What a difference the sound makes: Prosody in interaction - Einzelansicht

Please note: Due to the current Corona situation, this course is planned to commence only on April 28(!). Please enrol in the Moodle course (ID 22997) for up-to-date information.

Prosody is omnipresent in interaction. We cannot speak without using a particular speech melody, volume and tempo. Moreover, their changes and the resulting rhythm, pausing, syllable prominence and other phenomena have very specific interactional functions, ranging from the organization of turn-taking to the expression of affect and emotion.
This advanced course focuses on the prosodic-phonetic features of talk. After a revision of/getting to know the basic concepts, we will examine how participants in talk employ prosody and phonetics to accomplish action(s). This includes both a review of selected relevant literature as well as hands-on analyses: Participants will be trained in the prosodic analysis of natural talk-in-interaction and interactional-linguistic methodology. This course will enable students to start carrying out their own, independent research on prosody and phonetics in spoken language and/or explore their role with language patterns.

Please note: Due to the current Corona situation, this course is planned to commence only on April 28(!). Please enrol in the Moodle course (ID 22997) for up-to-date information.

Completion of BA studies. Familiarity with basic concepts of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics will be beneficial.

With this course, students will be able to assess the role of prosody and phonetics in interaction and to develop their own research projects in this regard

by, among other things,

- understanding the basic prosodic-phonetic parameters (pitch, loudness, duration, rhythm etc.)

- analyzing real examples of their use in human interaction

- comparing this to selected pieces of relevant literature

- identifying the needs for further research and

- carrying out hands-on pilot studies of relevant phenomena

in order to be able to use these skills for studies of language patterns with interactional-linguistic methodology in other courses, their master thesis and/or their future professional career.

predominantly master students (KVM and FSL)

(teacher students should contact the instructor before enroling)