Direct and indirect answers in French

Direct and indirect
answers in French
C. Beyssade, J.-M. Marandin,
C. Portes, B. Hemforth
Introduction
•
The role of question-answer pairs to study the
relationship between informational focus and
prosody.
•
To show the importance of the notion of
discourse strategy, which has to do, not only
with focus and QUD, but also with the way
conveyed information is structured (in at-issue
content vs. projected content) and the way a
topic may be promoted.
1
Introduction (2)
The relation between information status and accent is
governed by rules that may be complicated, but are
deterministic, so that with respect to a particular context
exactly one placement of the accent is felicitous.
(1) a. A: Who did John praise?
B: John praised MARY.
(# JOHN praised Mary. / # John PRAISED Mary).
b. A: Who praised Mary?
B: JOHN praised Mary.
(# John PRAISED Mary./ # John praised MARY).
2
Introduction (3)
An oversimplification.
• Our thesis is that the placement of accents in an
utterance corresponds to an active choice of the
speaker.
•
The accent placement is not entirely determined by the
preceeding context, but prosody is also used by the
speaker to give information about the way the
conversation has to go on.
•
Prosody is not only a backward looking device, but it is
also a forward looking device.
3
Outline
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Background: no consensus in French (contrary
to English) about the prosodic realisation of
informational focus.
A production experiment
Results: two marks (IA and NPA), which can
combine
One question but various answering strategies
The meaning of NPA
The meaning of IA
Conclusion
4
Background (1)
The prosodic form of answers varies with the question in
French
Broad question:
(2)
A: Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé? What happened?
B: [Marie est venue]F
Marie came.
Constituent question:
(3)
A: Qui est venu ?
Who came?
B: [Marie]F est venue.
Marie came.
Consensus: a prosodic difference between (2B) and (3B).
No consensus: the nature of the difference.
5
Background (2)
Two types of prosodic markings in the litterature:
• the placement of the nuclear pitch accent (NPA) of
the nuclear contour (NC), which is a tonal event (Di
Cristo 1999), whose variations convey different
pragmatic interpretations
• an initial accentuation (IA) which may form an
accentual arc with the following rising accent, or
trigger a high plateau up to the following accent. IA
or high plateau are generally implemented quite
high in the pitch range (Astesano et al. 2007)
6
Background (3)
Three different analyses
H1. Nuclear Pitch Accent (NPA) anchors at the
right edge of the informational focus.
(Beyssade & al. 2004, 2010)
H2. Initial accent (IA) anchors at the left edge
of the informational focus.
(German & D’Imperio 2010)
H3. Both marks combine and indicate the left
and right edges of the informational focus.
(Bipolarization, Di Cristo 1999)
7
Part 1
A production experiment
8
1. A production experiment
We focus on the informational focus (IF)
Informational Focus is identified with
XP(s) resolving a question
Issue:
What is the prosodic realization of XPs
resolving questions in French?
→A
production experiment
an ‘Focus to Accent’ approach
9
1. A production experiment (2)
Task = read aloud answers as if actually participating in the
dialogue. (14 participants, 112 target answers)
Context
Richard is a policeman. He has to treat various documents
(films, leaflets, K7s) seized in a terrorist cache.
(4) Constituent Question
A: Qu'as-tu visionné la nuit dernière ?
What did you screen last night?
B: J'ai visionné les vidéos la nuit dernière.
I screened the videos last night
(5) Broad Question
A: Où en es-tu dans ton enquête ?
What’s up with your investigation?
B : J'ai visionné les vidéos la nuit dernière.
I screened the videos last night
10
Part 2
Results
11
2. Results (1)
12
2. Results (2)
Same proportion of IA in answers to broad vs.
constituent questions.
IA on Object
Broad Question
32,7
Constituent Questions
34,6
13
2. Results (3)
14
2. Results (4)
H1 (NPA at the right edge of the IF) = partly
confirmed
Answers to constituent Q: 60% NPA on Object
Answers to broad Q: 70% NPA at the end
H2 (IA at the left edge of the IF) = not confirmed
But 83,6% of the answers to constituent Q show
NPA or/and IA on that Object.
15
2. Results (5)
Pattern
Answers to
Answers to
a constituent Q a broad Q
1 NPA-obj + IA-obj
11%
13,5%
2 NPA-obj
49%
17,3%
3 NPA-end + IA-obj
23,6%
19,2%
4 NPA-end
16,4%
50%
16
2. How interpret the results?
•
We suggest to associate each pattern with a
specific answering strategy.
•
If NPA and IA are independent prosodic cues, is
there a division of labor between them?
•
Can we compare the function of NPA and IA in
French to Accent A and Accent B in English?
(Jackendoff 1972, Buring 2003)
17
Part 3
One question but various
answering strategies
18
3. Answering strategies
Discourse trees (1)
• Dialogue and discourse may be represented as
trees (a.o. Roberts 1996, Büring 2003).
• Discourse trees are build from minimal entities,
which are pairs of utterances of type questionquestion or question-answer.
Question
Question
Question
Answer
19
3. Answering strategies
Discourse trees (2)
Question
How was the concert?
Question
Was the sound good?
Answer
No, it was awful.
Question
How was the audience?
Answer
They were enthusiastic.
20
3. Answering strategies
Discourse trees (3)
In discourse trees,
- assertions are always leaves,
- questions may be either explicit or
implicit.
⇒ Each assertive sentence can be viewed
as the answer to an explicit or to an
implicit question.
21
3. Answering strategies
Congruent answers (Krifka 2001)
In Q-A pairs, one can distinguish between
- congruent answers, which resolve the question
- Non congruent answers such as
• partial answers, which are under-informative
(6) A.: Where are John and Mary?
B.: Mary is in the kitchen.
• overinformative answers
(7) A.: Where are John and Mary?
B.: Everybody is out.
22
3. Answering strategies
Direct / indirect answers
To account for the actual gamut of felicitous
ways of answering, we add the distinction
between direct and indirect ways of
answering.
→ Two types of answering strategies
23
3. Answering strategies
Direct / indirect answers
-
direct strategy: the answer resolves the
explicit question in the pair and there is no
accommodation of an implicit question.
-
Indirect strategy: the speaker changes the
context of utterance by accommodating an
implicit question, which is distinct from the
explicit question in the pair.
Accommodation of an implicit question =
indirect answering strategy
24
3. Answering strategies
Indirect answers
When an implicit question is accommodated,
it can be either a sub-question or a superquestion.
Explicit Q
Implicit Q
Answer
Implicit Q
Explicit Q
Answer
So an indirect answer may resolve the
explicit question, modulo some inferences.
25
3. Answering strategies
•
•
In the context of an explicit broad
question, Speaker may decide to
accommodate an implicit constituent
question → Indirect answering strategy.
In the context of an explicit constituent
question, Speaker may decide to
accommodate an implicit broad question
→ Indirect answering strategy.
26
3. Answering strategies
(Büring 2003)
In English, when an implicit question is
accommodated, Speaker has to use a prosodic
mark, (T/B accent).
Who ate what?
What did Fred eat?
Who ate what?
What did Fred eat?
Fred(B) ate the beans(A)
Fred(A) ate the beans(B)
Strategy 1
Strategy 2
27
3. Answering strategies
(Büring 2003)
• B accent indicates that the sequence is part of a
larger discourse which the competent speaker can
only guess at, using the information provided by the
location accents in the sentence.
• Native speakers will typically attribute to the answer
with a B accent some sort of indication that other
people ate other things. On the contrary, the answer
involving only an A accent lacks any such indication.
Accent B says something about the possible discourse
continuations.
28
3. Answering strategies
Our proposal
Analyze NPA and IA in French à la manière
of A and B accents in Büring (2003).
•
•
NPA indicates the congruence with
QUD or with an implicit question.
IA indicates that the sequence is part
of a larger discourse.
29
Part 4
Meaning of NPA anchoring in
French
30
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a broad question?
Directly
with a final NPA which indicates the
congruence with the explicit question.
(8)
A: Où en es-tu dans ton enquête?
What’s up with your investigation?
B: J’ai visionné les vidéos la nuit
dernière]NPA.
I screened the videos last night.
The most frequent pattern: 69,2% of all answers to
broad questions (patterns 3 & 4).
31
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a broad question?
Indirectly
with NPA on Object.
(9)
A: Où en es-tu dans ton enquête?
What’s up with your investigation?
B: J’ai visionné les vidéos ]NPA la nuit
dernière.
I screened the videos last night.
30,8% of all answers to broad questions
(patterns 1 & 2).
32
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a broad question?
The speaker accommodates a constituent
question which is related to the broad one.
Broad Q: What’s up with your investigation?
Wh-Q: What did you screen last night?
Answer: I screened the videos ]NPA last night.
33
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a constituent question?
Directly, with NPA on the Object which
indicates the congruence with the
constituent question.
(10) A: Qu’as-tu visionné la nuit dernière?
What did you screen last night?
B: J’ai visionné les vidéos ]NPA la nuit
dernière.
I screened the videos last night.
60% of all answers to partial questions (patterns 1
& 2).
34
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a constituent question?
Indirectly, with NPA at the end.
(11) A: Qu’as-tu visionné la nuit dernière?
What did you screen last night?
B: J’ai visionné les vidéos la nuit
dernière]NPA
I screened the videos last night.
40% of all answers to wh-questions
(patterns 3 & 4).
35
4. Meaning of NPA
How to answer a constituent question?
The speaker accommodates a broad
question higher in the tree.
Broad Q: What’s up with your investigation?
Wh-Q: What did you screen last night?
Answer: I screened the videos last night ]NPA
36
Part 5
Meaning of IA in French
37
5. Meaning of IA
Proposal (1)
In congruent answers with the explicit Q:
IA sets off the Object as a potentially
thematic element, to be elaborated in the
following discourse (a forward looking
device, optional).
• 19,2% answer to broad-Q (NPAend+IA)
• 11% answer to wh-Q (NPAobject+IA)
38
5. Meaning of IA
Proposal (2)
In non congruent answers with the explicit Q:
IA also sets off the Object. But it indicates
that the Q-A pair is part of a larger
sequence. It is a forward looking device.
• 13,5% answer to broad-Q (NPAobject+IA)
• 23,6% answer to wh-Q (NPAend+IA).
The second most frequent pattern for answers to
wh-Q. Change the expected focus in a topic.
39
5. Meaning of IA
in indirect answers to a wh-question
The speaker accommodates a broad
question higher in the D-tree and IA sets off
the Object which resolves the wh-question,
explicit in discourse.
Broad question: What’s up with your investigation?
wh- Q: What did you screen last night?
Answer: I screened the VIdeos last night ]NPA
40
6. Conclusion
Congruence vs. coherence (1)
Non congruent answers with explicit
Q don’t result in incoherent
discourses.
Even in a context including an explicit
question, Speaker can accommodate an
implicit question and produce an indirect
answer. The only constraint for this
implicit question is that it should be
related to the explicit one.
41
6. Conclusion
Congruence vs. coherence (2)
The paradigm we assumed initially: The paradigm we accounted for:
Broad question:
(1) A: Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?
What happened?
B: i. Marie est venue ] NPA
ii. # Marie ] NPA est venue
Marie came
Partial question:
(2) A: Qui est venu ?
Who came?
B: i. Marie ] NPA est venue
ii. #Marie est venue ] NPA
Broad question:
(1’) A: Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?
B: a. Marie est venue] NPA
b. MArie est venue] NPA
c. Marie] NPA est venue
d. MArie] NPA est venue
Partial question:
(2’) A: Qui est arrivée ?
B: a. Marie] NPA est arrivée
b. MArie est arrivée] NPA
c. Marie est arrivée] NPA
d. MArie] NPA est arrivée
42
Thanks.
43
References
Astésano, C.; Bard, E.; Turk, A. 2007. Structural influences on Initial Accent placement in
French. Language and Speech, 50.
Beyssade, C. ; Delais-Roussarie, El; Doetjes, J. ; Marandin, J-M ; Rialland, A. 2004. Prosody
and Information in French, in F. Corblin & al. (eds), Handbook of French Semantics, CSLI.
Büring, D. 2003. On D-Trees, Beans, and B-Accents, Linguistics & Philosophy.
D’Imperio, M.; German, J. & Michelas, A. 2012. A multi-level approach to focus, phrasing and
intonation in French. In Elordieta, G. and Prieto, P. (eds), Prosody and Meaning. Berlin: De
Gruyter Mouton.
Di Cristo, A. 1999. Le cadre accentuel du français contemporain. Langues 3(2): 184-205,
Langues 4(2): 258-267.
Féry, C. 2001. The Phonology of Focus in French, in C. Féry & W. Sternefeld (eds.), Audiatur
Vox Sapientiae, A Festschrift for Arnim von Stechow, Berlin Akademie-Verlag. 153-181.
German, J. ; D’Imperio, M. 2010. Focus, phrase length, and t he distribution of phrase-initial
rises in French. Proceedings of International Conference on Speech Prosody 2010, 100207:14. Chicago, United-States
44
References
German, J. ; Sagi, E. ; Clark, B. ; Kaufmann, S. 2011. The role of speaker beliefs in determining
accent placement. In Benz, A., Ebert, C. & v an Rooij, R. (eds), Language, Games and
Evolution. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Jackendoff, R. 1972. Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge (Ma.), MIT
Press.
Krifka, M. 2001. For a structured meaning account of questions and answers, in C. Fery & W.
Sternefeld (eds.), Audiatur Vox Sapientia. A Festschrift for Arnim von S techow. Berlin
Akademie-Verlag. 287-319.
Ladd, D.R. 1980. The Structure of Intonational Meaning. Indiana University Press.
Roberts, C. 1996. Information structure in discourse: towards an integrated formal theory of
pragmatics. Yvon et al. (eds.). OSU Working Papers in Linguistics 49.
Selkirk, E. 1995. The prosodic structure o f function words. In Beckman, J., Dickey, L.W.,
Urbanczyk, S. (eds.) Papers in Optimality Theory, 439–470. GLSA Publications.
Selkirk, E. 1996. Sentence prosody: Intonation, stress, and phrasing. In Goldsmith, J.A. (ed.) The
Handbook of Phonological Theory, 550–569. Basil Blackwell.
45