Abstract
It has been suggested [B. Lindblom, “Temporal Organization of Syllable Production,” Royal Inst. Technol., Stockholm, Sweden, STL-QPSR 2, No. 3, 1–5 (1968)] that the greater duration of final syllables over nonfinal syllables is caused by a tendency on the part of speakers to maintain a constant total energy (amplitude) output on syllables of the same degree of stress. Since utterance-final syllables characteristically show drops in amplitude per unit of time, they are lengthened, according to the theory, in order to compensate for the amplitude drop. In the present study, it is shown that no amplitude drop occurs on the final syllables of interrogative utterances in English. It is further shown that final-syllable lengthening is just as great for interrogative as for declarative utterances. The theory cannot account for this result. Alternative explanations of finalsyllable lengthening are discussed.
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