Sabine Zerbian
Biographic Data
| ID | 935359 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sabine Zerbian |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sabine |
| FAMILY NAME | Zerbian |
| SIGNATURE | ZERBIAN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Stuttgart |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4631-369X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Left Dislocations in Heritage and Monolingual Russian
The study investigates the occurrence of left dislocations ( LD s) in a corpus of semi-spontaneous narrations produced by heritage and monolingual speakers of Russian. All speaker groups produced LD s, and LD s mostly occurred in spoken mode. Surprisingly, heritage speakers ( HS s) produced LD s more frequently than monolingual speakers, and more individuals in the HS group used LD s as compared to monolingual speakers. Also unexpectedly, formali…
Do Different Majority Languages Lead to Different Intonational Grammars? A Case Study of Yes/No-Questions in Heritage Russian
Based on production data of yes/no-questions ( YNQ ), our research shows that the intonational grammar of YNQ s of heritage speakers of Russian in the United States and in Germany differs from the one of monolingual speakers in various aspects, namely considering the number of additional pitch accents on subjects and objects, the preference for H* on subjects, and, in the case of heritage speakers in the United States, an increased use of upstepp…
Intonational Features of Spontaneous Narrations in Monolingual and Heritage Russian in the U.S.—An Exploration of the Rueg Corpus
This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is presented with its architecture and annotation, and it is shown how it is used for the analysis of intonational features of spontaneous m…
Word order in heritage Russian
Heritage speakers (HSs) are known to differ from monolingual speakers in various linguistic domains. The present study focuses on the syntactic properties of monolingual and heritage Russian. Using a corpus of semi-spontaneous spoken and written narratives produced by HSs of Russian residing in the US and Germany, we investigate HSs’ word order patterns and compare them to monolingual speakers of Russian from Saint Petersburg. Our results show th…
Processing of Prosody and Semantics in Sepedi and L2 English
Sequences of high tones across word boundaries in Tswana
The article analyses violations of the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) above the word level in Tswana, a Southern Bantu language, by investigating the realization of adjacent lexical high tones across word boundaries. The results show that across word boundaries downstep (i.e. a lowering of the second in a series of adjacent high tones) only takes place within a phonological phrase. A phonological phrase break blocks downstep, even when the ne…
Special issue on formal pragmatics
Syntactic and prosodic focus marking in contact varieties of South African English
The article presents results of an elicited-production study investigating syntactic and prosodic consequences of language contact on two varieties of multilingual Black speakers of South African English, namely Black South African English (BlSAfE) and a newly emerging variety by Black speakers (“crossing over variety”). The results indicate that contact varieties of South African English share syntactic traits of General South African English (G…
Variation in Information Structure with Special Reference to Africa
Information structure has been one of the central topics of recent linguistic research. This review discusses a wide range of current approaches with particular reference to African languages, as these have been playing a crucial role in advancing our knowledge about the diversity of and recurring patterns in both meaning and form of information structural notions. We focus on cross-linguistic functional frameworks, the investigation of prosody, …
Prosodic marking of narrow focus across varieties of South African English
This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to Ge…
Relative clause and its tones in Tswana
The morpho-syntax of relative clauses in Sotho-Tswana is relatively well-described in the literature. Prosodic characteristics, such as tone, have received far less attention in the existing descriptions. After reviewing the basic morpho-syntactic and semantic features of relative clauses in Tswana, the current paper sets out to present and discuss prosodic aspects. These comprise tone specifications of relative clause markers such as the demonst…
Developments in the Study of Intonational Typology
The paper describes recent developments in the study of intonation as they contribute to the goal of an intonational typology. Although intonation research is a long‐established research field, investigations of cross‐linguistic variation in intonation are more recent. The availability of technological support has advanced the field tremendously, both methodologically and intellectually, facilitating cross‐linguistic comparisons. The practical de…
Introduction
The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology
Cambridge University Press, UK Hardback, ISBN 0521848792, price ZAR1360 x + 697 pages Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2008, 26(4): 547-549
Subject/object-asymmetry in Northern Sotho
Phonological phrasing in Northern Sotho (Bantu)
The article discusses penultimate lengthening and the finality restriction in Northern Sotho, a Bantu language of South Africa. These suprasegmental rules crucially refer to prosodic structure in the definition of their domain of application. Relying partially on acoustic evidence, the article shows that the prosodic domains at whose right edges lengthening and the finality restriction apply are co-extensive and that they can be characterized as …
Questions in northern Sotho
This article gives an overview of the marking of polar and constituent questions in Northern Sotho, a Bantu language of South Africa. It thereby provides a contribution to the typological investigation of sentence types in the world’s languages. As will be shown, Northern Sotho follows cross-linguistic tendencies in marking interrogative sentences: It uses intonation as main indicator in polar questions and question words as main indicator in con…
Papers in Bantu grammar and description
The collection of papers in this volume presents results of a collaborative project between the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, the Zentrum für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZAS) in Berlin, and the University of Leiden. All three institutions have a strong interest in the linguistics of Bantu languages, and in 2003 decided to set up a network to compare results and to provide a platfo…
Expression of information structure in the Bantu language Northern Sotho
Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass Nord-Sotho keinen obligatorischen Gebrauch von grammatischen Mitteln zur Markierung von Fokus macht, weder in der Syntax noch in der Prosodie oder Morphologie. Trotzdem strukturiert diese Sprache eine Äußerung nach informationsstrukturellen Aspekten. Konstituenten, die im Diskurs gegeben sind, werden entweder getilgt, pronominalisiert oder an den rechten oder linken Satzrand versetzt. Diese (morpho-)sy…
Phonological phrases in Xhosa (southern Bantu)
This paper investigates how syntax and focus interact in deriving the phonological phrasing of utterances in Xhosa, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa. Although the influence of syntax on phrasing is uncontroversial, a purely syntactic analysis cannot account for all the data reported for Xhosa by Jokweni (1995). Focus influences the phrasing in that it inserts a phonological phrase-boundary after the focused constituent. This generalization…
Expression of information structure in the Bantu language Northern Sotho
Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass Nord-Sotho keinen obligatorischen Gebrauch von grammatischen Mitteln zur Markierung von Fokus macht, weder in der Syntax noch in der Prosodie oder Morphologie. Trotzdem strukturiert diese Sprache eine Äußerung nach informationsstrukturellen Aspekten. Konstituenten, die im Diskurs gegeben sind, werden entweder getilgt, pronominalisiert oder an den rechten oder linken Satzrand versetzt. Diese (morpho-)sy…
Syntactic and prosodic focus marking in contact varieties of South African English
The article presents results of an elicited-production study investigating syntactic and prosodic consequences of language contact on two varieties of multilingual Black speakers of South African English, namely Black South African English (BlSAfE) and a newly emerging variety by Black speakers (“crossing over variety”). The results indicate that contact varieties of South African English share syntactic traits of General South African English (G…
Prosodic marking of narrow focus across varieties of South African English
This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to Ge…
Introduction
Variation in Information Structure with Special Reference to Africa
Information structure has been one of the central topics of recent linguistic research. This review discusses a wide range of current approaches with particular reference to African languages, as these have been playing a crucial role in advancing our knowledge about the diversity of and recurring patterns in both meaning and form of information structural notions. We focus on cross-linguistic functional frameworks, the investigation of prosody, …
Phonological phrases in Xhosa (southern Bantu)
This paper investigates how syntax and focus interact in deriving the phonological phrasing of utterances in Xhosa, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa. Although the influence of syntax on phrasing is uncontroversial, a purely syntactic analysis cannot account for all the data reported for Xhosa by Jokweni (1995). Focus influences the phrasing in that it inserts a phonological phrase-boundary after the focused constituent. This generalization…
Questions in northern Sotho
This article gives an overview of the marking of polar and constituent questions in Northern Sotho, a Bantu language of South Africa. It thereby provides a contribution to the typological investigation of sentence types in the world’s languages. As will be shown, Northern Sotho follows cross-linguistic tendencies in marking interrogative sentences: It uses intonation as main indicator in polar questions and question words as main indicator in con…
Papers in Bantu grammar and description
The collection of papers in this volume presents results of a collaborative project between the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, the Zentrum für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZAS) in Berlin, and the University of Leiden. All three institutions have a strong interest in the linguistics of Bantu languages, and in 2003 decided to set up a network to compare results and to provide a platfo…
Expression of information structure in the Bantu language Northern Sotho
Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass Nord-Sotho keinen obligatorischen Gebrauch von grammatischen Mitteln zur Markierung von Fokus macht, weder in der Syntax noch in der Prosodie oder Morphologie. Trotzdem strukturiert diese Sprache eine Äußerung nach informationsstrukturellen Aspekten. Konstituenten, die im Diskurs gegeben sind, werden entweder getilgt, pronominalisiert oder an den rechten oder linken Satzrand versetzt. Diese (morpho-)sy…
Subject/object-asymmetry in Northern Sotho
Phonological phrasing in Northern Sotho (Bantu)
The article discusses penultimate lengthening and the finality restriction in Northern Sotho, a Bantu language of South Africa. These suprasegmental rules crucially refer to prosodic structure in the definition of their domain of application. Relying partially on acoustic evidence, the article shows that the prosodic domains at whose right edges lengthening and the finality restriction apply are co-extensive and that they can be characterized as …
The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology
Cambridge University Press, UK Hardback, ISBN 0521848792, price ZAR1360 x + 697 pages Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2008, 26(4): 547-549
Introduction
Relative clause and its tones in Tswana
The morpho-syntax of relative clauses in Sotho-Tswana is relatively well-described in the literature. Prosodic characteristics, such as tone, have received far less attention in the existing descriptions. After reviewing the basic morpho-syntactic and semantic features of relative clauses in Tswana, the current paper sets out to present and discuss prosodic aspects. These comprise tone specifications of relative clause markers such as the demonst…
Developments in the Study of Intonational Typology
The paper describes recent developments in the study of intonation as they contribute to the goal of an intonational typology. Although intonation research is a long‐established research field, investigations of cross‐linguistic variation in intonation are more recent. The availability of technological support has advanced the field tremendously, both methodologically and intellectually, facilitating cross‐linguistic comparisons. The practical de…
Prosodic marking of narrow focus across varieties of South African English
This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to Ge…
Variation in Information Structure with Special Reference to Africa
Information structure has been one of the central topics of recent linguistic research. This review discusses a wide range of current approaches with particular reference to African languages, as these have been playing a crucial role in advancing our knowledge about the diversity of and recurring patterns in both meaning and form of information structural notions. We focus on cross-linguistic functional frameworks, the investigation of prosody, …
Syntactic and prosodic focus marking in contact varieties of South African English
The article presents results of an elicited-production study investigating syntactic and prosodic consequences of language contact on two varieties of multilingual Black speakers of South African English, namely Black South African English (BlSAfE) and a newly emerging variety by Black speakers (“crossing over variety”). The results indicate that contact varieties of South African English share syntactic traits of General South African English (G…
Special issue on formal pragmatics
Word order in heritage Russian
Heritage speakers (HSs) are known to differ from monolingual speakers in various linguistic domains. The present study focuses on the syntactic properties of monolingual and heritage Russian. Using a corpus of semi-spontaneous spoken and written narratives produced by HSs of Russian residing in the US and Germany, we investigate HSs’ word order patterns and compare them to monolingual speakers of Russian from Saint Petersburg. Our results show th…
Processing of Prosody and Semantics in Sepedi and L2 English
Sequences of high tones across word boundaries in Tswana
The article analyses violations of the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) above the word level in Tswana, a Southern Bantu language, by investigating the realization of adjacent lexical high tones across word boundaries. The results show that across word boundaries downstep (i.e. a lowering of the second in a series of adjacent high tones) only takes place within a phonological phrase. A phonological phrase break blocks downstep, even when the ne…
Do Different Majority Languages Lead to Different Intonational Grammars? A Case Study of Yes/No-Questions in Heritage Russian
Based on production data of yes/no-questions ( YNQ ), our research shows that the intonational grammar of YNQ s of heritage speakers of Russian in the United States and in Germany differs from the one of monolingual speakers in various aspects, namely considering the number of additional pitch accents on subjects and objects, the preference for H* on subjects, and, in the case of heritage speakers in the United States, an increased use of upstepp…
Intonational Features of Spontaneous Narrations in Monolingual and Heritage Russian in the U.S.—An Exploration of the Rueg Corpus
This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is presented with its architecture and annotation, and it is shown how it is used for the analysis of intonational features of spontaneous m…
Left Dislocations in Heritage and Monolingual Russian
The study investigates the occurrence of left dislocations ( LD s) in a corpus of semi-spontaneous narrations produced by heritage and monolingual speakers of Russian. All speaker groups produced LD s, and LD s mostly occurred in spoken mode. Surprisingly, heritage speakers ( HS s) produced LD s more frequently than monolingual speakers, and more individuals in the HS group used LD s as compared to monolingual speakers. Also unexpectedly, formali…
Linguistics (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (15 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (13 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (12 works) · History (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Bantu languages (6 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (6 works)