Rémi Godement-Berline

Ancien doctorant

Status : PhD student

Address :

LLF, CNRS – UMR 7110
Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7
Case 7031 – 5, rue Thomas Mann,
75205 Paris cedex 13

E-mail : erzv.tbqrzrag@yvathvfg.havi-cnevf-qvqrebg.se

General presentation

My research is about speech and especially prosody, a field that includes intonation and accentuation. The language I study is French. In my PhD dissertation, I investigate how prosody participates in expressing the information structure of utterances, that is to say focus on some informations more than others. I also study the expressive functions of prosody. One specificity of my research is that it concerns one particular speaking style, interpreted speech (the oralisation of a written text previously memorized by the speaker, usually an actor). I compare interpreted speech with two other speaking styles that have received more attention, reading aloud and spontaneous speech.

Teaching

2010-2013

  • Experimental phonetics
  • Principles of phonetics and phonology in French
  • General linguistics
  • French linguistics

2014-2015

  • Sociolinguistics
  • French grammar for teachers of French
  • Field linguistics
  • Prosodic analysis

Thèse

Title : La focalisation prosodique dans la parole interprétée en français

Supervision :
  Philippe Martin

PhD Defense : 2018-02-23

Inscription : 2010 à Paris 7

Jury :

  • Jury president: Barbara Hemforth, Research director, CNRS, Paris Diderot University
  • Referee: Antoine Auchlin, University Lecturer (HDR), Geneva University
  • Referee: Henri-José Deulofeu, Professor Emeritus, Aix-Marseille University
  • Examinator: Hiyon Yoo, University lecturer, Paris Diderot University
  • Examinator: Emanuela Cresti, Professor Emeritus, Florence University
  • Advisor: Philippe Martin, Professor Emeritus, Paris Diderot University

Abstract :

Prosodic highlighting refers to the distinction of a constituent through various prosodic means, especially accentuation and intonation. It is taken to fulfill several functions: marking the different types of focus, as well as emphatic functions (named here “insisting” and “expressiveness”). The main goal of this thesis is to determine whether prosodic highlighting and its functions display specific features in interpreted speech, a speaking style that can be defined as the oralization of a written text previously memorized by the speaker (typically an actor).
 
This question is relevant for linguistics and phonetics on several counts. First, little is still known about prosodic differences between functions of prosodic highlighting. Moreover, few studies have analyzed the prosodic characteristics of interpreted speech. Finally, through their innovative protocols, the two experiments described in this thesis present a methodological contribution. A production experiment consisted in having speakers replicate spontaneous conversations in read and interpreted speech. A group of experts then annotated the occurrences of prosodic highlighting in the corpus, and assigned a function to each occurrence. A perception experiment was also led in order to compare the realization of each function independently of speaking style.
 
Despite a relatively low agreement rate between experts (which raises several methodological and theoretical questions), our analyses reveal several important results. The frequency of occurrence of prosodic highlighting is highest in interpreted speech, followed by read speech. This confirms our prediction and suggests that interpreted speech is more suited to the study of prosodic highlighting than other speaking styles. A strong association is observed between insisting and initial secondary accent, which confirms many previous studies. However, there is almost no influence of speaking style on the realization of prosodic highlighting and its functions. We attribute this result to a lack of data and to the fact that some prosodic features were not taken into account in the analysis.

Bibliography

PhD dissertation

(to appear) La focalisation prosodique dans la parole interprétée en français. PhD dissertation, Sorbonne Paris Cité University, prepared at Paris Diderot University.

Publications

2016. Using a replication task to study prosodic highlighting. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2016. Boston, USA, 2016, May 31 - June 3.

2016. Contribution à l'étude de la focalisation prosodique en français. Proceedings of JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2016. Paris, France. 2016, July 4 - 8.

2014. L’emploi de la focalisation prosodique dans le jeu d’acteurNouveaux Cahiers de Linguistique Française. 31:129-139.

Communications

2016. Using a replication task to study prosodic highlighting. Speech Prosody 2016. Boston, USA, 2016, May 31 - June.

2014. The use of prosodic focalization in acting3ème SWIP - Swiss Workshop on Prosody. 10-11 septembre 2014, Genève.

2014. Constitution et classification d’un corpus de focalisations prosodiques en parole interprétéeJournée des doctorants de l’UFR de Linguistique. 10 juin 2014, Université Paris Diderot.

Other realizations and activities

2016. Participant to the seminar "Exploration de la langue" (An exploration of language) at the School of Dramatic Art of the Théâtre National de Bretagne.

2016. Students representative member at the Committee of the Linguistics Department of Paris Diderot University and at the Pedagogical Committee of the Linguistics MA program.

2015. RepTask "Interpreted speech" corpus. Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, Labex EFL (axis 7).

2014. Reviewer for the conference ConSOLE XXIII – 23rd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe. January 7-9, 2015, Paris, Paris Diderot University.