The effect of ‘‘information value’’ and ‘‘accentuation’’ on the duration of Dutch words, syllables, and segments

Abstract

A production study was conducted to investigate the consequences of the features ‘‘information value’’ (‘‘new’’ versus ‘‘old’’ information) and ‘‘accentuation’’ (‘‘+accent’’ versus ‘‘−accent’’) on word durations. A professional speaker read aloud speech fragments in which both features were varied systematically. The results revealed that the factor information value by itself did not have an effect on word duration. Accentuation (which is closely related to information value) caused a difference in word duration of about 25%. Simultaneous variation of both factors in the conditions [new, +accent] versus [old, −accent] caused an average difference in duration of 21%. Measurements of the syllable and segment durations revealed that all segments and syllables in the words contributed to the durational changes that are caused by accentuation, which is in favor of our assumption that the word is a relevant unit of tempo.