Prosodic Domains Research Articles

The effect of domain-initial strengthening on voice onset time and vowel length on English oronyms

Oronyms are sets of words and phrases that contain the same phonemes but differ in word boundary (atop, a top). Past research established that domain-initial strengthening (DIS) affects segments at the beginning of prosodic domains. This research examines voice onset time and vowel length in English oronyms with the hope of finding a systematic strengthening of the target sounds word-initially. The word list consists of oronym pairs with the same phonemes and the same [vowel, voiceless stop, vowel] at the beginning of the oronym (e.g. atop/a top, attack/a tack). To elicit more natural-sounding tokens, participants created sentences with the target oronym at the beginning, or read already-prepared sentences. It is hypothesized that there will be a systematic strengthening of the initial segments (in the form of either a longer VOT or vowel length). This could mean speakers are fully aware of word boundaries and use DIS to help avoid lexical ambiguity when speaking.

The prosodic representation of composite structures in Brazilian Portuguese

In previous research, word–word compounds and stressed affix + word structures have been assigned to the same prosodic domain in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), on account of certain similarities in phonological behaviour (Silva 2010, Toneli 2014): both types of composite structures undergo vowel raising at the right edge of each element in the construction, and vowel sandhi processes between their elements. In this paper, I show that word–word compounds and stressed affix + word structures exhibit significant differences in stress patterns in BP, which supports their prosodization in two separate domains. While stressed affix + word structures are assigned secondary stress following the phonological word (PWd) stress algorithm, each element in word–word compounds behaves as an independent PWd with regard to the stress pattern that it exhibits. I thus propose that while stressed affix + word structures are recursively prosodized in the PWd domain, word–word compounds are prosodized in the composite group, the domain proposed by Vogel (2008, 2009) that immediately dominates the PWd and accounts for the prosodization of structures with compositional characteristics. The analysis reconciles two views on prosodic structure that are traditionally assumed to be mutually exclusive: the view that prosodic domains can be recursive (e.g. Inkelas 1990, Selkirk 1996) and the view that the prosodic hierarchy includes an additional domain specific to composite structures above the PWd (e.g. Vogel 2009, Vigário 2010).

Optimality Theoretic Approach on the Tone Patterns of the Blended Words of South Kyungsang Korean

The purpose of the current study is to examine tonal interaction patterns of blended words in South Kyungsang(SK) Korean in the viewpoint of Optimality Theoretic(OT) approach. From previous research of SK Korean (loanword) compound tone patterns(Lee, 2011, 2013), we observed that the tonal interaction of SK compounds shows fundamental constraints such as the prohibition of long monotone, word initial L tone sequence, and two pitch falls in a prosodic domain. From the basis of the previous study on the tonal interactions of SK blended words(Lee, 2017), this paper investigates whether the OT constraints that were utilized in the tonal interaction analyses of SK compound words can be used in blended word analyses. The results of the present study indicate that the OT constraints of the SK tone system(Lee, 2009), e.g. no word initial L tone sequence, and the prohibition of long monotone (H) words, and of two accents (pitch falls) in a prosodic domain can be utilized in the OT analyses of the SK Korean blended words as well.

The influence of varying vowel phonation and duration on rhythmic grouping biases among Spanish and English speakers

Native Mexican Spanish and American English speakers were presented with streams of alternating syllables in which vowel duration and/or creaky phonation were rhythmically varied. Participants’ grouping biases were measured as a function of their behaviour in segmenting sequences into recurrent bisyllabic units. Results indicated a creak-last grouping bias in both language groups. Duration varied singly was associated with a weak long-first grouping bias for Spanish and no consistent trend for English. When long creaky and short modal syllables were alternated, there was a significant creak-last bias and again no effect of duration in the English group. However, in the Spanish group, the long-first trend observed for duration varied singly was reversed and the effects of duration and creak were additive. Finally, when short creaky and long modal syllables were alternated, duration effects were highly significant in both language groups (fewer creak-last, more long-last groupings). Creak has been associated with final positions in higher-order prosodic domains in English, and less prevalently in Spanish. The current results show that both English and Spanish speakers can use this cue to segment rhythmic sequences into smaller, foot or word-sized units. This study is the first to establish that creak is perceptually salient for Spanish speakers and to demonstrate that the percept associated with duration can differ depending on whether it is varied singly or together with creak. More generally, the current findings show that grouping effects extend beyond intensity, pitch and duration, the features most often manipulated in rhythmic grouping studies inspired by the Iambic-Trochaic Law.

What happens when f0 movements and prosodic units were randomly aligned?

According to intonation phonology, surface f0 is generated from superimposition of local f0 events associated with hierarchical prosodic units (e.g., Pierrehumbert, 1980). This study conducted two experiments to investigate whether or to what extent the misalignment between f0 patterns and prosodic units would result in awkward-sounding English intonation. In Experiment 1, f0 contours of utterances from Obama Weekly Address were extracted via Praat, interpolated and smoothed using a quadratic spine, and superimposed to another Obama-Weekly-Address stretch by PSOLA algorithm. The perception result, surprisingly, showed that the resynthesized sentence still sounded quite natural in intonation, regardless of the random alignment between f0 patterns and the location of stresses and phrases. In Experiment 2, the Obama-Weekly-Address stretches were superimposed with f0 contours of three different languages that differ in the size of basic prosodic domains: Mandarin (a tone language), Korean (an accent phrase language) and Ukrainian (a stress language). The perception results showed that utterances superimposed with Korean and Ukrainian f0 contours still sounded quite natural and native, while Mandarin f0 contours sounded somehow fluctuational on English segments. These results suggested that f0 movements might not be largely determined by prosody structures, but by language-independent constrains such as physiological plausibility and expediency.

Prosody of Dual-focus in German: Interaction between Focus and Phrasing.

This paper studies the prosodic realization of dual-focus in German, that is, two foci in a single sentence, with special consideration of the interaction between focus assignment and phrasing. In a production experiment, dual-focus was compared with its initial, final, and all-new counterparts in sentences with subject NPs and VPs of different lengths. The results showed that there were three different patterns of dual-focus realization: (1) The most frequent one was the two-peak pattern (57.8%), that is, a falling tone on both focused words and compressed and lowered pitch in-between; (2) the second most frequent was the two-phrase realization (23.5%), in which both foci were also realized as a falling tone, but in this case, a high boundary tone was inserted after the subject NP; (3) the least frequent pattern was the hat-pattern (18.7%), consisting of a rising tone on the first focus and a falling tone on the second one while the pitch in-between is kept as a high plateau. This was applied mostly in utterances containing a short subject NP. We interpret these results in terms of optional prosodic phrasing. A sentence with two foci can be realized in one or two intonation phrases, but in both cases, the focus is assigned within the prosodic domain derived from syntax. These results show that Culminativity, the principle requiring a one-to-one correspondence between prosodic domains and their heads, is violable in German. Two equally prominent pitch accents are allowed to co-exist in one intonation phrase. Finally, the metrical structure of dual-focus speaks for a recursive structure of German prosody.

Excrescent stops in American English

This study investigates whether excrescence is phonological epenthesis or articulatory overlap by investigating whether a prosodic domain boundary intervening between the nasal and the fricative affects insertion. Articulatory overlap effects are expected to remain constant across the board, whereas phonological epenthesis is expected to be targeted for domain-final lengthening. The duration results are that neither excrescence nor underlying segments are affected by domain-final lengthening, but excrescent closure is significantly shorter than underlying closure. The short segments support an articulatory overlap hypothesis, but the lack of final lengthening opens up new questions for further research.

Effects of experience on the production of Korean stop consonant contrasts by Mandarin Chinese learners

The effect of L2 experience on the segmental and prosodic production of second language was investigated. Thirty two Chinese learners of Korean varying in the amount of experienced (3 months vs. 2 years) were compared to sixteen age-matched native Korean speakers in their production of three-way contrastive stops (aspirated, lenis, and fortis) in Korean. To examine both segmental and prosodic aspects, Korean four-syllable phrases (i.e., Accentual Phrase) beginning with each stop type in word-initial position were elicited. VOT, f0, H1-H2 were analyzed and compared across groups (native Korean, experienced, inexperienced groups). For further analyses of the prosodic domain, f0 of the first two syllables (High-High for aspirated, fortis and Low-High for lenis) was compared. The results revealed that the experienced Chinese learners showed an early mastery of fortis stops, producing more native-like VOT and H1-H2 than the inexperienced group. Also, Chinese groups were able to produce a sequence of AP with a native-like f0 pattern regardless of the amount of experience. The production of f0 for stop contrasts, on the other hand, was non-native like even after 2 years of experience, supporting previous observations that segments require greater L2 experience than intonation to be acquired in a native-like manner.

The role of prosodic structure in the L2 acquisition of Spanish stop lenition

This study tests the hypothesis that late first-language English / second-language Spanish learners (L1 English / L2 Spanish learners) acquire spirantization in stages according to the prosodic hierarchy (Zampini, 1997, 1998). In Spanish, voiced stops [b d g] surface after a pause or nasal stop, and continuants [β̞ ð̞ ɣ̞] surface postvocalically, among other contexts. We adopt an Optimality Theoretic analysis of the phenomenon that assumes that postvocalic continuants surface due to the ranking of prosodic positional faithfulness constraints below a markedness constraint that prohibits stops in postvocalic position. L1 English speakers are presumed to start with a ranking in which prosodic positional faithfulness outranks the markedness constraint. In line with the Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma and Hayes, 2001), gradual demotion of the relevant faithfulness constraints is predicted in L2 Spanish, extending the prosodic domain until continuants surface postvocalically across domains. A cross-section of 44 L1 English / L2 Spanish learners and a control group ( n = 5) completed a recitation task, and data were analysed acoustically for manner of articulation and degree of constriction. Results partially align with Zampini’s impressionistic data: Learners first produce underlying stops as postvocalic approximants at the onset of the syllable (word-medial position), followed by the onset of the prosodic word (word-initial position). Unlike Zampini’s findings, there is no evidence for an intermediate stage of acquisition across the boundary of a word and its clitic. Advanced L2 learners produce continuants in postvocalic position at all applicable prosodic levels, which we take to indicate acquisition of the target ranking. We also examined whether learners’ postvocalic continuants are lenited to the same degree as the control group, and whether degree of lenition changes across development. The difference in degree of lenition between controls and learners lessens at higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy as acquisition progresses, and several advanced learners produce target-like segments across prosodic levels.

Focus marking in Dutch by heritage speakers of Turkish and Dutch L1 speakers

Studies on heritage speakers generally reveal effects from the dominant L2 on the weaker L1, but it is less clear whether cross-linguistic transfer also occurs in the other direction: from the L1 to the dominant L2. This study explores whether the Dutch prosody of heritage speakers of Turkish in the Netherlands differs from that of L1 speakers of Dutch who do not speak Turkish, and whether observed differences could be attributed to an effect of Turkish. The experiment elicited semi-spontaneous sentences in broad and contrastive focus. The analysis included f0 movements, peak alignment, and duration. Although both participant groups used prosody to mark focus (e.g., time-compressed f0 movements for contrastive focus), there were also differences between the groups. For instance, while the L1 speakers of Dutch showed declination, the bilinguals remained at the same pitch level throughout the sentence. Ipek (2015) and Kamalı (2011) also noted a limited pitch range in the prenuclear area in Turkish. We argue that the prosodic differences could be due to an effect of Turkish on Dutch prosody, suggesting that the weaker L1 in Turkish heritage speakers may affect the dominant L2 in the prosodic domain.

IMPLICIT LEARNING OF LATIN STRESS REGULARITIES

This study examines whether Japanese native (L1) listeners can implicitly learn stress pattern regularities, not present in their L1, after a brief auditory exposure. In the exposure phase, the participants listened to and repeated words bearing stress patterned after Latin, but with a highly restricted consonant inventory. They performed a judgment task designed to test whether they had learned the relevant stress pattern regularities from the brief listening experience. We assessed participants’ awareness of the inherent stress regularities by analyzing confidence in making decisions and by verbal report. Results suggest that although participants remained unaware of the underlying stress regularities they performed significantly above chance in endorsing correctly stressed novel items even when they claimed to be guessing. In addition, there was no difference in confidence between correct and incorrect judgments. These results suggest that brief exposure resulted in implicit knowledge of abstract stress assignment rules. However, participants rejected correctly stressed words that contained consonants that were not present in the test phase. On the basis of this finding, we speculate that in the acquisition of second language phonology, a violation at the segmental level may be deemed more costly than a violation in the prosodic domain.

Effect of prosodic domains and context availability in producing English lexical stress by Korean L2 speakers

Effect of prosodic domains and context availability in producing English lexical stress by Korean L2 speakers

A constituição de alguns domínios da hierarquia prosódica no período oratório latino

Neste artigo, tencionamos apresentar parte de nossa pesquisa de Doutorado, que adentrou a organização rítmica do período oratório latino, com especial atenção ao modelo ciceroniano. Procuraremos, para este momento, contribuir com a pesquisa fonológica, apresentando algumas questões relativas aos domínios prosódicos presentes na estrutura frasal do latim, a fim de comprovar aí sua presença e relevância para o ritmo natural da língua. Ou seja, tencionamos, a partir dos princípios teóricos da Fonologia Prosódica, apresentar mais evidências de presença dos domínios prosódicos na frase latina, descrevendo aqueles já observados por outros estudiosos e acrescentando nosso ponto de vista sobre outros domínios, especificamente o sintagma entoacional.

The role of rhythm in intonational melody: A case study from Fataluku

This paper takes a fresh look at the theoretical relationship between linguistic rhythm and linguistic melody, arguing for a closer connection between metrical structure and intonational organization than is typically assumed. The focus of this paper is the theoretical treatment of word-medial intonational targets in languages without stress, since at first glance, such word-medial targets challenge the core assumption of the autosegmental-metrical theory of intonation that all intonational targets are aligned either with a stressed syllable or with the edge of a prosodic domain. I propose that this theoretical dilemma may be resolved by taking into account foot edges as possible alignment sites for edge tones. The claim that intonational tones may be aligned with foot edges is supported with new data from the Papuan language Fataluku. The implications of such an analysis for other stressless languages are also discussed.

Dutch Reduction Domains: Between Syllables and Feet

[Abstract not available]

Prosodic strengthening at the edges of prosodic domains in sighted and blind speakers

Recent studies have shown that when producing isolated vowels, congenitally blind speakers produce smaller displacements of the lips (visible articulators), compared with their sighted peers. To investigate the role of visual experience on articulatory gestures used to produce salient speech contrasts, the production of vowels at the edges of low-level prosodic domains and high-level prosodic domains (in which gestures are reported to be strengthened) was studied in adult speakers of Quebec French. Ten sighted and ten congenitally blind participants were recorded during the production of the vowels /i/, /y/, /u/, /a/ in initial and final positions of two prosodic domains: word and intonational phrase. Synchronous acoustic and articulatory data were recorded using the Carstens AG500 Electromagnetic Articulograph system. Formant measures as well as displacements of the lips and tongue were analyzed. The results revealed that speakers produced larger ranges of lip and tongue movements at the edges of higher prosodic domains than at the edges of lower ones. Formant spaces and durational data are presented. The use of visible (lip and jaw) and invisible (tongue) articulators to implement the prosodic structure is discussed

Morphotactic variation, prosodic domains and the changing structure of the Murrinhpatha verb

Bound morphology is usually realized on lexical stems following fixed rules of sequencing, but in some highly agglutinative languages this is not the case. Morphotactic variation has previously been described in detail for Chintang and Tagalog, and more briefly noted for various other languages including Udi, Totonac and Athapaskan languages (Bickel et al., 2007; Harris, 2002; McFarland, 2009; Rice, 2000; Ryan, 2010). I here report another case of variable ordering, in Murrinhpatha, spoken in northern Australia. I argue that in this case the variable ordering of verb suffixes reflects change in progress in the morphological structure of the verb, and the dynamic nature of prosodic domains in this language. I also note that in Chintang, Udi and Murrinhpatha, morphotactic variation is associated with word-like prosodic domains occurring inside the syntactic verbal word.

TRAINING ENGLISH LISTENERS TO IDENTIFY PITCH-ACCENT PATTERNS IN TOKYO JAPANESE

The high-variability training paradigm (multiple words, phonetic contexts, and talkers) has been successful for perceptual learning of tone contrasts. Here, it is extended to training native English listeners on Tokyo Japanese pitch-accent contrasts. Participants had no previous experience with lexically contrastive pitch patterns. They learned to identify three pitch patterns in disyllabic Japanese words: 1st-syllable accented, 2nd-syllable accented, and unaccented. Immediate feedback was provided to the training group but not to the control group. The results showed an effect of training on pitch-pattern identification accuracy that was also generalized to new words spoken in new contexts. In contrast, the control group improved only on the 1st-syllable accented pattern. Error analysis suggested that the unaccented pattern is the most difficult to identify. The results are discussed in terms of native language bias and individual bias affecting second language learning in the prosodic domain.

The role of phrasal phonology in speech perception: What perceptual epenthesis shows us

Recent research using the phenomenon of illusory vowels has raised our awareness of the extent to which speech perception is modulated by the listener's native-language phonological knowledge. However, most of the focus has been limited to word-level phonological knowledge. In this article, we suggest that the perceptual system recruits segmental phonological knowledge that makes crucial reference to prosodic domains far beyond the word-level. We report the results from three identification experiments on Korean and American English participants. In accordance with their native-language phonotactic constraints at the level of the Intonational Phrase, Korean listeners unlike American English listeners hear more illusory vowels in stimuli containing the sequence of voiced stops followed by nasal consonants (e.g. [eɡma]) than those containing voiceless stops followed by nasal consonants (e.g. [ekma]). The results are interpreted as support for the view that speech perception makes crucial reference to the concept of reverse inference.

Prosodic stems in Zezuru Shona

In the traditional Prosodic Hierarchy, the Prosodic Word is the lowest level of the hierarchy defined in terms of the interface between morphosyntactic and prosodic constituents. Recent work by Itô and Mester reaffirms this, defining Prosodic Word as matching the syntactic category X (N, V, and offering no sub-lexical constituents. In this article, we present empirical arguments in favour of the Prosodic Stem as a level of the Prosodic Hierarchy, immediately dominated by Prosodic Word. Minimality effects, tone and vowel hiatus resolution processes in Zezuru demonstrate that Prosodic Stem and Prosodic Word levels play distinct roles; they are domains for different phonological processes. Thus, we argue that more constituents of the Prosodic Hierarchy are needed, where the Prosodic Stem domain is distinct from the Prosodic Word.