The scope of the kinematic effects of prominence in Greek

Abstract

It is well established that speech units under prominence present longer, larger, and faster constriction gestures than their non-prominent counterparts. However, little is known about the scope of these kinematic effects and how their scope interacts with prosodic boundaries. Previous research has mainly focused on the durational dimension (lengthening) and contrastive focus. The current study uses electromagnetic articulography (EMA) to investigate the scope of the kinematic effects of prominence related to non-contrastive focus as a function of stress position (word-initial, word-medial, word-final) and boundary type (phrase versus word boundary) in Greek. The kinematic dimensions examined are duration, position, velocity, and stiffness. Results from five speakers indicate that all kinematic dimensions affect the stressed syllable but also present both anticipatory and spillover effects. The strongest effect of the dimensions of duration and position is found within the stressed syllable, while the maximum of the velocity and stiffness effects is within the syllable that immediately follows the stressed one. Interestingly, when stress is final, the velocity and stiffness effects extend across prosodic boundaries, regardless of the boundary type, affecting the formation constriction of the first post-boundary consonant. A model of prominence is proposed within the framework of Articulatory Phonology. [Work supported by NIH.]