The Form and Function of Intonation in Albanian Dialects

• Applicant: Enkeleida Kapia, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 499336853

The project is concerned with understanding how the form and function of intonation are related in Albanian dialects. In doing so, it combines recent empirical work carried out at IPS (at LMU in Munich) on the form of intonation of Standard Albanian with a well-established research tradition on Albanian dialectology. Additionally, the project couples these two areas with the prosody-syntax interface, not only to gain a deeper understanding of the function of prosody, but also to quantify the contribution of intonation and syntax in marking old and new information in communication. Building upon extensive experience and knowledge that the applicant has gained in over 10 years of research on dialectology, syntax, and, more recently, on intonation and phonetics, the project seeks to generalize from diverse areas of research, which, for the most part, have traditionally been investigated independently of each other.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants