The role of intonation units in memory for spoken English
- Degree Grantor:
- University of California, Santa Barbara. Linguistics
- Degree Supervisor:
- Fermin Moscoso del Prado Martin
- Place of Publication:
- [Santa Barbara, Calif.]
- Publisher:
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Creation Date:
- 2016
- Issued Date:
- 2016
- Topics:
- Cognitive psychology and Linguistics
- Keywords:
- Cognitive linguistics,
Spoken language processing,
Intonation units,
Short-term memory, and
Prosody - Genres:
- Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
- Dissertation:
- Ph.D.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016
- Description:
Comprehension and production of spoken language are very memory-intensive tasks, especially in real-time natural interactions. Yet, it is well-known that human beings have a very limited capacity for retention of newly-presented material, a phenomenon normally attributed to limitations on short-term memory. This dissertation provides evidence that the Intonation Unit (IU), an intermediate-level prosodic phrase, serves a critical role in processing of spoken English by carving up the continuous speech stream into bite-sized 'chunks' that can be easily fit into listeners' limited focus of attention. Three empirical studies are presented: a study of memory span in terms of IUs, employing data from a verbatim recall experiment; a study of association strength between and across IU boundaries, employing data from the same recall experiment; and a study of priming duration in terms of IUs, analyzing a corpus of spoken English. The implications of the findings with respect to Wallace Chafe's (1980,1987,1994) conception of Intonation Units and theories of short-term memory are explored.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (97 pages)
- Format:
- Text
- Collection(s):
- UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
- Other Versions:
- http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10159723
- ARK:
- ark:/48907/f3319vzc
- ISBN:
- 9781369146516
- Catalog System Number:
- 990046969100203776
- Copyright:
- Heather Simpson, 2016
- Rights:
- In Copyright
- Copyright Holder:
- Heather Simpson
File | Description |
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Access: Public access | |
Simpson_ucsb_0035D_12995.pdf | pdf (Portable Document Format) |