Dia: dilluns, 12 de desembre de 2022
Hora: 12.30 h
Lloc: sala de reunions 52.737 - 7a planta edifici 52. Roc Boronat - Campus del Poblenou - UPF

Resum:
Previous research has demonstrated that in sign languages, contrast is prosodically expressed by manual and non-manual cues (i.e., cues produced by the eyebrows, head, or torso) (Wilbur, 2012; Kimmelman & Pfau, 2016). In spoken languages, the prosodic encoding of contrast is multimodal as eyebrow, head, body, and hand movements can be used for the same functions as and/or can be temporally synchronized with prosodic cues (Ferré, 2014; Loehr, 2014; Im & Baumann, 2020). The question of the comparison of gestures and signs has thus become relevant since the same articulators are used for similar functional purposes in both sets of languages (Fenlon & Brentari, 2021). This kind of comparison needs to be further addressed, and it is the purpose of the PhD research presented in this communication. To fulfil this goal, we analyzed comparable data produced by native LSFB (French Belgian Sign Language) signers and native French speakers in similar conditions. Data were annotated by taking into account 1) French prosodic cues (i.e., lengthening, syllabic duration, F0 per syllable, pitch range, prosodic prominence, and articulation rate), 2) French and LSFB head/eyebrow/body movements, and 3) French hand gestures and properties of the LSFB manual cues (i.e., hold, displacement, repetition, dominance reversal). Preliminary results show that contrast has its own kind of prosodic marking in LSFB and French at the different levels investigated in the research (prosodic and gestural in French as well as manual and non-manual in LSFB). Furthermore, LSFB signs and French gestures differ in terms of frequencies of use, forms, and combinations. The interactions between prosody, information structure, and the pragmatic and contextual properties of the interactions are discussed to explain the different patterns highlighted in the data sample. All of this opens new avenues for a more thorough definition of prosody and IS across languages (e.g. regarding the definition of prosodic prominence).