Antepenultimate Syllable Research Articles

Stød and stress location in Danish: A nonce word study

Abstract In Danish, the distribution of stød exhibits a pattern related to the position of the stressed syllable. Some phonological theories of stød, e.g. Basbøll (2005), consider stød on the antepenultimate or ultimate syllable, and non-stød on the penultimate syllable, to be the default. This article reports on a production study with nonce words, investigating the distributional pattern of stød in relation to the position of the stressed syllable in monomorphemic nonce words. Ten speakers were asked to pronounce 336 nonce words with stress on either the ultimate, penultimate, or antepenultimate syllable. The results showed that stød on ultimate stressed syllables and non-stød on penultimate stressed syllables replicates in nonce words, but stød on antepenultimate stressed syllables does not. This suggests that stød in antepenultimate stressed words is not the default, but lexical.

How to Perform English Word Stress on English Pronunciation

Word stress is a suprasegmental feature in English pronunciation. The word stress supports the correct articulation of English pronunciation. This qualitative research revealed the position of stress in English words. This research captured the pattern of English word stress. There are several phonologists discussing the word stress such as Chomsky, Hale, and Giegerich. The data taken was from the Oxford English Dictionary and from the English native spoken by observing, reading, listening, and noting. The way to analyze the data applied the textual analysis. The result of this research is the pattern of the English word stress articulation. From this research, it is known that the number of syllables determines the position of the stress. The ultimate stress occurs in two-syllable words. The penultimate and antepenultimate syllables occur in the words which have more than two syllables. The stress in the first syllable occurs in one-syllable, two-syllable, three-syllable, and four-syllable words. Stress does not fall on the affixes. However, the stress falls on the preposition for phrasal verbs. There is variation of stress position on the compound nouns and noun phrases due to their formation. Knowing stress’ position while pronouncing English helps distinguish the meaning literally.

Rethinking the Metre of Parzival: Iambic Verse for a Trochaic Language

AbstractThe Middle High German (MHG) prosodic foot is uncontroversially considered to be trochaic, a fact which has traditionally led scholars to assume a preference for trochaic metre in poetry of the MHG Classical Period. However, given the trend elsewhere in mediaeval Europe (even in trochaic languages) to emulate French lyrics and compose verse in iambic metre, the uncritical assumption of a trochaic metre in all MHG poetry seems inadequate. A close examination of Parzival, an early thirteenth‐century grail romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, suggests that the traditional analysis is not only insufficient but counter to the linguistic evidence. This paper argues for the first time that Parzival was in fact composed in iambic tetrameter, based on a close analysis of the rhythmic alternations within lines and the quantity and foot structure of line‐final syllables. Halle & Keyser's (1966) principles for iambic metre were used to produce a taxonomy of possible line structures in Parzival and the dominance of the wswswsws pattern, beginning on a weak beat and ending on a strong, offers convincing evidence in favour of iambic metre. The remaining lines can be neatly categorised as iambic by allowing feminine rhyme (with an extrametrical schwa syllable) or the construction of monosyllabic feet from a single heavy syllable. This analysis is further corroborated by the consistently iambic structure of line‐final feet, as well as the foot structures avoided by the poet, identified according to the weight of the final, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables. The present analysis has the advantage of explaining the various patterns of alternating prominence in the metre of Parzival much more consistently than the complex system advocated by the traditional literary view.

On the origin and the structure of Latin medical adjectives of the coccygeus type

This paper concerns the issue of the length of vowel e in the final -eus of the Latin medical terminological adjectives of coccygeus type. These adjectives are not associated with ancient Latin nouns and do not have a digraphic combination in the Greek prototype at the junction of the noun base and the adjective suffix: anconeus, coccygeus, laryngeus, phalangeus, pharyngeus. The lexemes were created by anatomists between the 16th and 18th centuries, mostly by Jean Riolan the Younger, James Douglas, William Cheselden, Christian H. T. Schreger. The spelling of these words with the final -.us in the work by Douglas in 1707 was a failed (and faulty) attempt to unify the spelling of Latin medical adjectives with a final -eus. The next try belonged to Cheselden (1713): he writes these lexemes with the final -eus. The artificial origin, the presence of two variants of the spelling (-.us and -eus) and of an identical in spelling Latin morpheme (-ĕus), and the simplification of spelling of Latin medical terms are the reasons why different variants of the appearance of the Latin adjectives of coccygeus type exist: with finals -aeus, -ēus, -ĕus. At the same time, an original Latinized Greek adjective existed — coccygius (from κοκκύγιος, used by Pausanias). The author suggests changing the nomenclature spelling of the adjectives of coccygeus type, bringing them in line with the historical “living” appearance: anconius, coccygius, laryngius, phalangius, and pharyngius. Until this change is carried out, it is recommended to consider ⟨e⟩ in the final -eus as a short vowel stressing the antepenultimate syllable.

Syllables and Stress Assignment in Najdi Arabic

The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed and unified analysis of word stress in Najdi Arabic (NA), a variety of Arabic spoken in Najd, located in the central region of Saudi Arabia. Regular stress, seemingly exceptional cases, and also variations within NA itself are all accounted for in a simple and straightforward manner. The proposed analysis is based on two principles. First, unlike previous studies that employ a three-way weight distinction between light, heavy, and superheavy syllables, a binary weight distinction between light (monomoraic) C(C)v; and heavy (bimoraic) C(C)vX(C) is proposed, where “X” is either a vowel or a consonant. Second, word-final consonants are crucially assumed to be “extrasyllabic”. The stress algorithm is constrained so that stress may fall on one of the last three syllables of a word, as follows: Stress the rightmost heavy syllable if and only if it is one of the word’s last three syllables; otherwise stress the antepenultimate syllable (initial syllable in disyllabic words). Variations within NA and seemingly exceptional cases are accounted for by the fact that stress assignment applies earlier in the derivation before the application of any other phonological processes that subsequently alter the shape of the word.

Analysis of the production of total interrogative sentences in Brazilian learners of Spanish as a foreign language

The pitch curves in a language may represent not only distinct intonational patterns but also serve to differentiate one type of sentence from another (e.g., interrogative x affirmative). Different melodic curves may also contain linguistic information which can affect comprehension. One comparison between Spanish and Portuguese can exemplify how differences in the melodic curves of interrogative sentences might cause miscomprehension. According to Sosa (1999) melodic curves of yes/no questions in Spanish tend to end with a high melodic pattern (H) or with a high and low movement, depending on the dialect. On the other hand, Brazilian Portuguese yes/no questions are said to end with a circumflex pattern, generally represented by a (HL) tone, especially when the last word of the sentence presents the stress in the penultimate syllable (Moraes and Collamarco, 2007). Taking these facts into consideration, this work aims at analyzing the pitch curves of interrogative sentences (yes/no questions) of Colombian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, which were ended by words with stress relying on the last, the penultimate or the antepenultimate syllables. In order to conduct the research, data was collected with two Brazilian learners of Spanish, one native speaker of Colombian Spanish and one native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese. The native speakers served as control group. The learners of Spanish were asked to read 15 sentences in Spanish, and the control group was asked to read the same set of questions in their respective native language. These questions were contextualized as to be inserted in a situational context of a job interview (role play). All sentences were presented to the participants in a computer screen, in a randomized order. In total, the database was composed by 35 sentences in Spanish and 14 sentences in Brazilian Portuguese. The collected data was then analyzed in the software Praat through the algorithm Momel. This algorithm is able to draw the melodic contours of each sentence at a time. The algorithm Intsint was also used through Praat in order to extract the melodic tones corresponding to each curve. The intonational patterns (in nuclear and prenuclear regions) and the highest point of F0 in each sentence were analyzed. Results related to the sentences ended in words with stress in the last syllable showed that all subjects produced, predominantly, high ending patterns (H) in this type of sentences. Differences among subjects rely on the highest F0 point, which appeared with higher frequency in the nuclear region for the native speaker of Colombian Spanish and for the learners. For the prenuclear region, the results showed that the high and low movements were more prominent in the sentences produced by the learners than in the sentences produced by native speaker of Colombian Spanish. Regarding the sentences ended by words with stress in the penultimate and the antepenultimate syllables, results presented differences between the intonational patterns of Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. The native speaker of Colombian Spanish presented a high ending tone (H) for all the sentences. The native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and the Brazilian learners of Spanish varied their production either using a high tone (H) or a circumflex tone (HL). The highest point of F0 appeared with higher frequency in the nuclear region for the productions of the native speaker of Colombian Spanish when compared to production of the Brazilian learners of Spanish and the native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese. These results may be due either to the influence of the intonational pattern of the learner’s L1 or to the influence of other varieties of Spanish which the learners have had contact with.

Indirekte und direkte Evidenz für das Dreisilbengesetz. Überlegungen zur ägyptischen Sprachgeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Namen Nofretete und Nefertari sowie einer ungewöhnlichen Schreibung des Toponyms Memphis

“Indirect and Direct Evidence for the ‘Dreisilbengesetz’. Reflections on the History of the Ancient Egyptian Language with Particular Attention to the Names Nefertiti and Nefertari as well as a Peculiar Spelling of the Toponym Memphis” - The greater part of the Egyptian language’s history down to the Coptic era is marked by a strict syllable structure and stress law, which only allowed for word stress on the penultimate or last syllable of any given word (“Zweisilbengesetz”). However, masculine and feminine nouns, singular and plural forms, base nouns and nisbe adjectives arranged in pairs have traditionally served as key witnesses for the reconstruction of an earlier stage of the Egyptian language, which was characterised by the ability to form words with word stress on any of the three last syllables (“Dreisilbengesetz”). A set of peculiar compound nouns (“Ältere Komposita”), which, when revocalised, display word stress on the antepenultimate syllable, is often regarded as evidence in favour of the “Dreisilbengesetz”, but, to date, there is a want of definitive proof therefor. In this article, the morphology of the personal names nfr.t-jrj.t “Nefertari” and nfr.t-jjj.tj “Nefertiti” is analysed with the result that they comprised the adjective *nắfĭrăt, which here, under peculiar circumstances, evolved to *năft-, but else to *nắfră(t). A hitherto largely unrecognised attestation of the “Älteres Kompositum” mn-nfr “Memphis”, which looks as if it contained the noun mnw “monument”, is identified as a sportive writing in order to indicate an actual pronunciation *mĭ́năfă(r). Either of these discoveries strongly supports the existence of the “Dreisilbengesetz” during the Old Kingdom, but further discussion reveals that, though this fits the elite idiom of the Memphite region, some parts of Upper Egypt had already advanced towards the “Zweisilbengesetz”. With this to start, the syllable structure rules during the time of the “Dreisilbengesetz” and processes of vowel elision as well as further prerequisites for the transition to the “Zweisilbengesetz” are investigated.

The Grammarian Consentius on Errors Concerning the Accent in Spoken Latin

Summary:The 5th-century Gaulish grammarian Consentius wrote an extensive treatise on errors in spoken Latin. In the Roman grammatical tradition, errors in single words are deemed to arise by means of the improper addition, removal, substitution, and misplacement of one of the constitutive elements of the word (letter, syllable, quantity, accent, and aspiration). Late grammarians assumed that the four catego- ries of change applied to accents too, but only Consentius provided an example for each of these cases. However, his discussion poses some problems. The examples of removal, substitution and misplacement of an accent all concern the word orator and present oddities such as a circumflex accent on the antepe- nultimate syllable; they were clearly made up for the sake of completeness and have no bearing on our understanding of Vulgar Latin. On the other hand, the example of addition of an accent is tríginta, with retraction of the accent on the antepenultimate syllable; this must be genuine and fits in well with current reconstructions of most Romance continuations of Latin triginta (Italian trenta, French trente, etc.) and other vigesimals (uiginti, quadraginta, etc.).

Interactions between prosody and morphosyntax in Fuzhou VO phrases

Abstract This study examines how tone sandhi domains (TSDs) are determined in Fuzhou. The data include: (i) regular verb-object phrases (VOs) where the verb takes a direct bare noun object; and (ii) non-canonical VOs where the verb takes an adverbial expression as a surface object. Several observations are made. First, a three-way sandhi exists within every TSD. All antepenultimate syllables neutralize to low tones. A penultimate syllable’s sandhi tone is dependent on the final syllable’s citation tone, which remains unchanged. Second, in regular VOs, a monosyllabic verb consistently forms a single TSD with its direct bare noun object, but a disyllabic verb and its object are separated into two TSDs. Third, in non-canonical VOs, a monosyllabic verb never forms a single TSD with its adverbial object. Three questions are raised. First, what is the nature of each TSD? Second, why does the number of syllables in a verb determine the distinct TSDs formed in regular VOs? Third, how can we account for the different patterns of TSD formation in two types of VOs? We propose that each TSD equals to a prosodic word (PrWd). OT analyses are provided to show how PrWds are derived. The analysis of regular VOs relies on the ranking of a prosodic markedness constraint ft bin above the word-level interface correspondence constraints. The contrast between two types of VOs is explained by applying the model of Multiple Spell-Out and a cyclic interaction of morphosyntax and prosody. This approach is new in explaining the TSDs that are constrained by morphosyntax.

When lexical statistics and the grammar conflict: Learning and repairing weight effects on stress

In weight-sensitive languages, stress is influenced by syllable weight. As a result, heavy syllables should attract, not repel, stress. The Portuguese lexicon, however, presents a case where weight seems to negatively impact stress: antepenultimate stress is more frequent in light antepenultimate syllables than in heavy ones. This pattern is phonologically unexpected and appears to contradict the typology of weight and stress: it is a case where lexical statistics and the grammar conflict. Portuguese also contains gradient, not categorical, weight effects, which weaken as we move away from the right edge of the word. In this article, I examine how native speakers’ grammars capture these subtle weight effects, and whether the negative antepenultimate weight effect is learned or repaired. I show that speakers learn the gradient weight effects in the language, but do not learn the unnatural negative effect. Instead, speakers repair this pattern and generalize a positive weight effect to all syllables in the stress domain. This study thus provides empirical evidence that speakers may not only ignore unnatural patterns, but also learn the opposite pattern.

Early markers of lexical stress in visual word recognition

The goal of the present study was to investigate the time-course of suprasegmental information in visual word recognition. To this aim we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during a simple lexical decision task in Italian. Two factors were manipulated: Stress dominance (the most frequent stress type) and stress neighborhood consistency (the proportion and number of existent words sharing orthographic ending and stress pattern). Participants were presented with target words either bearing dominant (on the penultimate syllable; 'graNIta,' 'seNIle,' slush, senile) or non-dominant stress (on the antepenultimate syllable; 'MISsile,' 'BIbita,' missile, drink), and either having a consistent (graNIta, MISsile) or an inconsistent stress neighborhood (seNIle, BIbita). Our results showed in the initial stages of processing an effect that we interpreted as an early orthographic marker of stress neighborhood in interaction with dominance. Later, from 250 ms after target onset, a marker of the lexical stress difference also emerged. The role of stress assignment in word recognition is discussed.

Cross-linguistic differences in the use of durational cues for the segmentation of a novel language.

It is widely accepted that duration can be exploited as phonological phrase final lengthening in the segmentation of a novel language, i.e., in extracting discrete constituents from continuous speech. The use of final lengthening for segmentation and its facilitatory effect has been claimed to be universal. However, lengthening in the world languages can also mark lexically stressed syllables. Stress-induced lengthening can potentially be in conflict with right edge phonological phrase boundary lengthening. Thus the processing of durational cues in segmentation can be dependent on the listener's linguistic background, e.g., on the specific correlates and unmarked location of lexical stress in the native language of the listener. We tested this prediction and found that segmentation by both German and Basque speakers is facilitated when lengthening is aligned with the word final syllable and is not affected by lengthening on either the penultimate or the antepenultimate syllables. Lengthening of the word final syllable, however, does not help Italian and Spanish speakers to segment continuous speech, and lengthening of the antepenultimate syllable impedes their performance. We have also found a facilitatory effect of penultimate lengthening on segmentation by Italians. These results confirm our hypothesis that processing of lengthening cues is not universal, and interpretation of lengthening as a phonological phrase final boundary marker in a novel language of exposure can be overridden by the phonology of lexical stress in the native language of the listener.

Priming stress patterns in word recognition.

This study addresses the lexical representation of stress in a series of 5 intramodal and cross-modal priming experiments in the Greek language using lexical decision tasks with auditory and visual targets. Three-syllable primes and targets were matched in first syllable segments, length, and other variables, and differed segmentally in the second and third syllable. Primes matched or mismatched targets in stress, which was placed on the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. There was no evidence for stress priming in either accuracy or latency of responses to either words or pseudowords in any of these experiments, either intramodally or cross-modally. In contrast, a control fragment priming experiment using only the first 2 syllables of the primes produced a significant effect of stress congruence for words but not for pseudowords. The results are interpreted in the context of previous findings in the literature as arising from lexical activation rather than from matching stress patterns. Overall, findings are consistent with lexical representations including stress information that is inseparable from segmental specification, rather than with abstract representations of metrical templates. (PsycINFO Database Record

When orthography is not enough: The effect of lexical stress in lexical decision.

Three lexical decision experiments were carried out in Italian, in order to verify if stress dominance (the most frequent stress type) and consistency (the proportion and number of existent words sharing orthographic ending and stress pattern) had an effect on polysyllabic word recognition. Two factors were manipulated: whether the target word carried stress on the penultimate (dominant; "graNIta," "seNIle"-slush, senile) or on the antepenultimate (non-dominant) syllable ("MISsile," "BIbita"-missile, drink), and whether the stress neighborhood was consistent (graNIta, MISsile) or inconsistent (seNIle, BIbita) with the word's stress pattern. In Experiment 1, words were mixed with nonwords sharing the word endings, which made words and nonwords more similar to each other. In Experiment 2, words and nonwords were presented in lists blocked for stress pattern. In Experiment 3, we used a new set of nonwords, which included endings with (stress) ambiguous neighborhoods and/or with a low number of neighbors, and which were overall less similar to words. In all three experiments, there was an advantage for words with penultimate (dominant) stress and no main effect of stress neighborhood. However, the dominant stress advantage decreased in Experiments 2 and 3. Finally, in Experiment 4, the same materials used in Experiment 1 were also used in a reading-aloud task, showing a significant consistency effect but no dominant stress advantage. The influence of stress information in Italian word recognition is discussed.

Stress affects articulatory planning in reading aloud.

Three experiments of pseudoword reading assessed whether stress assignment affects reading aloud at the level of articulation planning. In Experiment 1 (immediate reading) both stimulus length (in syllables) and stress type affected reading latency and accuracy. Italian pseudowords were named faster and more accurately when they were assigned stress on the antepenultimate rather than on the penultimate syllable. In Experiment 2 (delayed reading) reading aloud of the same stimuli was not affected by length but was still affected by stress type, with shorter latencies for pseudowords stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Experiment 3 replicated the results of the first two experiments with new materials and with a tightly controlled procedure. These results indicate that stress assignment exerts an effect in a processing component where articulation is planned since articulation cannot start until stress is assigned. Our results also suggest that, in reading aloud, the minimal planning unit for articulation is smaller than the whole stimulus, including the first syllable up to the stressed unit.

The direction of word stress processing in German: evidence from a working memory paradigm.

There are contradicting assumptions and findings on the direction of word stress processing in German. To resolve this question, we asked participants to read tri-syllabic non-words and stress ambiguous words aloud. Additionally, they also performed a working memory (WM) task (2-back task). In non-word reading, participants’ individual WM capacity was positively correlated with assignment of main stress to the antepenultimate syllable, which is most distant to the word’s right edge, while a (complementary) negative correlation was observed with assignment of stress to the ultimate syllable. There was no significant correlation between WM capacity and stress assignment to the penultimate syllable, which has been claimed to be the default stress pattern in German. In reading stress ambiguous words, a similar but non-significant pattern was observed as in non-word reading. In sum, our results provide first psycholinguistic evidence supporting leftward stress processing in German. Our results do not lend support to the assumption of penultimate default stress in German. A specification of the lemma model is proposed which seems able to reconcile our findings and apparently contradicting assumptions and evidence.

POLISH LANGUAGE IN REZEKNE TODAY. PHONETICS

POLISH LANGUAGE IN REZEKNE TODAY. PHONETICS

Why can recognize be pronounced without /ɡ/? On silent letters and French origin in English – and what other explanations there can be

Investigating the phonological patterns, especially the stress patterns, of verbs ending in -ize such as finalize, constitutionalize, etc, the word recognize has attracted my attention. One would not generally attach too much attention to this word for its phonology: it seems to be a run-of-the-mill case of stressing the third-last (antepenultimate) syllable of a non-transparent derivation by -ize. For instance, Nádasdy (2006: 222) treats -ize as a basically neutral (strong) suffix, that is one that is not supposed to interfere with stress-patterns and otherwise of the stem to which it is attached. Following established analyses, he divides -ize words into two categories, though: those that are derived from a free stem ('character > 'characterize, 'final > 'finalize), where stress (indicated by the ' mark) does not shift in the derived verb, and those whose stem is non-transparent ('recognize, 'categorize), and where stress tends to be furthest away from the suffix itself. The fact that recognize has a non-transparent derivation means that there is no free English word *recogn. Ginésy (2004: 126) analyzes recognize as morphologically having a double prefix, re- and co-, which reduces the stem to Latinate -gn-, which is always bound in English. Whether his etymological analysis is warranted for the contemporary morphology of recognize is at least disputable today, but he correctly claims that 'recognize, with stress on the initial syllable, behaves like a non-transparent derivation so it receives antepenultimate stressing. In other words, the most wide-spread pronunciation of recognize, with initial stress, is generally unproblematic in the literature: it is a case of non-transparent derivation by -ize with antepenultimate stressing.

Age-of-acquisition affects word naming in Italian only when stress is irregular

In Italian, effects of age of acquisition (AoA) have been found in object naming, semantic categorization of words and lexical decision, but not in word naming (reading aloud). The lack of an AoA effect in Italian word naming is replicated in Experiment 1 which involved reading aloud two-syllable words which all have regular spelling–sound correspondences and regular stress patterns. Studies of English word naming have reported stronger effects of AoA for irregular or exception words than for words with regular, consistent spelling–sound correspondences. There are no grapheme–phoneme irregularities in Italian, but words containing three or more syllables can carry either regular stress on the penultimate syllable or irregular stress on the antepenultimate syllable. Experiment 2 found effects of AoA on reading three-syllable words for words with irregular stress. The results are interpreted in terms of the ‘mapping hypothesis’ of AoA, with effects arising as a result of a difficulty to generalize earlier-acquired patterns to irregular late-acquired words.

Consonant Doubling, Vowel Lengthening and English Stress

This paper aims to see whether spelling of words, more specifically consonant doubling, affects the way stress is assigned and how novel orthographic stimuli are pronounced with focus on the vowel quality and quantity. For the purpose, a small experiment was conducted with 15 trisyllabic nonsense words such as Podory/Poddory/Podorry and 5 native speakers of English. Stress locations were marked and vowel quality and quantity of stressed syllables were recorded. The results suggest that there is no double consonant effect on stress assignment in English nonsense words. Besides, contrary to the prediction of the English Stress Rules, overall, speakers preferred the penultimate syllable stress. This result seems to be confusing because they do not follow the English Stress Rules. However, measurement of the vowel length suggests that the subjects treat the penultimate syllables differently from the antepenultimate syllables, supporting the idea that the subjects have the knowledge of the English Stress Rule, indeed. Though the speakers keep the same vowel quality in both stressed penultimate and stressed antepenultimate syllables, they distinguish them by vowel lengthening; the speakers articulate the antepenultimate vowels with short duration when they assign stress on the antepenultimate syllable. Interestingly enough, however, they lengthen the vowel of the penultimate syllable when they assign stress on the penultimate syllable. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the implicit knowledge of English stress rule, supposed to be internalized in native speakers’ mind, exerts influence on the pronunciation of the nonsense words.