The Glottal Stop as a Junctural Correlate in English

Abstract

The fundamental-frequency contours of English sentences have been thought to be affected by sobglottal pressure, laryngeal tension, vowel height, changes in transglottal air pressure, stress placement, and coarticulation effects. In this study, fundamental-frequency contours in vowel-vowel transitions have been studied for varying constituent structures, phonemic environments, and stress patterns. Transitions within words, at formative boundaries within words (re-enter), at word boundaries, and at phrase boundaries were studied, and the fundamental-frequency contours for these transitions were recorded. It was found that many speakers use the glottal stop to indicate juncture, and that this usage is conditioned by the position of the transition in the formative structure of the utterance. Thus the changes in fundamental frequency in vowel-vowel transitions serve as junctural cues. Models that describe the variations in fundamental frequency in English sentences must, therefore, make provision for this effect.