Funded Grants

Understanding language: Prosody and cognition

It is clear that language is central to human communication. The words and sentences we choose are important for imparting our ideas, beliefs, commands, and opinions to others. Language is typically studied in terms of the words and sentences we choose; however, there are other aspects of language that are at least as important, but rarely studied. These fall into the category of not what we say but how we say it. For example, a sentence like “John called Frank an intellectual, and then he insulted him” has a very different meaning than “John called Frank an intellectual and then HE insulted HIM.” In the latter case, being an intellectual is an insult. In the former case, it is not. Note that in both examples, the word choice and the sentence structure are the same, but how they are said drastically affects interpretation. This aspect of language is called prosody. It includes the stress, pitch, rhythm, and intonation of language. Although communication is possible when prosody is absent, as in email or in texts, communication is more challenging. A brief response in an email might be interpreted as curtness rather than the result of the author being in a hurry. An ironic response in a text message might sound like biting sarcasm without the accompanying prosodic information.

Despite its importance, we know very little about the structure of prosody, the cognitive processes that are deployed in constructing it, or how it is interpreted. Understanding prosody is critical for building speech systems, designing interventions for individuals with communication disorders, and in developing pedagogical strategies for people learning English as a second language. A psychological theory of prosody could also answer a very basic question about communication: What makes certain ways of speaking more effective than others for listeners?

Over the past several years, my research program has focused on developing theories of prosody as a way to better understand the cognitive mechanisms that underlie language use, and cognition more generally. One of the things that we have learned is that prosodic choices are sometimes the byproduct of speech production mechanisms, but they can also stem from decisions to assist listeners in comprehension. Much of the information conveyed by prosody is about the structure, organization, and attitudes of the speaker towards the information that is being conveyed. By understanding how prosody organizes linguistic information for the listener, we can better understand the underlying architecture of the language comprehension system and also gain insight into the mechanisms that underlie language production.