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1. Recursive Prosody and the Prosodic Form of Compounds

   https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020065  

   Ito, Junko; Mester, Armin (June 2021, Languages)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper investigates the role recursive structures play in prosody. In current understanding, phonological phrasing is computed by a general syntax–prosody mapping algorithm. Here, we are interested in recursive structure that arises in response to morphosyntactic structure that needs to be mapped. We investigate the types of recursive structures found in prosody, specifically: For a prosodic category κ, besides the adjunctive type of recursion κ[κ x], κ[x κ], is there also the coordinative type κ[κ κ]? Focusing on the prosodic forms of compounds in two typologically rather different languages, Danish and Japanese, we encounter three types of recursive word structures: coordinative ω[ω ω], left-adjunctive ω[f ω], right-adjunctive ω[ω f] and the strictly layered compound structure ω[f f]. In addition, two kinds of coordinative φ-compounds are found in Japanese, one with a non-recursive (strictly layered) structure φ[ω ω], a mono-phrasal compound consisting of two words, and one with coordinative recursion φ[φ φ], a bi-phrasal compound. A cross-linguistically rare type of post-syntactic compound has this biphrasal structure, a fact to be explained by its sentential origin. 

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2. Feeling the Beat in an African Tone Language: Rhythmic Mapping Between Language and Music

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.653747  

   Franich, Kathryn H.; Lendja Ngnemzué, Ange B. (June 2021, Frontiers in communication)

   McPherson, Laura; Winter, Yoad (Ed.)

   Text-setting patterns in music have served as a key data source in the development of theories of prosody and rhythm in stress-based languages, but have been explored less from a rhythmic perspective in the realm of tone languages. African tone languages have been especially under-studied in terms of rhythmic patterns in text-setting, likely in large part due to the ill-understood status of metrical structure and prosodic prominence asymmetries in many of these languages. Here, we explore how language is mapped to rhythmic structure in traditional folksongs sung in Medʉmba, a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. We show that, despite complex and varying rhythmic structures within and across songs, correspondences emerge between musical rhythm and linguistic structure at the level of stem position, tone, and prosodic structure. Our results reinforce the notion that metrical prominence asymmetries are present in African tone languages, and that they play an important coordinative role in music and movement. 

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3. Recursive prosody is not finite-state

   Dolatian, Hossep; De Santo, Aniello; Graf, Thomas (January 2021, Proceedings of the Seventeenth SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research)

   This paper investigates bounds on the generative capacity of prosodic processes, by focusing on the complexity of recursive prosody in coordination contexts in English (Wagner, 2010). Although all phonological processes and most prosodic processes are computationally regular string languages, we show that recursive prosody is not. The output string language is instead parallel multiple context-free (Seki et al., 1991). We evaluate the complexity of the pattern over strings, and then move on to a characterization over trees that requires the expressivity of multi bottom-up tree transducers. In doing so, we provide a foundation for future mathematically grounded investigations of the syntax-prosody interface. 

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4. Spatio-temporal Dynamics in Animal Communication: A Special Issue Arising from a Unique Workshop-Symposium Model

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icab151  

   Hoke, Kim L; Hensley, Nicholai; Kanwal, Jessleen K; Wasserman, Sara; Morehouse, Nathan I (July 2021, Integrative and Comparative Biology)

   Synopsis Investigating how animals navigate space and time is key to understanding communication. Small differences in spatial positioning or timing can mean the difference between a message received and a missed connection. However, these spatio-temporal dynamics are often overlooked or are subject to simplifying assumptions in investigations of animal signaling. This special issue addresses this significant knowledge gap by integrating work from researchers with disciplinary backgrounds in neuroscience, cognitive ecology, sensory ecology, computer science, evolutionary biology, animal behavior, and philosophy. This introduction to the special issue outlines the novel questions and approaches that will advance our understanding of spatio-temporal dynamics of animal communication. We highlight papers that consider the evolution of spatio-temporal dynamics of behavior across sensory modalities and social contexts. We summarize contributions that address the neural and physiological mechanisms in senders and receivers that shape communication. We then turn to papers that introduce cutting edge technologies that will revolutionize our ability to track spatio-temporal dynamics of individuals during social encounters. The interdisciplinary collaborations that gave rise to these papers emerged in part from a novel workshop-symposium model, which we briefly summarize for those interested in fostering syntheses across disciplines. 

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5. Applying behavioral science to agriculture, food, and agri-environmental policymaking

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102548  

   Shukla, Pallavi; Messer, Kent D; Ferraro, Paul J (October 2023, Food Policy)

   This special issue aims to extend the active discourse on applying behavioral science-based tools to policymaking in the fields of food, agriculture, and agri-environmental issues. Papers in this special issue evaluate the impact of behavioral science-based tools to understand their effectiveness and limitations. Additionally, for this introductory paper, we collected and analyzed data from the 91 submissions we received for this special issue to identify knowledge gaps and priorities for future policy research. Our findings show that behavioral interventions have small effect sizes but, when coupled with other policy tools, can have larger effects. We highlight that future research in these areas must aim to overcome the current shortcomings of the literature in terms of the use of hypothetical or low stakes in experiments, the focus on only measuring short-term behavior change, and the general lack of discussion on cost-effectiveness and mechanisms. Furthermore, we found that most behavioral science interventions in these submitted papers focused either on consumers or producers and thus offered little insight into other actors in the supply chain. We argue that a focus on better research practices is needed to improve policy-oriented behavioral science-based research in the future and note that accepted papers in this special issue were more likely to employ these practices. Finally, we offer six insights and recommendations for researchers and practitioners that arise from this special issue 

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