Abstract
The present paper, maintaining the interest for applying Prague School’s Topic-Focus Articulation (TFA) algorithm to Romanian, takes the advantage of an experiment of investigating the intonational focus assignment to the Romanian sentence. Using two lines of research in a previous study, it has been showed that TFA behaves better than an inter-clausal selection procedure for assigning pitch accents to the Background-Kontrast (Topic-Focus) entities, while the Inference Boundary algorithm for computing the Theme-Rheme is more reliable and easier extendable towards boundary and contour tone assignment rules, leading to our novel proposal of Sentence Boundary Assignment Rules (SBAR). The main contributions of this paper are: ( a ) The TFA algorithm applied for Romanian is extended to inter-clause level, and embedded into a discursive approach for computing the Background-Kontrast entities. ( b ) Inference Boundary algorithm, applied to Romanian for clause-level Theme-Rheme span computing, is extended with a set of SBAR rules, which are relying on different Communicative Dynamism (CD) degrees of the clause constituents. ( c ) On each intonational unit, the extended TFA algorithm is further refined, in order to eliminate ambiguities, with a filter derived from Gussenhoven’s SAAR (Sentence Accent Assignment Rule). Remarkably, TFA and CD degrees proved again to be resourceful, especially as technical procedures for a new and systematic development of an Information Structure Discourse Theory (ISDT).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Apopei, V.: Analysis of Certain Nonlinear Systems with Applications to Signal Processing. Ph.D. Thesis, Institute of Computer Science, Romanian Academy, Iaşi Branch (Nov. 2008)
Asher, N.: Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1993)
Beaver, D.I., Clark, B.: Sense and Sensitivity. How Focus Determines Meaning. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, Oxford (2008)
Calhoun, S.: The Nature of Theme and Rheme Accents. Centre for Speech Technology Research, Univ. of Edinburgh (2003)
Curteanu, N., Trandabăţ, D.: Functional FX bar Projections for Local and Global Text Structures. The Anatomy of Predication. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, The Publishing House of the Romanian Academy LLI(1-2), 161–194 (2007)
Curteanu, N., Trandabăţ, D., Moruz, M.A.: Topic-focus articulation algorithm on the syntax-prosody interface of romanian. In: Matoušek, V., Mautner, P. (eds.) TSD 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4629, pp. 516–523. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Curteanu, N., Trandabăţ, D., Moruz, M.A.: Discourse Theories vs. Topic-Focus Articulation Applied to Prosodic Focus Assignment in Romanian. In: Burileanu, C., Teodorescu, H.-N. (eds.) SPED 2009 Conference: Advances in Spoken Language Technology, Constanţa, Romania, The Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, pp. 127–140 (2009)
Göbbel, E.: On the Relation between Focus, Prosody, and Word Order in Romanian. In: Quer, J., Schroten, J., Scorretti, M., Sleeman, P., Verheugd, E. (eds.) Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2001, pp. 75–92 (2003)
Hajičová, E., Skoumalova, H., Sgall, P.: An Automatic Procedure for Topic-Focus Identification. Computational Linguistics 21(1), 81–94 (1995)
Hajičová, E., Partee, B.-H., Sgall, P.: Topic-focus Articulation, Tripartite Structures, and Semantic Content. Kluwer Publishers, Dordrecht (1998)
von Heusinger, K.: Focus Particles, Sentence Meaning, and Discourse Structure. In: Abraham, W., ter Meulen, A. (eds.) Composing Meaning, pp. 167–193. Benjamins, Amsterdam (2004)
Kochanski, G.: Prosody Beyond Fundamental Frequency. In: Sundhoff, S., et al. (eds.) Methods in Empirical Prosody Research. De Gruyter, Berlin (2006)
Lee, C., Gordon, M., Büring, D. (eds.): Topic and Focus. Cross-Linguistic Perspective on Meaning and Intonation. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Leong, P.A.: Delimiting the Theme of the English Clause – An Inference-Boundary Account. SKY Journal of Linguistics (17), 167–187 (2004)
Marcu, D.: The Rhetorical Parsing, Summarization, and Generation of Natural Language Texts. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of Toronto, Canada, 331 (1997)
Selkirk, E., Kratzer, A.: Focuses, Phases and Phrase Stress. Ms., University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2005)
Steedman, M.: Information Structure and the Syntax-Phonology Interface. In: Linguistic Inquiry, vol. 34, pp. 649–689. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)
Van Valin Jr., R.D.: Exploring the syntax-semantics interface. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Curteanu, N., Trandabăţ, D., Moruz, M.A. (2009). Expanding Topic-Focus Articulation with Boundary and Accent Assignment Rules for Romanian Sentence. In: Matoušek, V., Mautner, P. (eds) Text, Speech and Dialogue. TSD 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5729. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04208-9_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04208-9_33
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04207-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04208-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)