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Prosodic evidential and epistemic markers in Sardinian yes-no questions
No full textLittle has been said about the role of prosody as a marker of evidentiality and epistemicity. Whereas evidentiality refers to the marking of the source of information in a proposition, epistemicity refers to the expression of a speaker’s certainty about the truth value of his/her proposition (De Haan 2001). Crosslinguistically, evidentiality and epistemicity can be marked through different linguistic strategies. For example, evidential markers can be instantiated either morphologically (e.g., díiga apé-wi ‘I played football (I saw it)’ in Tuyuca: Papafragou et al. 2007) or lexically (Cruschina & Remberger 2008). On the other hand, epistemicity has been reported to be marked lexically (e.g., That would be my roommate in English: Gravano et al. 2008) and also prosodically through the use of distinct intonation contours (Vanrell et al. 2010).
Typologically, Sardinian constitutes a good test case to investigate the expression of evidentiality and epistemicity in yes-no questions, which can be expressed in a number of ways. For example, they can present a special intonation as in (1) or word order changes as in (2), or they can be headed by the particle a or nachi (na(rat) chi, ‘s/he says that’), see (3) and (4):
(1) Mandarinu, a che nd’at?¡H+L* L% ‘Do you have tangerines?’ vs. Nachi benis a mandigare?H+L* L% ‘Are you coming to eat (I suppose so)?’ vs. Sa una est? ¡H*+L L% ‘Is it one o’clock? ’ (Vanrell et al. 2011).
(2) Mandicatu as? ‘Have you eaten?’ (Remberger 2010).
(3) A benis a jocare chin mecus? ‘Are you coming to play with me?’ (Jones 1993).
(4) Nachi benis a mandigare? ‘Are you coming to eat (I suppose so)?’ (Vanrell et al. 2011).
The goal of this research is to test experimentally how prosody interacts with lexicosyntactic structure in conveying evidentiality and epistemicity. The preliminary corpus analyzed was obtained by means of the Discourse Completion Test methodology (Nurani 2009), using a prompted response questionnaire. Following Sudo’s (to appear) proposal, we created a set of situations which contained different combinations of evidential and epistemic conditions (e.g., ‘It’s time for lunch and your daughter arrives home. You know that she does not eat a lot, but today she seems to be hungry. Ask her whether she is hungry’). For instance, this specific situation was evidentially biased for a positive answer to the question and epistemically biased for a negative answer. 11 female speakers of Logudorese Sardinian participated in this experiment. We elicited a total of 26 situations x 11 speakers, yielding a total of 286 utterances. For the work presented here, the data from 3 speakers were annotated in terms of prosody and use of lexical and syntactic markers. The preliminary results clearly confirm that unbiased yes-no questions are systematically headed by the particle a and also characterized by the upstepped falling nuclear accent ¡H+L* L% (84% of the time) (Fig. 1). By contrast, biased yes-no questions (be it epistemically or evidentially) present fronted constituents (87%) and the rising-falling H*+L L% intonational pattern (83%) (Fig. 2). However, when the bias leads to a negative answer, it can also be marked by means of negation (47%), which is incompatible with fronting, and rising-falling contours (62%) (Fig. 3). In addition, differences concerning the nature of the bias, evidential or epistemic, are found. All in all, the results suggest that there is an important correlation between the syntactic/lexical form chosen and the intonational contour choice. It is thus clear that prosodic markers of epistemicity and evidentiality in questions have to be studied hand in hand with their lexicosyntactic properties. The innovation of this work lies in including two different types of bias in yes-no questions, evidential and epistemic, and in considering that these biases can also be grammatically encoded in prosody.
Figure 1: Waveform and f0 contour of the utterance De tumatas, a nd’as? (‘Do you have tomatoes?’).
Figure 2: Waveform and f0 contour of the utterance Ma cuddu líberu est, custu pacu?(‘But is that the book?’).
Figure 3: Waveform and f0 contour of the utterance E tando no nd’endides pius, de ‘irdura? (‘So you are not going to sell vegetables anymore?’).
References
Cruschina, S., Remberger, E.-M. 2008. Hearsay and reported speech. Evidentiality in Romance. In Benincà, P., Damonte, F., Penello, N. (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 34th Incontro di Grammatica Generativa. Padova: Unipress (Special issue Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, vol. 33), 95-116.
De Haan, F. 2001. The relation between modality and evidentiality. In Müller, R., Reis, M. (eds.), Modalität und Modalverben im Deutschen. Linguistische Berichte, Sonderheft 9. Hamburg: H. Buske, 201-216.
Gravano, A., Benus, S., Hirschberg, J., Sneed German, E., Ward, G. 2008. The effect of contour type and epistemic modality on the assessment of speaker certainty. In Barbosa, P. A., Madureira, S., Reis, C. (eds.), Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2008. Campinas: ISCA Archive, 401-404.
Jones, M. A. 1993. Sintassi della lingua sarda. Cagliari: Condaghes.
Nurani, L. M. 2009. Methodological issue in pragmatic research: is discourse completion test a reliable data collection instrument?. Jurnal Sosioteknologi Edisi 17 Tahun 8, 667-678.
Papafragou, A., Li, P., Choi, Y., Han, Ch. 2007. Evidentiality in language and cognition. Cognition 103, 253-299.
Remberger, E.-M. 2010. Left-peripheral interactions in Sardinian. Lingua 120, 555-581.
Sudo, Y. To appear. Biased polar questions in English and Japanese. In: Gutzman, D., Gärtner, H. M. (eds.), Expressives and Other Kinds of Non-truth-conditional meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vanrell, M. M., Mascaró, I., Torres-Tamarit, F., Prieto, P. 2010. When intonation plays the main character: information- vs. confirmation-seeking questions in Majorcan Catalan. Proceedings Speech Prosody 2010 100168: 1-4, ISBN: 978-0-557-51931-6. (5 November 2011).
Vanrell, M.M., Schirru, C., Ballone, F., Prieto, P. 2011. Sard_ToBI. Paper presented at Workshop on Romance ToBI. (5 November 2011)
CROP COEFFICIENT (Kc) DETERMINATION IN SPRINKLER IRRIGATED RICE
No full textExperimental trials were carried out in Sardinia in 2002 and 2003, in order to obtain first information on kc values at different phenological stages in sprinkler irrigated rice; in 2003 the trials differed for the sowing date.
An equipment recording soil moisture content every 10 cm up to 100 cm depth was used to obtain the water balance for the first soil layers. Result analysis highlighted that the layer up to 20 cm covers about 80 % of the crop water requirements for the whole cycle.
The results show a variability particularly related to the meteorological trend during the trials. Crop coefficient ranged between 0.2 and 0.75 (estimated value) for the initial stage (Kcini), between 0.85 and 1.0 for mid season stage (Kcmid) and was 0.2 for late season (Kcend)
Roots system development in flooded and sprinkler irrigated rice cultivars
No full textOne of the most important factors to obtain high yield is a good root system development.
The exploration of a greater soil mass allows a higher water and nutrient uptake and increases crop yield. Numerous authors noticed a significant correlation between yield and root system dimension.
The growing environment, and therefore the agronomic technique, affect root system
development.
Traditionally rice is grown by flooded irrigation that, due to oxygen lack in deep soil layers, brings to a low root system deepening. In upland rice, where the growing does not take place with continuous flooding, some authors noticed a good root system development.
A comparison trial, with national and selected for upland conditions rice cultivars, was carried
out to evaluate root system development adopting both traditional flooded irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. Root density was determined by Newman method for different soil depths.
Results highlight a greater root density in flooded crop in comparison to sprinkler irrigation.
The higher yield obtained with sprinkler irrigation, even higher than flooding irrigation, suggest a greater efficiency of the root system in water and nutrient uptake in oxidized environment
Water use and crop coefficients in sprinkler irrigated rice
No full textAbstract
Field experiments were carried out during the years 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 to analyze water-soil-atmosphere in- teractions in sprinkler irrigated rice. The research was carried out in Sardinia (39o59’ N; 8o40’ E, at altitude 15 m). The cultivars used in the experiments, respectively in 2002 and in 2004-2005-2006, were Irat 212 and Eurosis. In each year cultivars were subjected to the same crop management. Irrigation was applied since the emergence with the sprinkler method, taking into account the loss of water from ‘Class A’ pan evaporation. Soil water content was monitored at 0.10 m intervals until 1.00-m depth using a ‘Diviner 2000’ (Sentek). In 2002 seven irrigation schedul- ing treatments were compared. In 2004, 2005, 2006 irrigation treatments provided for optimal soil water conditions during the growing season.
In 2002 the results highlighted: 1) 0-0.20 m depth was the most important layer for crop water uptake and the best correlated layer with rice rough yield; 2) the positive relationship between yield and water supply was significant until 6500 m3 ha-1 of water applied. Further seasonal irrigation volumes did not increase significantly yield. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 the analysis of the soil water balance at different crop phenological stages allowed to esti- mate crop coefficients (Kc) using the Penman-Monteith equation and the ‘Class A’ pan evaporation (Kcev).
Kc varied over the three-year period on average from 0.90 to 1.07 and 0.97, respectively for the emergence-end of tillering, end of tillering-heading and heading-maturing periods, while crop coefficients as a ratio between maximum crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and Epan, Kcev ranged from 0.78 to 0.92 and 0.81 for the same time periods
EFFECT OF THE AMOUNT AND FORM OF NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH AND NITROGEN UPTAKE AT MAIN PHENOLOGYCAL STAGES OF SPRINKLER IRRIGATED RICE
No full textIn cereal crops nitrogen availability is strictly linked with biomass production and can therefore become a limiting factor for grain yield. The amount and time of nitrogen distribution plays an important role in limiting losses and in increasing nitrogen fraction uptake by plants.
In flooded irrigated rice, if the fertiliser is incorporated in the reduced soil layer, the denitrification process is reduced as nitrogen is kept in the N-NH4+ form by the soil exchange complex.
With sprinkler irrigation the soil environmental conditions pass from a reduced to oxydated state: under these conditions soil NO3 is formed very rapidly and, not being retained by the soil CEC, is easily leached.
The effects of different nitrogen amounts and formulations on vegetative growth and element uptake at main phenological stages was evaluated. Treatments with 100, 150 and 200 kg ha–1 nitrogen supply in ureic, nitric and mixed (ureic and nitric in equal parts) form was compared.
The highest values of LAI, particularly at 150 and 200 kg ha–1 nitrogen levels, were recorded in the mixed treatment. A higher nitrogen content in leaves, stems and panicles at main phenological stages was also recorded in mixed treatment.
The total amount nitrogen utilised by the crop, at ripening, was highest in the mixed treatment
EFFECT OF THE AMOUNT AND FORM OF NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH AND NITROGEN UPTAKE AT MAIN PHENOLOGYCAL STAGES OF SPRINKLER IRRIGATED RICE
No full textIn cereal crops nitrogen availability is strictly linked with biomass production and can therefore become a limiting factor for grain yield. The amount and time of nitrogen distribution plays an important role in limiting losses and in increasing nitrogen fraction uptake by plants.
In flooded irrigated rice, if the fertiliser is incorporated in the reduced soil layer, the denitrification process is reduced as nitrogen is kept in the N-NH4+ form by the soil exchange complex.
With sprinkler irrigation the soil environmental conditions pass from a reduced to oxydated state: under these conditions soil NO3 is formed very rapidly and, not being retained by the soil CEC, is easily leached.
The effects of different nitrogen amounts and formulations on vegetative growth and element uptake at main phenological stages was evaluated. Treatments with 100, 150 and 200 kg ha–1 nitrogen supply in ureic, nitric and mixed (ureic and nitric in equal parts) form was compared.
The highest values of LAI, particularly at 150 and 200 kg ha–1 nitrogen levels, were recorded in the mixed treatment. A higher nitrogen content in leaves, stems and panicles at main phenological stages was also recorded in mixed treatment.
The total amount nitrogen utilised by the crop, at ripening, was highest in the mixed treatment
CROP COEFFICIENT (Kc) DETERMINATION IN SPRINKLER IRRIGATED RICE
No full textExperimental trials were carried out in Sardinia in 2002 and 2003, in order to obtain first information on kc values at different phenological stages in sprinkler irrigated rice; in 2003 the trials differed for the sowing date.
An equipment recording soil moisture content every 10 cm up to 100 cm depth was used to obtain the water balance for the first soil layers. Result analysis highlighted that the layer up to 20 cm covers about 80 % of the crop water requirements for the whole cycle.
The results show a variability particularly related to the meteorological trend during the trials. Crop coefficient ranged between 0.2 and 0.75 (estimated value) for the initial stage (Kcini), between 0.85 and 1.0 for mid season stage (Kcmid) and was 0.2 for late season (Kcend)
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