arbitrary in principle, are in fact heavily biased toward these paralinguistic meanings. Paralinguistic and linguistic meanings for four biological codes are illustrated. In addition to the Frequency Code, these are the Effort Code, the Respiratory Code, and the Sirenic Code. The relations between anatomical and physiological conditions and the resulting paralinguistic and linguistic meanings vary in directness. For instance, if high pitch signals uncertainty and interrogativity, then so will peaks of rising-falling pitch contours, but since producing a higher-ending rise will take longer, a later peak may signal more uncertainty and interrogativiy than an earlier peak of the same height (a ‘secondary’ effect).