Vocal and visual boundaries in speech: insights from spontaneous speech

Speaker: Dr Manon Lelandais (Université Paris Cité)

Abstract: In this talk, I will give an overview of my work that looks specifically at the expression of boundaries in speech. I will refer to different groups of studies. First, a series of observational studies investigating the use of boundaries to signal parentheticals and appositive relative clauses in spontaneous speech (Lelandais & Ferré 2014; Lelandais & Ferré 2016; Lelandais 2020). Second, an experiment which investigates the role of prosody and gesture in the perception of boundaries in speech (Lelandais & Thiberge, submitted). Third, an ongoing exploratory study in which I propose an alternative view of coordination to that of traditional syntax, based on the presence or absence of boundaries. The goal of this project is to build a multiparameter framework that accounts for coordination in different interactional contexts. Finally, I will mention short-term developments and perspectives.

 

About Dr Manon Lelandais: Dr Manon Lelandais is an Associate Professor in Linguistics at Université Paris Cité, France. Her research focuses on audiovisual corpora of spontaneous and semi-spontaneous speech in British and American English. Her work specifically targets the interplay between verbal, vocal, and gestural resources in a range of interactional phenomena. Her research interests include syntax, discourse analysis, information structure, prosody, and co-speech gesture (hand gestures, head and eyebrow movement, gaze direction).