Abstract
Multiple languages avoid stressing the first of two vowels in hiatus. Evidence that this avoidance has a perceptual basis is shown by the results of a perceptual study. Antepenultimate and penultimate stress versions of 40 three-syllable Norwegian nonce words were played to English listeners, who were asked to identify whether stress was on the first or second syllable. It was found that listeners had significantly more trouble correctly identifying penultimate stress in cases of hiatus (that is, where the penultimate vowel was immediately followed by the vowel of the final syllable). Steriade (2012, 2017) has proposed that Interval Theory accounts for the lack of stress in this position because the weight domain is too small to fulfill the requirement to bear stress. While this account is compatible with the perceptual account proposed here, an examination of the possible weight domains of the stimuli used finds a problem for Interval Theory. The onset of a stressed syllable is found to significantly lengthen, but because Interval Theory takes this consonant to be part of the preceding, unstressed interval, interval durations are out of sync with the relative prominence of the weight domains in a word.
Highlights
Segment-based syllable weight has been proposed to be calculated by either rhyme segments (McCarthy, 1979) or by intervals (Steriade, 2012)
It can be seen that listeners showed an overall preference for identifying antepenultimate stress; but we see, as the perceptional confusability hypothesis would predict, the fewest correct identifications of penultimate stress in the presence of hiatus
A binary logistic regression was run with response as the dependent variable (DV), fixed factors stress and hiatus, and with subject as a blocking factor
Summary
Segment-based syllable weight has been proposed to be calculated by either rhyme segments (McCarthy, 1979) or by intervals (Steriade, 2012). The two theories parse segments into the same domains in two cases: word-and for the first vowel of two adjacent vowels in different syllables, i.e., in hiatus. While the weight domain is the same for the two theories in cases of hiatus (consisting of just a short vowel, ‘V’), the categorization of weight is different. While a short vowel alone is considered “light” in rhyme-based weight, it is considered “extra-light” in interval-based weight, as “light” intervals consist of a vowel and a following onset consonant. A comparison of (some) interval- and rhyme-based weights and domains is given in (1). All intervals are delineated with bullets, and the interval of interest and the corresponding weight domain in Rhyme Theory are underlined
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