The main aim of this project is to explore the relationship between semantic-pragmatic and prosodic properties of words on the basis of metrical strength relations. Production and perception experiments will test the influence of (i) utterance-external factors that serve to boost or inhibit the prominence value of a word and (ii) the utterance-internal prosodic context in order to shed light on the interdependence between prenuclear and nuclear accents in the rhythmic organization of German utterances.

Principal Investigator: PD Dr. Stefan Baumann, stefan.baumann(at)uni-koeln.de

The project deals with the development and subsequent evolution of recent alignment and agreement patterns in two closely related languages, Lithuanian and Latvian, which constitute the East Baltic group of Balto-Slavic. The project investigates patterns of alignment and agreement in those clauses whose predicates historically developed out of more ancient infinitive formations. Such clauses are to be found in the debitive mood of Latvian, and in the conditional mood of both Latvian and Lithuanian.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Eugen Hill

This project investigates evidence for morphosyntactic prominence of arguments in German Sign Language (DGS), and the relationship between morphosyntactic prominence with prominence-lending semantic features like animacy and agentivity. By investigating the visual modality of a signed language, the project contributes to our understanding of the universality and variability of prominence relations across languages.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Pamela Perniss

This project develops and explores a Bayesian computational account of prominence that is based on the forward-modelling account of language cognition. The account will relate the cognitive prominence of discourse items with the prominence of their form of expression, and explore the question of whether such prominence phenomena are functionally motivated as mechanisms of communicative efficiency. Precise quantifications of the account will be tested in collaboration with other projects within the CRC.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Martine Grice, Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Himmelmann, Prof. Dr. Petra Schumacher