Prominence is a key notion in our understanding of language as a flexible system. It plays a major role in building linguistic structures and in organizing the information communicated into coherent and continually updated discourse representations. In phase I, we developed and tested the following tripartite definition of prominence: Def1: Prominence is a relational property that singles out one element from a set of elements of equal type and structure; Def2: Prominent elements are structural attractors, i.e. they serve as anchors for the larger structures they are constituents of, and they may license more operations than their competitors; Def3: Prominence status shifts over time (as discourse unfolds). Our research has shown that this definition provides a reliable and distinctive approach to prominence in language and allows us to compare prominence-related phenomena with different methodologies and across different linguistic subdisciplines (typology, phonology and phonetics, morphosyntax, semantics, discourse pragmatics, psycho- and neurolinguistics).

While the CRC is organized into three areas (prosody, morphosyntax and semantics, discourse), our research has made it clear that most prominence-related phenomena support discourse organization and thus appear to be motivated, at least in part, by their function in organizing discourse. Phase II is designed to further substantiate this foundational insight both empirically and by way of explicit modelling. We plan inter alia to extend the investigation of the candidate space for prominence relations beyond only two competing elements, to integrate observations from larger discourse domains, to include signed language, and to provide more precise accounts of the interaction between the various dimensions that induce prominence. Furthermore, we will elaborate the dynamicity of prominence in a discourse model, in particular by modelling the forward function of prominent units. The CRC will thus continue to investigate prominence as a dynamic linguistic principle that links phenomena from different parts of the grammar to more general contextual, cognitive, and communicative domains. In addition to significantly improving our understanding of how language works, we expect our research to contribute substantially to the study of the interface between language and other aspects of human cognition.

... imply hierarchical ordering of units, as in the case of stressed syllables within words, or of accented words within utterances. In addition to this structural sense, the notion of prominence has often been used with respect to why and how a particular unit “stands out”, acoustically or perceptually, among its neighbours in a given domain. This definition conflates both relatively context-free language-specific phenomena (e.g. BLACKbird vs. black BIRD) and devices manipulated by speakers in order to package information in a contextually appropriate way (e.g. I’m only CHATTING with Martha vs. I’m only chatting with MARTHA). In both cases, prosodically prominent units are often highlighted through a language-specific interplay of articulatory, acoustic and perceptual features.

The encoding and decoding of prominence involves context-derived expectations, phonological form-based expectations, and phonetic substance reflected in the speech signal. The relation between phonetic substance and meaning is intrinsically linked to phonological form, the latter building structural expectations and at the same time integrating information from the phonetic substance. The goal of Area A is to investigate prosodic expressions of prominence by focusing on how its encoding and decoding is employed in communication.