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Representation of Interrogative Turns
in the DB 'Intonation of Russian Dialog'

Sandro V. Kodzasov, Anastasija A. Bonch-Osmolovskaja, Leonid. M. Zakharov,
Irina. M. Kobozeva

Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Moscow State Lomonosov University, Moscow, Russia
sancod@philol.msu.ru,abonch@philol.msu.ru, leon@philol.msu.ru,
kobozeva@philol.msu.ru

Abstract

Although semantic and pragmatic functions of intonation in dialogical
discourse and its correlation with syntax have been extensively studied
from different theoretical perspectives for many languages including
Russian still there was no linguistic resource that would store
representative dialogical material simultaneously marked for prosodic,
syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features. In the report we present the
first results of the attempt to construct such a data base called
"Intonation of Russian dialogue" on the basis of the cognitive-discursive
approach to intonation functions with the help of modern tools of phonetic
analysis and demonstrate its interrogative component.

Introduction

This Modern theoretical and applied linguistics is characterized by a rapid
increase of interest in the problems of dialogical interaction of different
forms and genres. Intonation plays a tremendous role in a dialog. Recent
investigations in prosody focus on the informational and discursive aspects
of intonation semantics and on the corresponding prosodic means (see e.g.
[1], [2], [3]). Not only tonal configurations, reflecting modal and
illocutionary properties of utterances but also accent, phonation and
timbre structures and their semantic and discursive purport have become an
object of study. In Russian intonology such a complex analyses of
intonation is only beginning. We consider the adoption of such an a
approach for Russian language material important and productive. But until
now there has been no intonation data bases for Russian corresponding to
modern standards. That is why the construction of an electronic information
system based on the latest achievements in this field is an urgent task.
Now such a system named "Intonation of Russian Dialog" is under
development at the Department of theoretical and applied linguistics at
MSU. We apply cognitive-discursive approach in analyzing intonation
functions and use modern means for its phonetic analysis. The data are
supposed to be taken from the freely accessible audio-recordings of
dialogical texts as well as gathered especially for the system. The DB,
implemented in Microsoft Access environment, shall allow to extract and to
sort the data both by semantic and phonetic parameters, to hear the
pronounced utterances on line and to observe their acoustic
characteristics.
The process of the DB construction is divided into steps according to
dialogical micro-scenarios: question - answer, request - reaction etc. At
present only the first version of the "interrogative component" of the
system is available. So we shall confine our discussion to this component.
For constructing a truly representative DB on Russian interrogative
dialogical turns a new comprehensive classification of interrogative
sentences (IS) was elaborated. It takes into account the fundamental
treatises of IS (theoretical grammars, e.g. [4], and monographs, e. g. [5])
and other papers concerning Russian IS and its scope was verified on the
list of 500 interrogative turns, selected from TV talk shows. The
classification is multi-aspectual in that it reflects illocutionary,
informational, syntactic and lexical properties of IS. For the convenience
of users the names of its classes are close to traditional terminology and
serve as one of the ways to address the system. At the same time based on
the same data a comprehensive set of features was proposed for
characterizing surface syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and discursive
features of IS (see [6]) in order to permit in future to study their
correlation with intonation parameters (focal accents, tone configurations,
durations, tempo, phonations, prosodic timbres, pausation).
At present the DB contains 264 files of dialogical IS utterances
characterized for their prosodic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic
and discursive features.

Prosodic description of an IS in the DB

Each file of the DB has undergone intonation analyses and as a result
received a prosodic description in terms of prosodic markers earlier
introduced by S.V.Kodzasov for describing intonation (see [7] and [8]). The
distinctive feature of Kodzasov's system is the consistent differentiation
of accents and integral prosodies. More traditional description of Russian
intonation are given in terms of a restricted number of standard intonation
patterns that do not permit to reflect the multi-dimensional character of
utterance intonation that in its own turn reflects various parameters of
its meaning: illocutionary, modal, evidential etc.

1 Notational conventions for prosodic description

In case a prosodic phrase (syntagm) has a salient marked integral prosodic
feature the former is enclosed in square brackets. The closing brackets of
such phrases are labeled with capital letters in order of their linear
position in IS: [.]A [.]B. In case some integral prosodic feature has a
scope over the boundaries of some smaller prosodic phrases this scope is
marked by additional square brackets and has its own label: [[.]A [.]B]C.
Vocalic center of the syllable which bears tonal accent is marked by a
number that follows the corresponding vowel. The numbers are sequenced in
linear order.
Asteriscs mark focal (loudness) accents: * for normal and ** for
contrastive focal accent. These accents are determined aurally because
their reliable phonetic correlates remain yet unknown. Normally focal
accent appears in combination with tonal one. But each of them can appear
independently.
0. The lengthening of the vowel is marked with ~, and its shortening is
with ". If a vowel is followed with a digit, then these signs precede the
digit.


2 Representation of integral prosodic features

In the DB the following integral prosodic parameters of phrases are
distinguished and marked:
. tone register: A= h (high) / sh (super-high) / l (low), sl (super-low)
/ inc (inclination), dec (declination)
. tempo: A = f (fast) / s (slow)
. loudness: A = ld (loud) / lw (low)
. phonation: A= asp (aspiration) / crk (creaky voice) / ln (lenis) / fr
(fortis)
. peculiar reduction (in everyday communication with "the likes of us"):
A=rd

3 Representation of tonal accents

Tonal (pitch) accents in the DB are characterized by marking the values of
the following parameters:
. direction: 1=/ (rising), \ (falling), /\ (rising-falling), /= (rising-
flat) etc. with possible "compositions" of tonal accents, e.g. 1-2=/=\
. register: \l (falling in low register), /l (rising in low register),\h
(falling in high register), /h (rising in high register); neutral
register is not marked
. value of tone interval: 1=// or 1=\\ (extended interval of about 1.0
octave), 1=/" or 1=\" (small interval of about 3-4 semi-tones);
neutral values (about 6-7 semi-tones) are not marked
. localization on the accentuated syllable: 1= \C (movement basically on
the consonant), 1= \V (movement basically on the vowel), /C\V (bi-
directional movement on the consonant and the vowel), 1=\NL (movement
is not localized and is performed on a string of syllables); neutral
localization of tone (movement within the non-final part of a
syllable) is not marked
. co-phonation: tone movement may end with glottal stop (1=/q or 1=\q);
have a creaky voice on the accentuated vowel(1=/crk or 1=\crk); end
with aspiration or have it on an accentuated vowel (1=/asp or 1=\asp)

4 An example of prosodic indexation

An example Each file in DB contains a dialogical turn that has at least
one instantiation of an IS and has an audition button, that enables one
to hear the recording.
Access window for prosodic information has the following zones:
1) File address with 3 positions: q (question), number, m (musc.)/f (fem)
2) orthographic form of the IS;
3) prosodically indexed orthographic form of the IS;
4) deciphering of prosodic indexes for accents
5) deciphering of prosodic indexes for blocks
6) comments
Thus, we have the following prosodic representation for one of the turns
in our DB:
1) q22m
2) Вы сами придумали? Или это литературный сюжет?
3) Вы *са1ми это придумали? || [Или это *литерату2рный сюжет?]A
4) 1 = //; 2 = \\
5) A = inc
The other 4 Access windows give detailed surface-syntactic, semantic,
pragmatic and discursive information on each IS in a dialogical turn (see
[6]).


Conclusions

Thanks to its multi-dimensional character DB "Intonation of Russian
Dialog" may become a useful instrument for further study of intonation in
its correlation with different parameters of utterance syntax and
semantics. Indexation of DB items in terms of values of these parameters
also provides the possibility to study their compatibility within IS and to
choose their most frequent combinations as well as to determine intonation
patterns that express semantic clusters.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the RGNF foundation for their help in the form of
the grant.

References

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Intonation. MIT PhD Thesis. 1980-1988.
[2] Beckman, M. E. Stress and Non-Stress Accent (Netherlands Phonetic
Archives No. 7). Foris. (Second printing, 1992, by Walter de Gruyter.)
[3] Selkirk, E. "Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress, and Phrasing.'' In
John A. Goldsmith, ed., The Handbook of Phonological Theory, 1995, 550-569.
[4] Русская грамматика. Т.2 . М., 1980
[5] Рестан, П. Синтаксис вопросительного предложения. Осло:
Universitetsforlaget, 1968.
[6] Kobozeva, I. M. An essay in characterizing lexical-syntactic, semantic
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[7] Кодзасов, С. В. Комбинаторная модель фразовой просодии // Просодический
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