Journal articles on the topic 'Accentual phrase'

Abstract It tends to be assumed that tonal languages do not make use of intonational tones and accent location for the purpose of conveying information structural aspects of the utterance. This study of read-aloud stories in colloquial Burmese shows that this tonal language does resort to this sort of intonational means for information-structuring reasons. The prosody of Burmese exhibits identifiable intonational patterns, which function on the level of accentual phrases. An accentual phrase constitutes the basic prosodic unit, and it is there that we find the real interaction of information structure, intonation and tone. Accentual phrases are organised around a single accent, the location of which depends on information structural factors. Sentences can consist of a single accentual phrase or a few phrases, while the exact partition into such phrases is also motivated by information- and discourse-structuring considerations.

A universal characteristic of speech is that utterances are generally broken down phonologically into smaller phrases which are marked by suprasegmental features such as intonational events and/or final lengthening. Moreover, phrases can be further divided into smaller-sized constituents. These constituents of varying size, or ‘prosodic units’, are typically characterised as performing the dual function of marking a unit of information and forming the domain of application of phonological rules. However, there is less agreement about how prosodic units are defined in generating an utterance. There are at least two different approaches (for a general review, see Shattuck-Hufnagel & Turk 1996). One approach posits that prosodic constituents are hierarchically organised and that prosodic constituents larger than a word are derived indirectly from the syntactic structure by referring to the edge of a maximal projection (Selkirk 1986), to the head–complement relation (Nespor & Vogel 1986) or to the c-command relation (Hayes 1989). This position, which I call the SYNTACTIC APPROACH, has been called the Prosodic Hierarchy theory, Prosodic Phonology or the Indirect Syntactic Approach (Selkirk 1984, 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986, Hayes 1989).The other position, which I call the INTONATIONAL APPROACH, also assumes a hierarchical prosodic structure, but defines the prosodic units larger than a word based on the surface phonetic form of an utterance by looking at suprasegmental features such as intonation and final lengthening (e.g. Beckman & Pierrehumbert 1986, Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988, Jun 1993, Beckman 1996). Both approaches assume a prosodic hierarchy in which prosodic units are hierarchically organised and obey the Strict Layer Hypothesis (Selkirk 1984, 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986; a prosodic unit of a given level of the hierarchy is composed of one or more units of the immediately lower prosodic unit, and is exhaustively contained in the superordinate unit of which it is a part). The prosodic units which are higher than a word, and which are commonly assumed by proponents of the syntactic approach, are the Phonological Phrase and the Intonation Phrase, while those assumed by the intonational approach are the Accentual Phrase, the Intermediate Phrase and the Intonation Phrase. The prosodic units below the Phonological Phrase, i.e. the Syllable, Foot and Prosodic Word, do not differ much in the two approaches, since these units have more fixed roles vis-à-vis syntax or intonation.The intonational unit corresponding to the Phonological Phrase is the Intermediate Phrase in English (Beckman & Pierrehumbert 1986) or the Accentual Phrase in Korean (Jun 1993), in that these are the units immediately higher than a Word. The Phonological Phrase is defined based on the syntactic structure, but the intonational units are defined by intonational markers. The Intermediate Phrase in English is the domain of downstep, and is delimited by a phrase accent, H- or L-; the Accentual Phrase in standard (Seoul) Korean is demarcated by a phrase-final High tone. The next higher level, the Intonation Phrase, is much more similar in the two approaches. Even though the proponents of the syntactic approach define this level in terms of syntax (e.g. a sister node of a root sentence), they claim that this level is the domain of the intonational contour and is sensitive to semantic factors (Selkirk 1980, 1984, 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986). In this paper, we will focus on the prosodic level corresponding to the Phonological Phrase.

This paper examines how questions, both Wh-questions and yes-no questions, are phrased in Chimwiini, a Bantu language spoken in southern Somalia. Questions do not require any special phrasing principles, but Wh-questions do provide much evidence in support of the principle Align-Foc R, which requires that focused or emphasized words/constituents be located at the end of a phonological phrase. Question words and enclitics are always focused and thus appear at the end of a phrase. Although questions do not require any new phrasing principles, they do display complex accentual (tonal) behavior. This paper attempts to provide an account of these accentual phenomena.

This paper explores the relationship between some postlexical prosodic processes and metrical rhythm. The main focus is on Spanish secondary stress and related phenomena. Overall, as in previous studies, we shall differentiate three types of stress in Spanish: primary word stress, corresponding to the highest prominence in the lexical word, main phrasal stress, which signals the accentual peak in the phrase or phonic group, and secondary stress, which includes all remaining discernible stresses. It is intuitively plausible, though unsubstantiated experimentally, to assume that these three types correlate with three different degrees of prominence, of which main phrasal stress is the highest and secondary stress the lowest.

Hiatus occurs when the juxtaposition of syllables results in two separate vowels occurring alongside one another. Such vowel adjacency, both within words and across word boundaries, is phonologically undesirable in many languages but can be resolved using a range of strategies including consonant insertion. This paper examines linguistic and extralinguistic factors that best predict the likelihood of inserted linking ‘r’ across word boundaries in Australian English. Corpus data containing a set of 32 phrases produced in a sentence-reading task by 103 speakers were auditorily and acoustically analysed. Results reveal that linguistic variables of accentual context and local speaking rate take precedence over speaker-specific variables of age, gender and sociolect in the management of hiatus. We interpret this to be a reflection of the phonetic manifestation of boundary phenomena. The frequency of the phrase containing the linking ‘r’, the frequency of an individual's use of linking ‘r’, and the accentual status of the flanking vowels all affect the /ɹ/ strength (determined by F3), suggesting that a hybrid approach is warranted in modelling liaison. Age effects are present for certain prosodic contexts indicating change in progress for Australian English.

Within the autosegmental-metrical approach to French intonation, the existence of an intermediate phrase or ip is controversial. Our study provides strong evidence for its existence, by uncovering systematic pitch-scaling effects within this constituent. We first show that the presence of an ip break is responsible for blocking recursive downstep of subsequent AP-final LH* rises in declarative utterances, causing the return of the final H target to the pitch level set by the first accentual peak of the phrase (i.e. complete reset). Additional evidence for the internal structuring of the Intonation Phrase is also provided by partial reset on the postboundary H target as well as by preboundary lengthening on the last syllable of the ip. The pitch-scaling effects are claimed to result from control over the reference pitch level for the entire ip, which can alternatively be modelled through secondary association of the last pitch accent of the domain.

Abstract In common with English and German and many other languages, French has an accentual configuration that arises in clash contexts, here referred to as clash resolution. Experimental research has shown that clash resolution is bounded by the phonological phrase. Moreover, the optional application of clash resolution has provided evidence for the restructured phonological phrase. However, the conditions on restructuring that have been proposed in the literature have been found to make the wrong predictions in a number of cases. In contradiction to earlier claims, perceptual and acoustic evidence shows that lexical heads can also be restructured with their branching complements. In addition, an analysis of the phonetic evidence shows that clash resolution is characterized by the absence of a final pitch accent, while the simultaneous realization of an initial pitch accent on the stress-shift item is optional. In our conclusions, we will discuss the implications of these findings for a phonological account of clash resolution.

This paper explores phrase-length-related alternations in the association of tones to positions in metrical structure in two melodic constructions of Spanish. An imitation-and-completion task eliciting (a) the low–falling–rising contour and (b) the circumflex contour on intonation phrases (IPs) of one, two, and three prosodic words revealed that, although the focus structure and pragmatic context is constant across conditions, phrases containing one prosodic word differ in their nuclear (i.e. final) pitch accents and edge tones from phrases containing more than one prosodic word. For contour (a), short intonation phrases (e.g. [Manolo]IP) were produced with a low accent followed by a high edge tone (L* H% in ToBI notation), whereas longer phrases (e.g. [El hermano de la amiga de Manolo]IP‘Manolo's friend's brother’) had a low accent on the first stressed syllable, a rising accent on the last stressed syllable, and a low edge tone (L* L+H* L%). For contour (b), short phrases were produced with a high–rise (L+H* ¡H%), whereas longer phrases were produced with an initial accentual rise followed by an upstepped rise–fall (L+H* ¡H* L%). These findings imply that the common practice of describing the structure of intonation contours as consisting of a constant nuclear pitch accent and following edge tone is not adequate for modeling Spanish intonation. To capture the observed melodic alternations, we argue for clearer separation between tones and metrical structure, whereby intonational tones do not necessarily have an intrinsic culminative or delimitative function (i.e. as pitch accents or as edge tones). Instead, this function results from melody-specific principles of tonal–metrical association.

Abstract In studying the effect of syntax and focus on prosodic phrasing, the main issue of investigation has been to explain and predict the location of a prosodic boundary, and not much attention has been given to the nature of prosodic phrasing. In this paper, we offer evidence from intonation patterns of utterances that prosodic phrasing can be formed differently phonologically and phonetically due to its function of marking syntactic structure vs. focus (prominence) in Yanbian Korean, a lexical pitch accent dialect of Korean spoken in the northeastern part of China, just above North Korea. We show that the location of a H tone in syntax-marking Accentual Phrase (AP) is determined by the type of syntactic head, noun or verb (a VP is marked by an AP-initial H while an NP is marked by an AP-final H), while prominence-marking accentual phrasing is cued by AP-initial H. The difference in prosodic phrasing due to its dual function in Yanbian Korean is compared with that of Seoul Korean, and a prediction is made on the possibility of finding such difference in other languages based on the prosodic typology proposed in (Jun, Sun-Ah. 2014b. Prosodic typology: by prominence type, word prosody, and macro-rhythm. In Sun-Ah Jun (ed.), Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. 520–539. Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Japanese is a pitch accent language where lexical items are divided into two groups: Accented (A) and Unaccented (U). Previous studies suggest that, for A words, focus boosts the pitch of the accent peak and triggers either compression of the pitch range and/or Downstep in the post-focal domain, but they are not clear on how focus on U words is implemented. The purpose of the paper is to examine how focus in Japanese is realized and perceived in various accentual conditions by production and perception experiments which tightly controlled the focus status and accent status of word pairs. We predict that, similar to focus on A words, focused U words will be endowed with F0 Rise and Post-focal Fall, and listeners can identify focus with high accuracy. Our results show that U words have the focal characteristics of F0 Rise and Post-focal Fall, but failed to show up constantly in all sequences considered, which leads to a significant difference in perception between the focus on U words and the one on A words. There are controversies over whether focus builds its own independent prosodic phrase in the Japanese literature. If focus necessarily initiates a new Phonological (Major) Phrase, we would not expect such murky results as ours, so we should conclude that focus does not initiate a new prosodic category, which accords with Ishihara (2003) and others.

Abstract Morphemes involved in the formation of Somali verbs and nouns are, in most instances, clearly individuated into categories corresponding to their role in word formation. Verbs contain a base, derivational extensions, inflectional affixes, and clitics that attach in a fixed order. Nouns also contain a base and derivational affixes, but little inflectional morphology. Indeed, both parts of speech have similar morphological templates in Somali, but the relationship between the language’s morphological domains and prosodic domains has only recently become a subject of detailed inquiry. We add to this ongoing trend by illustrating in this paper that there are close correlations between these domains in the language’s verbal and nominal systems that can be elucidated by morphophonological processes; certain processes occur only in a particular prosodic domain, and these process/domain combinations are similar in both the nominal and verbal systems. By establishing diagnostic phenomena attributable to phrase-level domains, this paper fills a gap between recent works focused only on defining prosodic characteristics of Somali words (Downing & Nilsson 2017; Green & Morrison 2016) and the accentual behavior of Somali clauses (Le Gac 2002, 2003a, b).

In this study, cross-dialectal variation in the use of the acoustic cues of VOT and F0 to mark the laryngeal contrast in Korean stops is examined with Chonnam Korean and Seoul Korean. Prior experimental results (Han & Weitzman, 1970; Hardcastle, 1973; Jun, 1993 &1998; Kim, C., 1965) show that pitch values in the vowel onset following the target stop consonants play a supplementary role to VOT in designating the three contrastive laryngeal categories. F0 contours are determined in part by the intonational system of a language, which raises the question of how the intonational system interacts with phonological contrasts. Intonational difference might be linked to dissimilar patterns in using the complementary acoustic cues of VOT and F0. This hypothesis is tested with 6 Korean speakers, three Seoul Korean and three Chonnam Korean speakers. The results show that Chonnam Korean involves more 3-way VOT and a 2-way distinction in F0 distribution in comparison to Seoul Korean that shows more 3-way F0 distribution and a 2-way VOT distinction. The two acoustic cues are complementary in that one cue is rather faithful in marking 3-way contrast, while the other cue marks the contrast less distinctively. It also seems that these variations are not completely arbitrary, but linked to the phonological characteristics in dialects. Chonnam Korean, in which the initial tonal realization in the accentual phrase is expected to be more salient, tends to minimize the F0 perturbation effect from the preceding consonants by taking more overlaps in F0 distribution. And a 3-way distribution of VOT in Chonnam Korean, as compensation, can be also understood as a durational sensitivity. Without these characteristics, Seoul Korean shows relatively more overlapping distribution in VOT and more 3-way separation in F0 distribution.

The paper deals with phonetic means executing theme and rheme functioning in speech. The main components of prosodic arrangement of the theme and rheme structure of the utterance are studied, and a problem of structural units of intonation is investigated. Multi-functionality of intonation tends to complicate a study of speech prosody. At the stage of inventory and taxonomic analysis of the formal means of intonation the basic components of prosodic arrangement of the theme and rheme structure of the utterance are considered and a problem of the structural intonation units is studied. The analysis is based on a study of the material essence of the intonation units which differentiation is provided not only by the melodic component but also by speech intensity, speech tempo (including pauses), voice timbre as well as the integral prosodic characteristic — the phrase stress. It is possible to speak definitely about presence of essential differences in the degree of informational melody, speech intensity, tempo and timbre in the context of communication of meanings, and a complex nature of their accomplishment in speech. Therefore, it becomes important to study not just the role of each of these components in the accomplishment of the communicative function of intonation but also to establish their hierarchy, inter-relation and interdependence. Functional analysis of intonation is primarily aimed at specification of the very principle of classification of the intonation structure functional loading. It is advisable to study the relative autonomy of various functions and the nature of their interaction. The list of intonation functions may be limited with such a set: intelligent and logical function (segmentation by syntagms, links between syntagms, actual segmentation, accentual marking of the syntagm elements), differentiation function of the communication types (situations), the function expressing the emotional state and relations and the function that transfers modal relations. At the prosody level the actual segmentation of utterances is accomplished in speech primarily by using tonal and, partially, dynamic means of intonation (the emphasis is often linked to the forceful intonation components — intensity and energy component): at that, in order to identify the content, the place of stress is important as well as certain peculiarities of its accomplishment.

<p>Pronouncing words with the correct stress plays an important role in communication. This has been investigated by different phoneticians, Torsuyev and Gibson amongst others, who have analyzed the different accentual patterns of English words and defined a large number of different accentual patterns. In this paper the author experimentally challenges the concept of complex accentual structures by investigating the pattern of standard British English speakers. Using the PRAAT program, a software package which is widely used in phonetic experimental research, the fundamental parameters of frequency of tone, intensity and time were measured and used to define accentual patterns of polysyllabic words as spoken by two modern standard English speakers. This study demonstrated that polysyllabic words, phrases and abbreviations exhibit only four distinct accentual-syllabic patterns. This is in direct contrast to previous work and demonstrates that accentual structure in spoken English has been over analyzed and made unnecessarily complex.</p>

RÉSUMÉÀ travers l’examen des contours intonatifs d’une variété de français parlée au Nouveau-Brunswick (FNB), nous cherchons d’abord à vérifier l’hypothèse prédisant que l’intonation du français est sous-tendue par le patron sous-jacent /LHiLH*/, tel que décrit par Jun et Fougeron (2002) dans le cadre de la théorie métrique-autosegmentale. Notre but second est de déterminer si le FNB présente des particularités intonatives le distinguant du français québécois (FQ), la variété la plus parlée et la plus documentée au Canada. Pour ce faire, la parole semi-spontanée de trois locuteurs de chaque variété est analysée. Nous comparons les types de contours intonatifs, la fréquence d’apparition de ces contours, ainsi que deux propriétés phonétiques (soit la hauteur de la fréquence fondamentale et la durée) des syllabes accentuées dans les deux variétés. Les contours répertoriés démontrent qu’effectivement, l’intonation du FNB est régie par le patron /LHiLH*/, mais que cette variété fait état d’une prédominance de continuités descendantes. L’analyse des paramètres phonétiques des syllabes accentuées révèle que le FNB privilégie l’usage de la durée à la frontière des syntagmes accentuels non finaux, tout en exhibant des variations de durée syllabique importantes en fonction de la position du syntagme accentuel dans la phrase.

RÉSUMÉL'objectif de cet article est de présenter un outil développé en vue de modéliser semi-automatiquement la structure prosodique du français. Sur la base d'un alignement en phonèmes, notre système procède à la détection des syllabes proéminentes en prenant en considération des critères acoustiques basiques tels que la f0, la durée et la présence de pauses. À partir des mesures ainsi prises, le système attribue un degré de proéminence à chacune des syllabes identifiées comme saillante. Nous illustrons ensuite les résultats de l'analyse d'extraits du corpus PROSO_FR. Plus précisément, nous comparons l'analyse prosodique de phrases que l'on pourrait faire avec les règles traditionnelles de la phonologie prosodique avec l'analyse conduite par notre logiciel. Nous discutons ainsi de trois règles: la règle de dominance droite, la règle de clash accentuel et la règle des sept syllabes.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">As of October 15, 2019, the following article is being retracted from the UGM Digital Press Social Sciences and Humanities series.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">“Les structures des phrases dans les tracts du mai 1968” by Nokiamy Sesena Tamba and Myrna Laksman-Huntley, Social Sciences and Humanities Series Vol 3: 00033, Proceeding of Conférence internationale sur le français 2018, Joesana Tjahjani, Merry Andriani, Sajarwa, Wening Udasmoro (eds) DOI:&nbsp;</span><a href="https://doi.org/10.29037/digitalpress.43306" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 1rem;">https://doi.org/10.29037/digitalpress.43306</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">The original article is registered through this URL&nbsp;<a href="https://digitalpress.ugm.ac.id/article/306" target="_blank">https://digitalpress.ugm.ac.id/article/306</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">as decided by authors and conference organizers on the basis of analytical error. It may encourage potential misleading circulation of information in the future.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">On the following exchange of information with the publisher, it has been decided that the article will be retracted.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">The retracted article will remain in public domain, that is maintaining its appearance on UGM Digital Press web archive and the Conférence internationale sur le français 2018 printed version. However, it will receive a watermark to accentuate its retracted status.</p>

This paper investigates how the tonal targets of rises in Persian are phonetically realized in relation to the segmental string. Three types of cliticized Persian Accentual Phrases (APs) are instrumentally compared with one another: high-boundary-toned pre-nuclear APs, low-boundary-toned nuclear APs, and low-boundary-toned contrastive focus APs. The results show that the valley is always aligned with the consonant preceding the stressed vowel, but the alignment of the peak is with the consonant following the stressed vowel if the AP boundary tone is low, and with the following vowel if it is high. The duration of the focus AP is greater than that of the other two. The pitch excursion of the focus AP is significantly greater than that of the nuclear type. This difference is caused by different peak heights. While pre-nuclear and nuclear APs can be phonologically represented by L + H*, focus APs, which are pragmatically different, warrant a distinct pitch accent, namely L + ^H*. The systematic alignment of the L and the H, and the variability of the time and slope of the rise support the view that pitch targets rather than pitch movements are the fundamentals of Persian intonation.

The research studied a number of cases of belonging the adverbs and the prepositional phrases in the view of the ancient grammarians and the opinion of modern scholars in looking on our grammar heritage with regard to these cases of hand giving a wide area to accentuate attitudes of a number of modern scholars, including the other hand, some of those who affected modern linguistic theories, or based in the situation their opinions to the view of the people of Kufa, mainly facilitating grammar instead of making it difficult for the learners, while some others kept on insisting on AL –Basryeen's opinions, and loyal to the influence of the syntactic basis. The researcher has variety of reactions :supporting or rejecting suggesting; for us , we intend to facilitate syntax because it became an imposed necessity by the nature of modern life and emphasized the commitment by the originality of consciousness .

Abstract This article tracks the history of species suicide, a phrase that originally referred to a potential nuclear holocaust but is now increasingly cited in Anthropocene discourses to account for continued carbon emissions in the face of catastrophic climate change. With its Anglophone roots in the Cold War, species suicide discourse unites concerns about nuclear arsenals, so-called overpopulation, and environmental injustice across disciplines. Species suicide discourse is indebted to the US-based field of suicide prevention, which for more than half a century has analyzed suicide notes in search of effective prevention methods. Therefore, to theorize suicide prevention in relation to anthropogenic climate change, this article imagines a version of this genre that mediates between individual and collective subjects—called a species suicide note. As an example, the interdisciplinary and multimedia art project “Dear Climate” (2012–ongoing) by Una Chaudhuri, Oliver Kellhammer, and Marina Zurkow rewrites familiar narratives of crisis, shifting species suicide notes toward irony and unconventional techniques of hope. In analyzing these performative species suicide notes, the author complicates species suicide prevention by foregrounding narratives of irony. These notes accentuate a self-reflexive irony that works toward climate justice for vulnerable humans and more-than-human species.

Aim and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which multilingual second language (L2) speakers of Norwegian manage to produce lexical pitch accents (L*H¯ or H*LH¯) as expected in natural spontaneous speech. Using native speech as a reference, we analyse realizations of multilingual speakers whose respective dominant languages are Lingala, a lexical tone language, and Swahili, a non-tonal language with fixed stress, and hypothesize that this difference might be reflected in the speakers’ competence in the East Norwegian tone system. Design/methodology/approach: We examined a corpus of spontaneous speech produced by eight L2 speakers and two native speakers of East Norwegian. Acoustic analysis was performed to collect fundamental frequency (f0) contours of 60 accentual phrases per speaker. Data and analysis: For LH and HLH tonal patterns, measuring points were defined for quantitative evaluation of f0 values. Relevant aspects investigated were (a) pattern consistency, (b) f0 dynamic range and (c) rate of f0 change. Pattern consistency data were statistically evaluated using chi-square testing. The dynamic range and rate of f0 change data were explored through to linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: We found no really substantial differences between the speaker groups in the parameters we examined, neither between the L2 speakers and the Norwegian natives nor between the Lingala and Swahili speakers. Originality and significance/implications: This study is a contribution to the scarcely explored area of L2 acquisition of tones. It is concerned with languages that have received little or no attention in the field: Norwegian, Lingala and Swahili. Participants are multilinguals who have extensive language learning experience. Further, the study is based on a corpus of spontaneous speech.

The background of this research is there is an indication that the short story was created not just accentuate the beauty aspects of language and narration. However, the language in the meaningful short stories and the author's ideological message through imaginary characters constructed. The purpose of this study is to reveal hegemony and ideology that contains short stories “Surga untuk Lelaki yang Tertipu” by Adam Yudhistira. The research approach used in the realm of sociology of literature, with the study of Gramsci hegemony. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. Research data in the form of language; words, phrases, sentences in the short story related ones are described and interpreted with the Gramsci hegemony approach. The results of the study show the relationship between the teacher's figure and Santo like a patron-client. The teacher has a higher status (superior) and the power to rule Santo (inferior). The ideological hegemony was carried out by the teacher's figure towards Santo went well. Because it has and is bound by the same beliefs. The orientation of the two figures is the same, namely heaven. The ideology instilled by the teacher has a significant influence on the Santo, so he wants to take action that sacrifices the lives of others and himself. The act which was originally believed to be true by Santo, but regretted in the end.

ABSTRACT In 1841, Sophocles's Antigone was performed at the Prussian court theater with staging by Ludwig Tieck and music by Felix Mendelssohn. Commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, this production aimed to re-create aspects of Greek tragedy by, among other things, using J. J. Donner's 1839 metrical translation and having an all-male chorus sing the odes. Mendelssohn initially experimented with imitating the purported sound of ancient music by composing primarily unison choral recitative and limiting the accompaniment to flutes, tubas, and harps; but he quickly abandoned this approach in favor of a more traditional one. Yet despite his overall adherence to modern convention, he did employ several strategies to evoke ancient Greek practice and thus to meet the unique demands of the Prussian court production. Highlighting important distinctions between verse-types in the original poetry, Mendelssohn retained a vestige of his initial approach by composing unison choral recitative to indicate the presence of anapestic verse while turning to melodrama for the lyric verse of the play's two main characters. In addition, he reproduced the poetic meter by shaping the rhythm of the vocal line to reflect both the accentual pattern of Donner's translation and, in some cases, the long and short syllables of Sophocles's Greek verse. Owing largely to the irregular line lengths characteristic of Donner's text, the music is marked by conspicuously asymmetrical phrases, which serve to defamiliarize the otherwise straightforward choral styles being employed to convey the various moods of Sophocles's choruses. In the opening chorus, Mendelssohn alludes to the familiar sound of a Mäännerchor accompanied by a wind band, thereby suggesting the ode's celebratory and martial associations while recalling his own Festgesang written for the 1840 Leipzig festival commemorating the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press. The listener is thus presented with a thoroughly recognizable musical idiom and yet simultaneously distanced from it in a way that underscores the historical remoteness of ancient Greek tragedy.

AbstractThe traditions that govern the music of gamelan Sekaten are commonly referred to as garap Sekaten. Based on observations of current musical practice, it can be comprehensively stated that garap Sekaten involves musical interaction and communication. This is reflected in the melodic phrases and interactive grammar between particular instruments of this ensemble. The characteristics, unique qualities, and complexities of garap sekaten have also influenced the gamelan ageng. For example, gendhing Bonang are a genre within gamelan ageng repertoire that accentuate the "loud" instruments and incorporate the sesegan/sabetan playing style found in garap Sekaten. This style is also adopted in particular gendhing Rebab in specific ways. Similarly, several instrumental techniques found in gamelan Ageng originate in garap Sekaten. These include imbal Demung, kinthilan, cegatan and nduduk tunggal techniques for Bonang, and salahan patterns for Kendhang. In short, an understanding of Garap Sekaten is one way of acquiring performance skills in individual instruments and gaining methods for interpreting certain gendhing. Key words: Garap Sekaten, Musical Interaction, Musical Communication AbstrakTradisi atau kaidah-kaidah dalam praktik musikal gamelan sekaten lazim disebut garap sekaten. Berdasarkan fakta-fakta dan realitas praktik, secara komprehensif dapat dikatakan bahwa garap sekaten terdapat interaksi dan komunikasi musikal. Hal tersebut tercermin dalam kalimat lagu dan gramatikal permainan antar ricikan tertentu. Cirikhas, keunikan, dan kompleksitas garap sekaten juga berkembang di gamelan ageng. Seperti, gending-gending bonang yang menonjolkan instrumen bersuara nyaring, disertai garap sesegan/ sabetan. Garap sabetan yang melekat pada penyajian gending bonang, selanjutnya dikembangkan pada gending-gending rebab dengan ketentuan dan ciri-ciri tertentu. Juga teknik-teknik permainan ricikan, seperti imbal demung, kinthilan, teknik cegatan-nduduk tunggal pada bonangan, hingga pola salahan kendang. Singkatnya, garap sekaten dapat dipahami sebagai suatu tata cara yang memiliki karakteristik dalam menyajikan ricikan maupun mengintepretasi gending tertentu.Kata Kunci: garap sekaten, interaksi, komunikasi musikal

Od użycia szczegółowego do ogólnego określnika wyrazu souffrance w Salvifici doloris Jana Pawła II: analiza konrastywna francusko-arabska Celem artykułu jest wykazanie, w jaki sposób dokonuje się przejście od użycia szczegółowego do ogólnego określnika wyrazu souffrance, pojawiającego się w strukturze: souffrance + N lub N de la souffrance, w Salvifici doloris Jana Pawła II. Analiza wyrazu souffrance i jego tłumaczenia jest przeprowadzana w perspektywie kontrastywnej francusko-arabskiej według dwóch parametrów: rodzajnik i kategoria liczby. W wyniku tej analizy ujawnia się kilka typów tłumaczenia wyrazu souffrance. Tak więc tłumaczenie souffrance de l’homme ma kilka różnych wartości w zależności od tego, czy jest wyrażone za pomocą struktur rzeczownik + rzeczownik ʾalam-u al-ʾinsān-i, rzeczownik + przymiotnik ʾalam-un bašarīyy-un, bądź za pomocą zdania czasownikowego z komponentem pasywnym. Ponadto w języku arabskim w przeciwieństwie do francuskiego brak rodzajnika w liczbie mnogiej zmusza rzeczownik do przekształcenia siebie samego w liczbę mnogą. W konsekwencji w tłumaczeniu francuskiej liczby pojedynczej ogólnej na arabski większość rzeczowników jest wyrażona w liczbie mnogiej, zwłaszcza w tłumaczeniu la souffrance du Christ, akcentując w ten sposób różnorodność w jedności. Du spécifique au générique dans la détermination du mot souffrance dans Salvifici doloris de Jean-Paul II : Analyse contrastive français-arabe L’objectif de cette étude consiste à démontrer comment s’opère le passage du spécifique au générique dans la détermination du mot souffrance engagé dans une construction d’annexion : souffrance + N, ou N + de la souffrance, dans Salvifici Doloris de Jean-Paul II. L’étude examine la traduction du mot souffrance dans une perspective contrastive français-arabe, par le biais de deux paramètres : l’article et la catégorie du nombre. L’analyse révèle la présence de plusieurs types de traduction du mot souffrance. Ainsi, la traduction de la souffrance de l’homme possède différentes valeurs selon qu’elle est rendue par un : nom + nom alam al-insān, nom + adjectif alam bašariyy, ou par une phrase verbale avec une nuance de passivité. Par ailleurs, en arabe, et contrairement au français, l’absence d’un article-pluriel oblige le nom à se transformer lui-même au pluriel. Par conséquent, pour traduire le singulier générique français en arabe, la plupart des noms sont rendus par un pluriel, notamment dans la traduction de la souffrance du Christ, accentuant ainsi la diversité sous l’unité.

Recent research has proposed that listeners use prosodic information to guide their processing of phonemic contrasts. Given that prosodic organization of the speech signal systematically modulates durational patterns (e.g., accentual lengthening and phrase-final (PF) lengthening), listeners’ perception of durational contrasts has been argued to be influenced by prosodic factors. For example, given that sounds are generally lengthened preceding a prosodic boundary, listeners may adjust their perception of durational cues accordingly, effectively compensating for prosodically-driven temporal patterns. In the present study we present two experiments designed to test the importance of pitch-based cues to prosodic structure for listeners’ perception of contrastive vowel length (CVL) in Tokyo Japanese along these lines. We tested if, when a target sound is cued as being PF, listeners compensatorily adjust categorization of vowel duration, in accordance with PF lengthening. Both experiments were a two-alternative forced choice task in which listeners categorized a vowel duration continuum as a phonemically short or long vowel. We manipulated only pitch surrounding the target sound in a carrier phrase to cue it as intonational phrase final, or accentual phrase medial. In Experiment 1 we tested perception of an accented target word, and in Experiment 2 we tested perception of an unaccented target word. In both experiments, we found that contextual changes in pitch influenced listeners’ perception of CVL, in accordance with their function as signaling intonational structure. Results therefore suggest that listeners use tonal information to compute prosodic structure and bring this to bear on their perception of durational contrasts in speech.

<p>Seoul Korean is known to show a LH-LH phrasal tonal pattern in an Accentual Phrase (AP), unless an AP-initial consonant is tensed or aspirated (Jun 1993, 2000). Since an AP shows LHLH unless the phrase-initial segment is tensed or aspirated, a vowel-initial AP is expected to show LHLH. However, Jun &amp; Cha (2011) report that an AP-initial /il/ is sometimes produced with a H tone. Their study<span style="color: #008000;"> </span>finds that i) younger speakers aged less than the mid 40s are more likely to produce /il/ with a H tone; ii) out of three meanings of /il/, ‘one (1)’, ‘day’, and ‘work’, /il/ meaning ‘one’ is most frequently produced with a H tone; iii) the High toned /il/ seems to be a unique feature of Seoul Korean.</p><p>Since Jun &amp; Cha (2011) is the only previous study on the phenomenon, there is still much to be learned about its development. In particular, considering that many studies on linguistic changes have shown that a linguistic change is the most advanced among adolescents (e.g., Trudgill, 1974; Labov, 2001; and among others), it is hard to fully describe a developing sound change without investigating teenagers. Thus, I examine the High toned /il/ phenomenon by conducting a production experiment with 40 speakers of Seoul Korean and I provide further evidence that the phenomenon is spread to all meanings of /il/.</p>

Theories of expressive timing in the performance of tonal music emphasize the role of grouping structure, whereby performers are understood to communicate the ends of groups through group-final lengthening (GFL). But this approach depends on a one-way mapping from a single grouping-structural analysis onto performed durations, denying a role for interpretive difference on the part of performers and analysts. Drawing on contour theory, this article reverses this mapping by presenting a method for recovering the hierarchical grouping structure of a performed phrase that is sensitive to the constraints of temporal perception. Groups whose durational contour segments reduce to a contour adjacency series of <+> or <–,+> are understood to be GFL-reflective. By observing which levels of time-span organization are GFL-reflective among different performances of the same phrase, unique construals of grouping structure can be attributed to different renditions.The article employs this method in order to examine different approaches to pacing in performances of two of Chopin’s mazurkas. The pieces in question present eight-measure themes in which the salience of different levels of grouping structure contrast. Through duration decisions, performers can accentuate, amend, or bypass these suggestions of contrast in pacing. By presenting an analytical method that recognizes the creative power of performance to interact with a grouping structure implied by a score, I hope to reshape the relationship between performers and analysts as a dialog about the possible structural descriptions a piece can support.

Cadences are one of the most powerful tools at a film composer’s disposal. The structure and placement of a cadence can shape the emotional arc of a scene, accentuate narratival information, and manipulate generic expectations. Drawing from theories of film genre and cadential definition from Altman (1999) and Caplin (2002), I explore several cinematically significant “cadential genres”—harmonic routines arising through the convergence of independent musical phenomena that together project a punctuative function. Through processes of attribute substitution and subtraction, a cadential genre can adapt to shifting scoring practices and generic expectations.I showcase four such cadential genres. The mixed plagal cadence imports transcendent harmonic associations from the Romantic era. Phrasal “mickey mousing” arises through cadential synchronization, as shown in an analysis of Korngold’s Robin Hood. The subtonic half cadence is strongly linked with a specific film genre: the Western. Through analysis of Jerome Moross’s subtonic-saturated scores and subsequent adapted and abstracted usages, I show the value of the generic approach to style-based analysis. Lastly, I inspect the chromatically modulating cadential resolution (CMCR): the strategy of initiating a diatonic cadence in one key only for the dominant to discharge onto the tonic of a chromatically related key. Through a variety of intrinsic and contextual traits describable by linear, transformational, and cognitive models, I explain the strong association of CMCRs with cinematic evocations of wonderment. This is illustrated through a case study of Williams’s Jurassic Park.

The use of the family home as a setting for television sitcoms (situation comedies) has long been recognised for its ability to provide audiences with an identifiable site of ontological security (much discussed by Giddens, Scannell, Saunders and others). From the beginnings of American sitcoms with such programs as Leave it to Beaver, and through the trail of The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and on to Home Improvement, That 70s Show and How I Met Your Mother, the US has led the way with screenwriters and producers capitalising on the value of using the suburban family dwelling as a fixed setting. The most obvious advantage is the use of an easily constructed and inexpensive set, most often on a TV studio soundstage requiring only a few rooms (living room, kitchen and bedroom are usually enough to set the scene), and a studio audience. In Singapore, sitcoms have had similar successes; portraying the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in their home settings. Some programs have achieved phenomenal success, including an unprecedented ten year run for Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd from 1996-2007, closely followed by Under One Roof (1994-2000 and an encore season in 2002), and Living with Lydia (2001-2005). This article furthers Blunt and Dowling’s exploration of the “critical geography” of home, by providing a focused analysis of home-based sitcoms in the nation-state of Singapore. The use of the home tells us a lot. Roseanne’s cluttered family home represents a lived reality for working-class families throughout the Western world. In Friends, the seemingly wealthy ‘young’ people live in a fashionable apartment building, while Seinfeld’s apartment block is much less salubrious, indicating (in line with the character) the struggle of the humble comedian. Each of these examples tells us something about not just the characters, but quite often about class, race, and contemporary societies. In the Singaporean programs, the home in Under One Roof (hereafter UOR) represents the major form of housing in Singapore, and the program as a whole demonstrates the workability of Singaporean multiculturalism in a large apartment block. Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (PCK) demonstrates the entrepreneurial abilities of even under-educated Singaporeans, with its lead character, a building contractor, living in a large freestanding dwelling – generally reserved for the well-heeled of Singaporean society. And in Living with Lydia (LWL) (a program which demonstrates Singapore’s capacity for global integration), Hong Kong émigré Lydia is forced to share a house (less ostentatious than PCK’s) with the family of the hapless Billy B. Ong. There is perhaps no more telling cultural event than the sitcom. In the 1970s, The Brady Bunch told us more about American values and habits than any number of news reports or cop shows. A nation’s identity is uncovered; it bares its soul to us through the daily tribulations of its TV households. In Singapore, home-based sitcoms have been one of the major success stories in local television production with each of these three programs collecting multiple prizes at the region-wide Asian Television Awards. These sitcoms have been able to reflect the ideals and values of the Singaporean nation to audiences both at ‘home’ and abroad. This article explores the worlds of UOR, PCK, and LWL, and the ways in which each of the fictional homes represents key features of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Singapore. Through ownership and regulation, Singaporean TV programs operate as a firm link between the state and its citizens. These sitcoms follow regular patterns where the ‘man of the house’ is more buffoon than breadwinner – in a country defined by its neo-Confucian morality, sitcoms allow a temporary subversion of patriarchal structures. In this article I argue that the central theme in Singaporean sitcoms is that while home is a personal space, it is also a valuable site for national identities to be played out. These identities are visible in the physical indicators of the exterior and interior living spaces, and the social indicators representing a benign patriarchy and a dominant English language. Structure One of the key features of sitcoms is the structure: cold open – titles – establishing shot – opening scene. Generally the cold opening (aka “the teaser”) takes place inside the home to quickly (re)establish audience familiarity with the location and the characters. The title sequence then features, in the case of LWL and PCK, the characters outside the house (in LWL this is in cartoon format), and in UOR (see Figure 1) it is the communal space of the barbeque area fronting the multi-story HDB (Housing Development Board) apartment blocks. Figure 1: Under One Roof The establishing shot at the end of each title sequence, and when returning from ad breaks, is an external view of the characters’ respective dwellings. In Seinfeld this establishing shot is the New York apartment block, in Roseanne it is the suburban house, and the Singaporean sitcoms follow the same format (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Phua Chu Kang External Visions of the Home This emphasis on exterior buildings reminds the viewer that Singaporean housing is, in many ways, unique. As a city-state (and a young one at that) its spatial constraints are particularly limiting: there simply isn’t room for suburban housing on quarter acre blocks. It rapidly transformed from an “empty rock” to a scattered Malay settlement of bay and riverside kampongs (villages) recognisable by its stilt houses. Then in the shadow of colonialism and the rise of modernity, the kampongs were replaced in many cases by European-inspired terrace houses. Finally, in the post-colonial era high-rise housing began to swell through the territory, creating what came to be known as the “HDB new town”, with some 90% of the population now said to reside in HDB units, and many others living in private high-rises (Chang 102, 104). Exterior shots used in UOR (see Figure 3) consistently emphasise the distinctive HDB blocks. As with the kampong housing, high-rise apartments continue notions of communal living in that “Living below, above and side by side other people requires tolerance of neighbours and a respect towards the environment of the housing estate for the good of all” (104). The provision of readily accessible public housing was part of the “covenant between the newly enfranchised electorate and the elected government” (Chua 47). Figure 3: Establishing shot from UOR In UOR, we see the constant interruption of the lives of the Tan family by their multi-ethnic neighbours. This occurs to such an extent as to be a part of the normal daily flow of life in Singaporean society. Chang argues that despite the normally interventionist activities of the state, it is the “self-enforcing norms” of behaviour that have worked in maintaining a “peaceable society in high-rise housing” (104). This communitarian attitude even extends to the large gated residence of PCK, home to an almost endless stream of relatives and friends. The gate itself seems to perform no restrictive function. But such a “peaceable society” can also be said to be a result of state planning which extends to the “racial majoritarianism” imposed on HDB units in the form of quotas determining “the actual number of households of each of the three major races [Chinese, Malay and Indian] … to be accommodated in a block of flats” (Chua 55). Issues of race are important in Singapore where “the inscription of media imagery bears the cultural discourse and materiality of the social milieu” (Wong 120) perhaps nowhere more graphically illustrated than in the segregation of TV channels along linguistic / cultural lines. These 3 programs all featured on MediaCorp TV’s predominantly English-language Channel 5 and are, in the words of Roland Barthes, “anchored” by dint of their use of English. Home Will Eat Itself The consumption of home-based sitcoms by audiences in their own living-rooms creates a somewhat self-parodying environment. As John Ellis once noted, it is difficult to escape from the notion that “TV is a profoundly domestic phenomenon” (113) in that it constantly attempts to “include the audiences own conception of themselves into the texture of its programmes” (115). In each of the three Singaporean programs living-rooms are designed to seat characters in front of a centrally located TV set – at most all the audience sees is the back of the TV, and generally only when the TV is incorporated into a storyline, as in the case of PCK in Figure 4 (note the TV set in the foreground). Figure 4: PCK Even in this episode of PCK when the lead characters stumble across a pornographic video starring one of the other lead characters, the viewer only hears the program. Perhaps the most realistic (and acerbic) view of how TV reorganises our lives – both spatially in the physical layout of our homes, and temporally in the way we construct our viewing habits (eating dinner or doing the housework while watching the screen) – is the British “black comedy”, The Royle Family. David Morley (443) notes that “TV and other media have adapted themselves to the circumstances of domestic consumption while the domestic arena itself has been simultaneously redefined to accommodate their requirements”. Morley refers to The Royle Family’s narrative that rests on the idea that “for many people, family life and watching TV have become indistinguishable to the extent that, in this fictional household, it is almost entirely conducted from the sitting positions of the viewers clustered around the set” (436). While TV is a central fixture in most sitcoms, its use is mostly as a peripheral thematic device with characters having their viewing interrupted by the arrival of another character, or by a major (within the realms of the plot) event. There is little to suggest that “television schedules have instigated a significant restructuring of family routines” as shown in Livingstone’s audience-based study of UK viewers (104). In the world of the sitcom, the temporalities of characters’ lives do not need to accurately reflect that of “real life” – or if they do, things quickly descend to the bleakness exemplified by the sedentary Royles. As Scannell notes, “broadcast output, like daily life, is largely uneventful, and both are punctuated (predictably and unpredictably) by eventful occasions” (4). To show sitcom characters in this static, passive environment would be anathema to the “real” viewer, who would quickly lose interest. This is not to suggest that sitcoms are totally benign though as with all genres they are “the outcome of social practices, received procedures that become objectified in the narratives of television, then modified in the interpretive act of viewing” (Taylor 14). In other words, they feature a contextualisation that is readily identifiable to members of an established society. However, within episodes themselves, it as though time stands still – character development is almost non-existent, or extremely slow at best and we see each episode has “flattened past and future into an eternal present in which parents love and respect one another, and their children forever” (Taylor 16). It takes some six seasons before the character of PCK becomes a father, although in previous seasons he acts as a mentor to his nephew, Aloysius. Contained in each episode, in true sitcom style, are particular “narrative lines” in which “one-liners and little comic situations [are] strung on a minimal plot line” containing a minor problem “the solution to which will take 22 minutes and pull us gently through the sequence of events toward a conclusion” (Budd et al. 111). It is important to note that the sitcom genre does not work in every culture, as each locale renders the sitcom with “different cultural meanings” (Nielsen 95). Writing of the failure of the Danish series Three Whores and a Pickpocket (with a premise like that, how could it fail?), Nielsen (112) attributes its failure to the mixing of “kitchen sink realism” with “moments of absurdity” and “psychological drama with expressionistic camera work”, moving it well beyond the strict mode of address required by the genre. In Australia, soap operas Home and Away and Neighbours have been infinitely more popular than our attempts at sitcoms – which had a brief heyday in the 1980s with Hey Dad..!, Kingswood Country and Mother and Son – although Kath and Kim (not studio-based) could almost be counted. Lichter et al. (11) state that “television entertainment can be ‘political’ even when it does not deal with the stuff of daily headlines or partisan controversy. Its latent politics lie in the unavoidable portrayal of individuals, groups, and institutions as a backdrop to any story that occupies the foreground”. They state that US television of the 1960s was dominated by the “idiot sitcom” and that “To appreciate these comedies you had to believe that social conventions were so ironclad they could not tolerate variations. The scripts assumed that any minute violation of social conventions would lead to a crisis that could be played for comic results” (15). Series like Happy Days “harked back to earlier days when problems were trivial and personal, isolated from the concerns of a larger world” (17). By the late 1980s, Roseanne and Married…With Children had “spawned an antifamily-sitcom format that used sarcasm, cynicism, and real life problems to create a type of in-your-face comedy heretofore unseen on prime time” (20). This is markedly different from the type of values presented in Singaporean sitcoms – where filial piety and an unrelenting faith in the family unit is sacrosanct. In this way, Singaporean sitcoms mirror the ideals of earlier US sitcoms which idealise the “egalitarian family in which parental wisdom lies in appeals to reason and fairness rather than demands for obedience” (Lichter et al. 406). Dahlgren notes that we are the products of “an ongoing process of the shaping and reshaping of identity, in response to the pluralised sets of social forces, cultural currents and personal contexts encountered by individuals” where we end up with “composite identities” (318). Such composite identities make the presentation (or re-presentation) of race problematic for producers of mainstream television. Wong argues that “Within the context of PAP hegemony, media presentation of racial differences are manufactured by invoking and resorting to traditional values, customs and practices serving as symbols and content” (118). All of this is bound within a classificatory system in which each citizen’s identity card is inscribed as Chinese, Malay, Indian or Other (often referred to as CMIO), and a broader social discourse in which “the Chinese are linked to familial values of filial piety and the practice of extended family, the Malays to Islam and rural agricultural activities, and the Indians to the caste system” (Wong 118). However, these sitcoms avoid directly addressing the issue of race, preferring to accentuate cultural differences instead. In UOR the tables are turned when a none-too-subtle dig at the crude nature of mainland Chinese (with gags about the state of public toilets), is soon turned into a more reverential view of Chinese culture and business acumen. Internal Visions of the Home This reverence for Chinese culture is also enacted visually. The loungeroom settings of these three sitcoms all provide examples of the fashioning of the nation through a “ubiquitous semi-visibility” (Noble 59). Not only are the central characters in each of these sitcoms constructed as ethnically Chinese, but the furnishings provide a visible nod to Chinese design in the lacquered screens, chairs and settees of LWL (see Figure 5.1), in the highly visible pair of black inlaid mother-of-pearl wall hangings of UOR (see Figure 5.2) and in the Chinese statuettes and wall-hangings found in the PCK home. Each of these items appears in the central view of the shows most used setting, the lounge/family room. There is often symmetry involved as well; the balanced pearl hangings of UOR are mirrored in a set of silk prints in LWL and the pair of ceramic Chinese lions in PCK. Figure 5.1: LWL Figure 5.2: UOR Thus, all three sitcoms feature design elements that reflect visible links to Chinese culture and sentiments, firmly locating the sitcoms “in Asia”, and providing a sense of the nation. The sets form an important role in constructing a realist environment, one in which “identification with realist narration involves a temporary merger of at least some of the viewer’s identity with the position offered by the text” (Budd et al. 110). These constant silent reminders of the Chinese-based hegemon – the cultural “majoritarianism” – anchors the sitcoms to a determined concept of the nation-state, and reinforces the “imaginative geographies of home” (Blunt and Dowling 247). The Foolish “Father” Figure in a Patriarchal Society But notions of a dominant Chinese culture are dealt with in a variety of ways in these sitcoms – not the least in a playful attitude toward patriarchal figures. In UOR, the Tan family “patriarch” is played by Moses Lim, in PCK, Gurmit Singh plays Phua and in LWL Samuel Chong plays Billy B. Ong (or, as Lydia mistakenly refers to him Billy Bong). Erica Sharrer makes the claim that class is a factor in presenting the father figure as buffoon, and that US sitcoms feature working class families in which “the father is made to look inept, silly, or incompetent have become more frequent” partly in response to changing societal structures where “women are shouldering increasing amounts of financial responsibility in the home” (27). Certainly in the three series looked at here, PCK (the tradesman) is presented as the most derided character in his role as head of the household. Moses Lim’s avuncular Tan Ah Teck is presented mostly as lovably foolish, even when reciting his long-winded moral tales at the conclusion of each episode, and Billy B. Ong, as a middle-class businessman, is presented more as a victim of circumstance than as a fool. Sharrer ponders whether “sharing the burden of bread-winning may be associated with fathers perceiving they are losing advantages to which they were traditionally entitled” (35). But is this really a case of males losing the upper hand? Hanke argues that men are commonly portrayed as the target of humour in sitcoms, but only when they “are represented as absurdly incongruous” to the point that “this discursive strategy recuperates patriarchal notions” (90). The other side of the coin is that while the “dominant discursive code of patriarchy might be undone” (but isn’t), “the sitcom’s strategy for containing women as ‘wives’ and ‘mothers’ is always contradictory and open to alternative readings” (Hanke 77). In Singapore’s case though, we often return to images of the women in the kitchen, folding the washing or agonising over the work/family dilemma, part of what Blunt and Dowling refer to as the “reproduction of patriarchal and heterosexist relations” often found in representations of “the ideal’ suburban home” (29). Eradicating Singlish One final aspect of these sitcoms is the use of language. PM Lee Hsien Loong once said that he had no interest in “micromanaging” the lives of Singaporeans (2004). Yet his two predecessors (PM Goh and PM Lee Senior) both reflected desires to do so by openly criticising the influence of Phua Chu Kang’s liberal use of colloquial phrases and phrasing. While the use of Singlish (or Singapore Colloquial English / SCE) in these sitcoms is partly a reflection of everyday life in Singapore, by taking steps to eradicate it through the Speak Good English movement, the government offers an intrusion into the private home-space of Singaporeans (Ho 17). Authorities fear that increased use of Singlish will damage the nation’s ability to communicate on a global basis, withdrawing to a locally circumscribed “pidgin English” (Rubdy 345). Indeed, the use of Singlish in UOR is deliberately underplayed in order to capitalise on overseas sales of the show (which aired, for example, on Australia’s SBS television) (Srilal). While many others have debated the Singlish issue, my concern is with its use in the home environment as representative of Singaporean lifestyles. As novelist Hwee Hwee Tan (2000) notes: Singlish is crude precisely because it’s rooted in Singapore’s unglamorous past. This is a nation built from the sweat of uncultured immigrants who arrived 100 years ago to bust their asses in the boisterous port. Our language grew out of the hardships of these ancestors. Singlish thus offers users the opportunity to “show solidarity, comradeship and intimacy (despite differences in background)” and against the state’s determined efforts to adopt the language of its colonizer (Ho 19-20). For this reason, PCK’s use of Singlish iterates a “common man” theme in much the same way as Paul Hogan’s “Ocker” image of previous decades was seen as a unifying feature of mainstream Australian values. That the fictional PCK character was eventually “forced” to take “English” lessons (a storyline rapidly written into the program after the direct criticisms from the various Prime Ministers), is a sign that the state has other ideas about the development of Singaporean society, and what is broadcast en masse into Singaporean homes. Conclusion So what do these home-based sitcoms tell us about Singaporean nationalism? Firstly, within the realms of a multiethnic society, mainstream representations reflect the hegemony present in the social and economic structures of Singapore. Chinese culture is dominant (albeit in an English-speaking environment) and Indian, Malay and Other cultures are secondary. Secondly, the home is a place of ontological security, and partial adornment with cultural ornaments signifying Chinese culture are ever-present as a reminder of the Asianness of the sitcom home, ostensibly reflecting the everyday home of the audience. The concept of home extends beyond the plywood-prop walls of the soundstage though. As Noble points out, “homes articulate domestic spaces to national experience” (54) through the banal nationalism exhibited in “the furniture of everyday life” (55). In a Singaporean context, Velayutham (extending the work of Morley) explores the comforting notion of Singapore as “home” to its citizens and concludes that the “experience of home and belonging amongst Singaporeans is largely framed in the materiality and social modernity of everyday life” (4). Through the use of sitcoms, the state is complicit in creating and recreating the family home as a site for national identities, adhering to dominant modes of culture and language. References Blunt, Alison, and Robyn Dowling. Home. London: Routledge, 2006. Budd, Mike, Steve Craig, and Clay Steinman. Consuming Environments: Television and Commercial Culture. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1999. 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"At Home in Singaporean Sitcoms: Under One Roof, Living with Lydia and Phua Chu Kang." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/09-pugsley.php>. APA Style Pugsley, P. (Aug. 2007) "At Home in Singaporean Sitcoms: Under One Roof, Living with Lydia and Phua Chu Kang," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/09-pugsley.php>.