Welcome to the webpage for the
Prosodic Studies Group (GrEP)

The Prosodic Studies Group (GrEp) is part of the Unitat de Recerca en Lingüística (UR-Ling), Department of Translation and Language Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

AIM

To understand the role of prosody and co-speech gestures in human communication from a crosslinguistic, developmental, and cognitive perspective. Three important strands of this research include: (a) to incorporate this knowledge into semantic models of language that model the interface areas with other components; (b) to empirically investigate how humans process prosodic and gestural patterns in combination with speech; and (c) to investigate the cognitive and developmental benefits of prosody and gesture in different areas, such as first and second language acquisition, as well as communication training for language impaired and non-impaired populations. The social significance of this research topic is high, as ICT training procedures based on prosodic and gestural awareness can be proven valuable to improve language abilities in populations with neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impaired language and social interaction.   

APPROACH

We use an interdisciplinary approach (linguistic and psychological) and a combination of methods and techniques such as linguistic and prosodic/gestural analysis, comparative (developmental, cross-linguistic) and experimental methods such as eye-tracking and neuronal analysis techniques in collaboration with other groups.

LOCATION & CONTACTS

Address:
Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
C\ Roc Boronat, 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain

Contact: Pilar Prieto
E-mail: pilar.prieto AT upf.edu
Phone : +34 93 542 2311

FUNDING

Our research projects are funded by public sources including:

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)
Obra Social La Caixa (RECERCAIXA)

RECENT BOOKS

Frota, S. & Prieto, P. (2015). Intonation in Romance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Prieto, P. & Esteve-Gibert, N. (Eds.) (2018). The Development of Prosody in First Language Acquisition. John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Research

Intonational and gestural meaning in human languages To advance in a prosodic transcription system for the Romance languages.

Developing standards for Prosodic Labeling: The International Prosodic Alphabet (IPrA) To analyze the phonological function and meaning of intonational contrasts.

Audiovisual Prosody To study the relationship between gesture, prosody, and linguistic structures.

Prosody and gesture as bootstrapping mechanisms in language development Prosodic and gestural development and its relationship to the acquisition of meaning.

Cognitive benefits of gesture-speech semantic and temporal integration How are gestures and prosodic structure temporally coordinated?

Cognitive processing of prosody To determine how prosodic strategies can modify the attention and memory levels of the listener.

Prosodic and gestural communication as bootstrapping mechanisms of language development. Testing a new treatment paradigm for ASD and LI developmental disorder To study the beneficial effects of prosody and gestures in general learning tasks, as well as first language and second language acquisition.

Before their first words (RecerCaixa Project 2014) The aim of this project was to assess the extent to which language precursors predict the infant’s later linguistic development.

Scaffolding language: neurobiological responses to gesture-speech integration in native and second language speech This project investigates the potential benefits of gesture-prosody integration in dealing with speech in a second language.