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The interface between prosody and syntactic/information structure: A case study of Japanese downstep

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K00613
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
Research InstitutionSeikei University

Principal Investigator

Hirayama Manami  成蹊大学, 文学部, 教授 (90580027)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) ホワン ヒョンギョン  筑波大学, 人文社会系, 准教授 (80704858)
加藤 孝臣  上智大学, 言語科学研究科, 准教授 (20548151)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2025-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2024)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Keywordsダウンステップ / 品詞 / プロソディー / インターフェイス / 語順 / 実験 / 意味 / 日本語 / 統語構造 / 名詞修飾 / OCP / 形容詞 / 統語 / 知覚 / 名詞句 / 韻律構造 / 情報構造
Outline of Research at the Start

ダウンステップは通言語的に観察される音声現象である。本研究では、日本語におけるダウンステップにおいて、発音、知覚、意味解釈が、文の音韻構造、統語構造、情報構造によってどのような影響を受けるかを、実証的に研究する。また、ダウンステップの定義あるいは判別方法について再考し掘り下げる。これらの点は、先行研究で未だ本格的に議論されていないか全く手付かずであることから、本研究はダウンステップのメカニズムを解明する研究として学界に貢献する。また、音韻、形態、統語、意味という言語研究の要をなす分野のインターフェイス現象を扱うことにより、言語が構造とどのように関わるのかを説明する各分野の理論構築にも貢献する。

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study discusses downstep in Japanese, a gradual narrowing of pitch range triggered by accent. Results of production experiments suggest that among nouns, verbs, and adjectives, adjectives may block the occurrence of downstep. The findings indicate that the pitch production is influenced by the phonological, syntactic, and informational structure of the sentence. Perception experiments revealed that listeners respond only to pitch levels higher than those typically used in usual downstep production, highlighting an intriguing discrepancy between production and perception.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、日本語のダウンステップのメカニズムの一部を解明する研究として、日本語の音声文法の記述に一定の貢献をすることができたといえよう。また、音韻、形態、統語、意味という言語研究の要をなす分野のインターフェイス現象を扱うことにより、音声と構造とがどのように関わるのかを説明する言語学各分野の理論にも一定の貢献をもたらすことができたと思われる。また、自然な日本語の記述は、日本語教育の現場などの分野でも応用することができ、社会的にも意義のある結果を提供できたのではないだろうか。

Report

(7 results)
  • 2024 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2023 Research-status Report
  • 2022 Research-status Report
  • 2021 Research-status Report
  • 2020 Research-status Report
  • 2019 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (50 results)

All 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019

All Journal Article (18 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 11 results,  Peer Reviewed: 13 results,  Open Access: 15 results) Presentation (25 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 13 results,  Invited: 1 results) Book (6 results) Funded Workshop (1 results)

  • [Journal Article] Early influence of language experience in non-native speech perception: Discrimination of three-way Thai stop contrasts by Korean and Japanese infants2025

    • Author(s)
      Nam Minji、Yamane Naoto、Hwang Hyun Kyung、Onsuwan Chutamanee、Choi Youngon、Mazuka Reiko
    • Journal Title

      Infant Behavior and Development

      Volume: 78 Pages: 102005-102005

    • DOI

      10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.102005

    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Morphological (Non-)Effect in High Vowel Devoicing in Japanese2024

    • Author(s)
      Hirayama, Manami
    • Journal Title

      Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan

      Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Pages: 17-26

    • DOI

      10.24467/onseikenkyu.28.2_17

    • ISSN
      1342-8675, 2189-5961
    • Year and Date
      2024-08-31
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Auditory and written perception of Japanese sequential voicing2023

    • Author(s)
      Timothy J. Vance, Manami Hirayama and Hinako Masuda
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences

      Volume: NA Pages: 2080-2084

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Age- and gender-based variation in the perception of voicing contrast in Tokyo Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      Yoonjung Kang and Manami Hirayama
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences

      Volume: NA Pages: 3026-3030

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] On the locus of tense2023

    • Author(s)
      Takaomi Kato
    • Journal Title

      University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics

      Volume: 29.1 Pages: 86-91

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Input distribution of Korean affricates in the context of a diachronic sound change: comparison between IDS and ADS2023

    • Author(s)
      Minji Nam, Youngon Choi, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Reiko Mazuka
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences

      Volume: NA Pages: 2359-2362

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] OCP and downstep in Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Takaomi Kato
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Tone and Intonation

      Volume: NA Pages: 3-6

    • DOI

      10.21437/tai.2023-2

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] On the L1 acquisition of recursive <i>no</i> in Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      Ana T. Perez-Leroux 、Yves Roberge、Manami Hirayama 、Midori Hayashi、Kazuya Bamba
    • Journal Title

      Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique

      Volume: (online) Issue: 2 Pages: 1-28

    • DOI

      10.1017/cnj.2023.4

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] A new local indicator of spatial autocorrelation identifies clusters of high <i>rendaku</i> frequency in Japanese place names2023

    • Author(s)
      Thomas Pellard 、Akiko Takemura、Hyun Kyung Hwang 、Timothy J. Vance
    • Journal Title

      Journal of Linguistic Geography

      Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-7

    • DOI

      10.1017/jlg.2022.11

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Perceived prominence and downstep in Japanese2022

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang, Manami Hirayama, and Takaomi Kato
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of Interspeech 2022

      Volume: -

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Lexical Category and Downstep in Japanese2022

    • Author(s)
      Hirayama Manami、Hwang Hyun Kyung、Kato Takaomi
    • Journal Title

      Languages

      Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 25-25

    • DOI

      10.3390/languages7010025

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Downstep in Japanese Revisited : Morphology Matters2021

    • Author(s)
      Hwang Hyun Kyung、Hirayama Manami
    • Journal Title

      国立国語研究所論集 = NINJAL Research Papers

      Volume: 21 Issue: 21 Pages: 15-23

    • DOI

      10.15084/00003434

    • NAID

      120007116740

    • ISSN
      2186-1358
    • URL

      https://repository.ninjal.ac.jp/records/3451

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Morphological boundary in high vowel devoicing in Japanese: Two production experiments2021

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama
    • Journal Title

      成蹊英語英文学研究

      Volume: 25 Pages: 107-142

    • NAID

      120007119136

    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Can prosody encode recursive embedding? Children's realizations of complex NPs in Japanese2020

    • Author(s)
      HIRAYAMA Manami、COLANTONI Laura、PEREZ-LEROUX Ana Teresa
    • Journal Title

      Journal of Child Language

      Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 429-453

    • DOI

      10.1017/s0305000920000367

    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Gapping in Japanese and specifying coordination2019

    • Author(s)
      Takaomi Kato
    • Journal Title

      Sophia Linguistica

      Volume: 68 Pages: 11-24

    • NAID

      120006810773

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Persian non-high vowel perception by Korean speakers and its education2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang, Sae-Ra Kwak & Young-Lim Lee
    • Journal Title

      Journal of Middle Eastern Affairs

      Volume: 18(1) Pages: 141-157

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Laryngeal contrast and tone in Tamang: A preliminary study2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang, Seunghun Lee, Pascal Gerber, Selin Grollmann
    • Journal Title

      音声研究

      Volume: 23(1) Pages: 41-50

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Rendaku in place names across Japanese dialects2019

    • Author(s)
      Akiko Takemura, Thomas Pellard, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Timothy J. Vance
    • Journal Title

      慶応義塾大学言語文化研究所紀要

      Volume: 50 Pages: 79-89

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Acquisition of high vowel devoicing in Japanese: A production experiment with three and four year olds2024

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang and Manami Hirayama
    • Organizer
      Interspeech 2024
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Vocative intonation in South Gyeongsang Korean: The preliminary study2024

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang
    • Organizer
      The Japan Experimental Linguistics Society 2024
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] Development of unusual three-way affricate contrast perception in Korean infants2024

    • Author(s)
      Minji Nam, Youngon Choi, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The International Congress of Infant Studies 2024
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Early perceptual discrimination of stop categories: New perspective from data of Thai-, Korean-, and Japanese-learning infants2024

    • Author(s)
      Chutamanee Onsuwan, Nawasri Chonmahatrakul, Juthatip Duangmal, Naoto Yamane, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Youngon Choi, Minji Nam, Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The International Congress of Infant Studies 2024
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Auditory and written perception of Japanese sequential voicing2023

    • Author(s)
      Timothy J. Vance, Manami Hirayama and Hinako Masuda
    • Organizer
      The 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Age- and gender-based variation in the perception of voicing contrast in Tokyo Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      Yoonjung Kang and Manami Hirayama
    • Organizer
      The 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] OCP and downstep in Japanese2023

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama, Hyun Kyung Hwang and Takaomi Kato
    • Organizer
      The Second International Conference on Tone and Intonation
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Input distribution of Korean affricates in the context of a diachronic sound change: comparison between IDS and ADS2023

    • Author(s)
      Minji Nam, Youngon Choi, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Perceived prominence and downstep in Japanese2022

    • Author(s)
      Hwang, Hyun Kyung, Manami Hirayama, and Takaomi Kato
    • Organizer
      Interspeech 2022
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Ordering of attributive modifiers and downstep in Japanese2022

    • Author(s)
      Takaomi Kato, Manami Hirayama, and Hyun Kyung Hwang
    • Organizer
      Phonology Festa 17
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] On the locus of tense2022

    • Author(s)
      Takaomi Kato
    • Organizer
      The 46th Penn Linguistics Conference
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] 失語症者の動詞の表出における項の移動と項の数の影響2020

    • Author(s)
      髙津亘広・吉畑博代・加藤孝臣・浦野雅世
    • Organizer
      第46回日本コミュニケーション障害学会学術講演会
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Japanese-learning infants' discrimination of Japanese and Thai stop contrasts2020

    • Author(s)
      Reiko Mazuka, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Naoto Yamane, Mieko Takada
    • Organizer
      The International Congress of Infant Studies 2020
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Japanese-learning infants' discrimination of Japanese and Thai stop contrasts2020

    • Author(s)
      Youngon Choi, Minji Nam, Sujin Kim, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The International Congress of Infant Studies 2020
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Discrimination of /p/-/ph/ stop contrast in early speech perception of Thai infants2020

    • Author(s)
      Chutamanee Onsuwan, Nawasri Chonmahatrakul, Juthatip Duangmal, Naoto Yamane, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The International Congress of Infant Studies 2020
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Lexical category in downstep in Japanese2019

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama, Hyun Kyung Hwang, and Takaomi Kato
    • Organizer
      International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 2019
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Development of vowel devoicing in Japanese: A case study of a 1-year-old child2019

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama
    • Organizer
      音声学会第339回研究例会
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Vowel devoicing in Japanese: Patterns and representations2019

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama
    • Organizer
      東京音韻論研究会
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Cue weighting in the perception of Tagalog stress2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang, Naonori Nagaya, and Julian Villegas
    • Organizer
      The 178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Learning the laryngeal contrast in Japanese2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang and Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      The 27th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference Satellite and the 1st NINJAL_SNU Joint Workshop
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Shift of voice onset time and enhancement in Japanese infant-directed speech2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang and Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2019
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Stability of acoustic cues of the three-way voicing contrast in Thai mothers’ stop production2019

    • Author(s)
      Chutamanee Onsuwan, Juthatip Duangmal, Nawasri Chonmahatrakul, Naoto Yamane, Hyun Kyung Hwang, and Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2019
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Korean mothers’ production of laryngeal stops to their infants as compared with adults in the context of tonogenesis2019

    • Author(s)
      Youngon Choi, Minji Nam, Mazuka Reiko, Hyun Kyung Hwang, and Naoto Yamane
    • Organizer
      International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2019
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Development of speech perception in Korean infants: discriminating unusual sound contrasts with diachronic change2019

    • Author(s)
      Youngon Choi, Minji Nam, Mazuka Reiko, Hyun Kyung Hwang, Minha Shin, and Naoto Yamane
    • Organizer
      Hanyang International Symposium on Phonetics and Cognitive Sciences of Language 2019
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Acoustic characteristics of motherese and early perceptual development: A case study of Japanese stops2019

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang, Takada Mieko, and Reiko Mazuka
    • Organizer
      Symposium on Learning Sounds of Asian Languages
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Book] 生成音韻論の歴史と展望― 田中伸一教授還暦記念ハンドブック ―2025

    • Author(s)
      橋本大樹, 渡部直也, 黄 竹佑(編)
    • Total Pages
      464
    • Publisher
      開拓社
    • ISBN
      9784758924160
    • Related Report
      2024 Annual Research Report
  • [Book] 大人の英語発音講座〈新装復刊〉2023

    • Author(s)
      清水 あつ子、斎藤 弘子、高木 直之、小林 篤志、牧野 武彦、内田 洋子、杉本 淳子、平山 真奈美
    • Total Pages
      196
    • Publisher
      研究社
    • ISBN
      9784327441227
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Book] 日本語の大疑問2021

    • Author(s)
      国立国語研究所
    • Total Pages
      264
    • Publisher
      幻冬舎
    • ISBN
      9784344986374
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Book] Verb-Verb Complexes in Asian Languages2021

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang and John B. Whitman
    • Publisher
      Oxford University Press
    • ISBN
      9780198759508
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
  • [Book] Japanese/Korean Linguistics Volume 262020

    • Author(s)
      Hyun Kyung Hwang
    • Publisher
      CSLI Publications
    • ISBN
      9781684000654
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
  • [Book] Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 20192019

    • Author(s)
      Manami Hirayama, Hyun Kyung Hwang, and Takaomi Kato
    • Total Pages
      3911
    • Publisher
      Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
    • ISBN
      9780646800691
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
  • [Funded Workshop] 音韻論フォーラム20212021

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report

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Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2026-01-16  

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