Esta tesis examina la acústica de secuencias vocálicas que ocurren entre dos palabras y experimentan contracción silábica en el español hablado en Tucson, Arizona. La tradición lingüística hispánica define este proceso con el término "sinalefa". Numerosas fuentes notan que la sinalefa hablada en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos tiene características diferentes de las documentadas para otros dialectos en España. Ocho mujeres tucsonenses realizaron una tarea de repetición del habla en que pronunciaron frases detres palabras en las cuales, en habla rápida, se espararía la aplicación de un proceso de sinalefa. El resultado del análisis de las grabaciones muestra una forma de habla que no ha sido descrita previamente en la cual aparece un proceso que llamamos "coarticulación asimilatoria progresiva".

This dissertation explores the relationship between English phonotactics – sequential dependencies between adjacent segments – and the metrical parse, which relies on the division of words into syllables. Most current theories of syllabification operate under the assumption that the phonotactic restrictions which co-determine syllable boundaries are constrained by word edges. For example, a syllable can never begin with a consonant sequence that is not also attested as a word onset. This view of phonotactics as categorical is outdated: for several decades now, psycholinguistic research employing monosyllables has shown that phonotactic knowledge is gradient, and that this gradience is projected from the lexicon and possibly also based on differences in sonority among consonants located at word margins. This dissertation is an attempt to reconcile syllabification theory with this modern view of phonotactics. In what follows, I propose and defend a gradient metrical parsing model which assigns English syllable boundaries as a probabilistic function of the well-formedness relations that obtain between potential syllable onsets and offsets. I argue that this well-formedness is subserved by the same sources already established in the phonotactic literature: probabilistic generalizations over the word edges as well as sonority. In support of my proposal, I provide experimental evidence from five sources: (1) a pseudoword hyphenation experiment, (2) a reanalysis of a well-known, large-scale hyphenation study using real English words, (3) a forced-choice preference task employing nonwords presented as minimal stress pairs, (4) an online stress assignment experiment, and (5) a study of the speech errors committed by the participants of (4). The results of all studies converge in support of the gradient parsing model and correlate significantly with each other. Subsequent computer simulations suggest that the gradient model is preferred to the categorical alternative throughout all stages of lexical acquisition. This dissertation contains co-authored material accepted for publication.

In binyan hitpa'el, the reflexive and reciprocal verbal conjugation in Modern Hebrew, the /t/ of the /hit-/ prefix categorically metathesizes with a following sibilant (/s/, /z/, /∫/, or /t⁀s/), giving forms like [histakel] instead of expected forms like *[hitsakel]. It has been theorized that this metathesis may be perceptual, serving to place the /-t-/ in prevocalic position where it can be better perceived by listeners, the direction of metathesis being the more common sibilant + stop sequence in Modern Hebrew (Hume 2004), or that it may be auditory, based on a tendency for the sibilant noise to decouple from the rest of the speech stream, resulting in listener confusion about the place of the sibilant within the word (Blevins & Garrett 2004). Based on data from a speech perception experiment using English speakers, who listened to masked stimuli similar to hitpa'el verbs, I argue that Blevins & Garrett (2004)'s account is correct, with English speaking listeners evincing a tendency to misperceive stop + sibilant sequences as sibilant + stop sequences, despite the higher frequency of stop + sibilant sequences in English.

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo investigar o papel que a frequência dos tipos silábicos desempenha na atribuição acentual em pseudopalavras produzidas por falantes nativos do Português Brasileiro através de metodologias experimentais. Contrapuseram-se, para isso, dados empíricos, provenientes de um experimento, a hipóteses fonológicas para o acento primário em PB. As propostas analisadas consistiram em: Hipótese Lexical (CÂMARA JR., 1970 [2001]), Hipótese Métrica (BISOL, 1994), Hipótese Morfológica (LEE, 1995) e Hipótese Multirrepresentacional (CANTONI, 2013). Esta pesquisa está norteada nos pressupostos dos Modelos Multirrepresentacionais. Fez-se necessária a compilação de um corpus linguístico que permitisse a extração da frequência dos padrões fonológicos requeridos na presente investigação, o qual é denominado de Corpus ABG. O experimento, que se subdividiu em dois grupos experimentais, inquiriu a relevância dos tipos silábicos [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], [-oɾ] e [-aɾ] nos estudos acentuais. O grupo de análise 1, composto pelos tipos silábicos [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], investigou, por meio do conceito de lacuna fonológica, se a frequência dos tipos silábicos impacta na determinação da localização acentual. O grupo de análise 2, composto pelos tipos silábicos [-oɾ] e [-aɾ], verificou em que medida a frequência dos tipos silábicos interage com processos analógicos, tendo como motivação a frequência de vocábulos fonológicos similares. Os resultados do experimento sugerem que, ao contrário do que preveem as propostas algorítmicas, todos os padrões acentuais (proparoxítono, paroxítono e oxítono) podem emergir - e emergiram. As produções acentuais encontradas no experimento trazem indícios de que a frequência dos tipos silábicos impacta na forma como o acento é atribuído no PB, bem como trazem evidências de que processos analógicos podem interagir com a produtividade na atribuição acentual. Os resultados, portanto, indicam que diferentes fatores, em diferentes níveis de abstração, são responsáveis pela atribuição acentual no PB. / This dissertation aims to investigate the role that the frequency of the syllabic types plays in the stress assignment in pseudowords produced by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese through experimental methodologies. For this, empirical data, originating from an experiment, were contrasted to phonological hypotheses for the primary stress in BP. The proposals analyzed consisted of: Lexical Hypothesis (CÂMARA JR., 1970 [2001]), Metrical Hypothesis (BISOL, 1994), Morphological Hypothesis (LEE, 1995) and Multirepresentational Hypothesis (CANTONI, 2013). This research is guided on the assumptions of the Multirepresentational Models. A compilation of a linguistic corpus was necessary to allow the extraction of the frequency of the phonological patterns required in the present investigation, which is named Corpus ABG. The experiment, which was subdivided into two experimental groups, inquired about the relevance of the syllabic types [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], [-oɾ] and [-aɾ] in the stress studies. Analysis group 1, composed of the syllabic types [niw], [Voral.tʃiw] and [Vnasal.tʃiw], investigated, through the concept of phonological gap, whether the frequency of the syllabic types has an impact on the determination of the stress location. Analysis group 2, composed of the syllabic types [-oɾ] and [-aɾ], verified to what extent the frequency of the syllabic types interacts with analogical processes, motivated by the frequency of similar phonological vocables. The results of the experiment demonstrated that, contrary to what the algorithmic proposals foresee, all the stress patterns (proparoxitone, paroxitone and oxytone) can emerge - and emerged. The stress productions found in the experiment indicate that the frequency of the syllabic types impacts on how the stress is assigned in BP, as well as provides evidences that analogical processes can interact with productivity in stress assignment. The results, therefore, demonstrate that different factors, at different levels of abstraction, are responsible for the stress assignment in BP.

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo investigar o papel que a frequência dos tipos silábicos desempenha na atribuição acentual em pseudopalavras produzidas por falantes nativos do Português Brasileiro através de metodologias experimentais. Contrapuseram-se, para isso, dados empíricos, provenientes de um experimento, a hipóteses fonológicas para o acento primário em PB. As propostas analisadas consistiram em: Hipótese Lexical (CÂMARA JR., 1970 [2001]), Hipótese Métrica (BISOL, 1994), Hipótese Morfológica (LEE, 1995) e Hipótese Multirrepresentacional (CANTONI, 2013). Esta pesquisa está norteada nos pressupostos dos Modelos Multirrepresentacionais. Fez-se necessária a compilação de um corpus linguístico que permitisse a extração da frequência dos padrões fonológicos requeridos na presente investigação, o qual é denominado de Corpus ABG. O experimento, que se subdividiu em dois grupos experimentais, inquiriu a relevância dos tipos silábicos [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], [-oɾ] e [-aɾ] nos estudos acentuais. O grupo de análise 1, composto pelos tipos silábicos [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], investigou, por meio do conceito de lacuna fonológica, se a frequência dos tipos silábicos impacta na determinação da localização acentual. O grupo de análise 2, composto pelos tipos silábicos [-oɾ] e [-aɾ], verificou em que medida a frequência dos tipos silábicos interage com processos analógicos, tendo como motivação a frequência de vocábulos fonológicos similares. Os resultados do experimento sugerem que, ao contrário do que preveem as propostas algorítmicas, todos os padrões acentuais (proparoxítono, paroxítono e oxítono) podem emergir - e emergiram. As produções acentuais encontradas no experimento trazem indícios de que a frequência dos tipos silábicos impacta na forma como o acento é atribuído no PB, bem como trazem evidências de que processos analógicos podem interagir com a produtividade na atribuição acentual. Os resultados, portanto, indicam que diferentes fatores, em diferentes níveis de abstração, são responsáveis pela atribuição acentual no PB. / This dissertation aims to investigate the role that the frequency of the syllabic types plays in the stress assignment in pseudowords produced by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese through experimental methodologies. For this, empirical data, originating from an experiment, were contrasted to phonological hypotheses for the primary stress in BP. The proposals analyzed consisted of: Lexical Hypothesis (CÂMARA JR., 1970 [2001]), Metrical Hypothesis (BISOL, 1994), Morphological Hypothesis (LEE, 1995) and Multirepresentational Hypothesis (CANTONI, 2013). This research is guided on the assumptions of the Multirepresentational Models. A compilation of a linguistic corpus was necessary to allow the extraction of the frequency of the phonological patterns required in the present investigation, which is named Corpus ABG. The experiment, which was subdivided into two experimental groups, inquired about the relevance of the syllabic types [niw], [Voral.tʃiw], [Vnasal.tʃiw], [-oɾ] and [-aɾ] in the stress studies. Analysis group 1, composed of the syllabic types [niw], [Voral.tʃiw] and [Vnasal.tʃiw], investigated, through the concept of phonological gap, whether the frequency of the syllabic types has an impact on the determination of the stress location. Analysis group 2, composed of the syllabic types [-oɾ] and [-aɾ], verified to what extent the frequency of the syllabic types interacts with analogical processes, motivated by the frequency of similar phonological vocables. The results of the experiment demonstrated that, contrary to what the algorithmic proposals foresee, all the stress patterns (proparoxitone, paroxitone and oxytone) can emerge - and emerged. The stress productions found in the experiment indicate that the frequency of the syllabic types impacts on how the stress is assigned in BP, as well as provides evidences that analogical processes can interact with productivity in stress assignment. The results, therefore, demonstrate that different factors, at different levels of abstraction, are responsible for the stress assignment in BP.

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This study investigates the Intrusive Stop Formation process in Zulu. In this process an intrusive stop arises when a nasal and fricative are juxtaposed resulting in the following seven affricate sounds /þf’, {v, ts’, dz, tñ’, dL, tS’/. These sounds are theoretically distinct from the four affricate phonemes which occur in Zulu, namely /kl’, dZ, ts’, tS’/. In this study the former are termed derived affricates and the latter pure affricates. Two aspects of Intrusive Stop Formation are focused on - firstly, determining experimentally whether durational differences obtain between pure and derived affricates and secondly, using the results of the experimental investigation to facilitate a feature geometry description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. In the experimental investigation nine affricate sounds were examined. Words, containing these sounds, were recorded in frame sentences by five speakers, using PRAAT, a speech–processing platform. The duration of the pure and derived affricates were then determined. It was found that pure affricates are durationally longer than derived affricates. The next progression in this study was the incorporation of the experimental results into a feature geometry description of Intrusive Stop Formation. Feature Geometry Theory has enjoyed acclaim because of its ability to retain Distinctive Feature Theory – the crux of Phonology – in a nonlinear framework. However, Feature Geometry Theory faces challenges with regard to the extent to which it includes phonetic detail; and its formalization technique. This study – Intrusive Stop Formation in Zulu : An Application of Feature Geometry Theory – brings a new perspective to Feature Geometry Theory with the incorporation of the Duration tier – significant for the description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. Furthermore the study introduces a more efficient formalization technique, which facilitates the explanation of the process. It is always incumbent upon endeavours like this study, which examine specific phonological processes, to show relevance. In the concluding section the application of the experimental approach and Feature Geometry Theory is evaluated in terms of the contribution made to the disciplines of Human Language Technology and Speech Disorders. A compact disk accompanies this thesis. It contains the sound files, spectrograms and textgrids of the recorded data.

Le travail présenté ici est sous-tendu par deux observations majeures. Premièrement, la plupart des modèles proposés pour le français s’accordent sur l’existence de deux niveaux de structure prosodique: le syntagme accentuel et le syntagme intonatif. Deuxièmement, bien que l’existence d’un niveau additionnel de structure situé entre ces deux niveaux ait été proposé pour le français, les propriétés phonétiques et phonologiques de ce constituant n’ont pas clairement été définies. Dans cette thèse nous avons fourni des preuves de l’existence du syntagme intermédiaire (ip) à la fois en production et en perception de la parole. Grâce à cinq expérimentations menées dans le cadre de la phonologie de laboratoire, nous avons caractérisé les propriétés phonético-phonologiques de ce constituant et attesté de son rôle dans le traitement perceptif du langage. Les résultats obtenus en production montrent que l’ip est le domaine de l’abaissement des accents mélodiques en français. Sa frontière droite est marquée par un allongement pré-frontière ainsi qu’un accent de syntagme responsable du retour à la ligne de référence du registre. Les analyses menées en perception ont montré que les frontières droites du syntagme accentuel et du syntagme intermédiaire sont utilisées très tôt dans le processus de traitement syntaxique. Les indices phonétiques et phonologiques présents à ces frontières permettent aux auditeurs du français de construire des attentes sur la structure syntaxique des énoncés perçus. Une analyse séparée des différents types d’indices acoustiques a également montré qu’en l’absence de marquage tonal, les indices de durée semblent suffisants dans le but de marquer la frontière de syntagme accentuel. Un marquage conjoint de la frontière droite d’ip par les indices mélodiques et l’allongement pré-frontière semble au contraire nécessaire pour que les auditeurs du français perçoivent et utilisent cette frontière dans le traitement du langage. / The work described here is grounded by two major observations. Firstly, most of the French intonation models agree on the existence of two levels of prosodic phrasing: the accentual phrase and the intonation phrase. Secondly, although the existence of an additional level of structure ranked between these two levels has been proposed for French, the phonetic and phonological properties of this intermediate phrase (ip) have not been clearly defined. In this thesis we provide evidence for the existence of an intermediate level of phrasing in French through both speech production and perception studies. Results of five experiments conducted within the framework of laboratory phonology revealed specific ip phonetic and phonological properties and tested its role in the perceptual processing of language. The production studies showed that the ip is the domain of downstep in French and that its right boundary is marked by a phrase accent responsible for a return to the register reference line. Analyses conducted in perception showed that the accentual phrase and intermediate phrase right boundaries are used early in the syntactic processing. Phonetic and phonological indices at these boundaries allow French listeners to build expectations about the syntactic structure of spoken utterances. A separate analysis of different types of acoustic cues showed that without tonal marking, pre-boundary lengthening seems to be sufficient to mark the accentual phrase boundary. Joint marking through melodic and lengthening cues appears to be necessary to perceive and make use of the ip boundary in language processing.

It is well-known that the early assignment of prominence in sequences like THIRteen MEN vs. thirTEEN, (defined as the Rhythm Rule, or post-lexical stress shift), is an optional phenomenon. This dissertation examines some of the factors that encourage the application of stress shift in English and how it is phonetically realised. The aim is to answer two sets of questions related to why and how stress shift occurs in English: 1a) Does prosodic boundary strength influence stress shift? 1b) Does the adjacency of prominences above the level of the segmental string encourage stress shift? 2) How is stress shift realized? a) Is stress shift only a perceptual phenomenon? and b) Which syllables, if any, change acoustically when stress shift is perceived? To answer these questions, four experiments were designed. The first three experiments test whether the strength of the prosodic boundaries before and after the target word (e.g., canteen) influence stress shift. The effect of the strength of the left-edge prosodic boundary was investigated by comparing perceived stress patterns of the target (e.g., canteen) as produced in isolation where it is preceded by an utterance- and a phrase- initial prosodic boundary (the Isolated condition) with its rendition when embedded in a frame sentence (e.g., Say canteen again) where the left prosodic boundary before canteen is weaker (the Embedded condition). Results show a very clear tendency towards late phrasal prominence on the final accentable syllable (e.g., -teen in canteen) in the Embedded condition while in the Isolated condition this pattern appeared in less than half of the targets, showing that the stronger left boundary increased the incidence of stress shift. Two more experiments manipulated the strength of the boundary to the right of the target (#) respectively by changing the syntactic parse of the critical phrase (e.g. canteen cook) in sequences like (1) and by manipulating constituent length as in (2). Results showed that the syntactic manipulation significantly affected the strength of the prosodic boundary between the clashing words which was stronger in (1b) relative to (1a), and affected the incidence of stress shift, which was higher in (1a) relative to (1b). The length manipulation also affected the rate of stress shift, which was significantly higher in the phrase with the shorter word, e.g., soups (2a) relative to phrase with the longer word, e.g., supervisors (2b). (1) Example from the Syntax Experiment a. Who is the canteen (#) cook these days? (Pre-modifier + Noun) b. How do the canteen (#) cook these days? (NP + VP) (2) Example from the Length Experiment a. It should include the canteen (#) soups again. (Shorter constituent) b. It should include the canteen (#) supervisors again. (Longer constituent) Whilst we knew from the literature that the grouping of the clashing words within one Intonational Phrase (IP) encourages stress shift, results from the Syntax and Length experiments indicate that this (i.e., the phrasing of the clashing words within same IP) is not sufficient condition for the occurrence of stress shift, and that fine-grained degrees of boundary strength below the Intonational Phrase can drive changes in prominence pattern. The fact that higher rates of stress shift (and associated significant acoustic changes) were driven by manipulations of constituent length --for sequences with the same syntactic structure-- provides support for the idea that prosodic (rather than syntactic) boundaries directly influence stress shift. The fourth experiment tests the definition of stress clash in English in cases like fourteen candles where the two main lexical prominences are strictly adjacent along the time dimension, in fourteen canoes where the prominences are not adjacent in time, but adjacent at the higher levels of the metrical hierarchy, and in fourteen canteens where the main lexical prominences are not adjacent, and do not clash. This experiment highlighted and resolved an unacknowledged disagreement about what clash status sequences with one weak intervening syllable (e.g., fourTEEN caNOES). The fourTEEN caNOES type were shown to behave like metrically clashing sequences (e.g., fourteen CANdles) in attracting stress shift, and differently from the non-metrically-clashing sequences (e.g., fourteen CANTEENS) in discouraging it. These results provide empirical support for the Standard Metrical Theory (e.g. Selkirk, 1984; Nespor & Vogel, 1989) claim that 1) stress clash matters in triggering stress shift and that 2) stress clash in English is defined at the higher prosodic levels and not restricted to the level of the segmental string as indirectly assumed in a growing body of research (e.g., Vogel, Bunnel & Hoskins, 1995; Tomlinson, Liu & Fox Tree, 2014). Along with the establishment of prosodic boundary strength as one of the predictors influencing stress shift, another important contribution of the thesis is providing empirical evidence that the English Rhythm Rule is not solely a perceptual phenomenon and that it is associated with acoustic correlates. The main correlates of perceived stress shift consistently appearing across experiments is the decrease in the duration of the main lexical prominence of the target (e.g., -teen in canteen) and the increase of fundamental frequency and Sound Pressure Level peaks and on the initial syllable (e.g., canin canteen), when followed by a main clashing phrasal prominence. The acoustic analysis shows that the first accentable syllable also contributes in the perception of stress shift. This latter result does not lend support to the deletion formulation of the Rhythm Rule (Gussenhoven, 1991) which stipulates that the impressions of stress shift are solely associated with changes of prominence in the last accentable syllable of the target (e.g. -teen in canteen). Along with the determination of the acoustic correlates of perceived stress shift in English, the present research 1) indicates that fine-grained gradations of prosodic boundary strength can influence stress shift, 2) shows that while stress clash can increase the incidence of stress shift, stress shift can take place even in environments completely free of stress clash, and 3) provides evidence that stress clash should not be construed simply as the concatenation of two main lexical prominences along the time dimension.