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In this report, the phenomenon of vowel lengthening in Standard Italian and two Northern Italian dialects, Friulian and Milanese, is discussed. For each language, the facts of vowel lengthening are presented and analyzed in the framework of several theories previously proposed to account for the data. These include primarily derivational theory, moraic theory, and optimality theory. Vowel lengthening is analyzed predominantly from a synchronic perspective for Standard Italian, but for Friulian and Milanese, both diachronic and synchronic accounts are presented. Vowel length in Italian and Milanese is seen to result from bimoraic enforcement, a principle requiring that all stressed syllables be bimoraic. A constraint prohibiting long vowels in word-final position interacts with the principle of bimoraic enforcement in Italian. In Milanese, bimoraic enforcement responds to a lexical contrast in moraic and non-moraic codas. Vowels before non-moraic codas lengthen to create a bimoraic syllable, while those before moraic codas do not since those syllables are already bimoraic. In Friulian, on the other hand, historical vowel lengthening which resulted from compensatory lengthening following the apocope of final vowels has been reanalyzed as a synchronic process of compensatory lengthening resulting from loss of consonant voice following word-final devoicing. / text

This paper looks at the relationship between emotion and vowel length in spontaneous speech, specifically during narratives. It is hypothesized that during emotionally-laden speech, vowel length will be longer in duration than when in non-emotional speech. Data is drawn from the Univerisity of California, Santa Barbara linguistic corpus, with conversations focused on individuals in and around Southern California. The paper builds on work by Dabbs et al., Banse & Scherer, Estes & Adelman, and others regarding the nature of cognitive monitoring, as well as stance as discussed by Ochs & Schieffelin, Ochs, Kärkkainen, Local & Walker, and how emotion is displayed in speech. Tokens chosen for analysis are /ɑ/, /ɑɪ/, and /ə/. Three of each token in first syllable position is collected for analysis from both emotional and non-emotional speech. Analysis of tokens then takes place by (mean) averaging each token's length for each speaker in each stance, then the total vowel average time is calculated again for each speaker in each stance. Beyond intra-vowel, intra-speaker averages, inter-speaker average is calculated to assess consistency of the vowel length changes between stances. The paper finds that the length of tokens shows an average increase during intraspeaker emotional speech.

This dissertation examines multiple exponence (ME) phenomena in the non-inflectional morphology of three languages: Nuu-chah-nulth (Wakashan), Central Yup'ik (Eskimo), and Korean (language isolate or Altaic). These languages exhibit a common property: ME comprised of a non-inflectional suffix and one or more base modifications. The base modifications involve a vowel length change and reduplication in Nuu-chah-nulth, various types of deletion in Central Yup’ik, and vowel shortening in Korean. This dissertation pursues four research questions: (1) what criteria diagnose morphophonological alternations as ME and do the criteria apply to all cases of ME to the same degree? (2) Does derivational ME differ from inflectional ME? (3) Does one exponent play a more significant role in expressing semantic/syntactic information than another? (4) How is derivational ME formally accounted for? In pursuit of these research questions, this study proposes, based on Matthews’s (1972) study, four criteria to distinguish ME from other phonological alternations. Only the two criteria, Non-phonological condition and Consistent co-occurrence are obligatory; two others, Phonological Consistency and No exceptions on base selection, may be violated, suggesting that ME parameters occur along a continuum. This dissertation also proposes derivational classes according to patterns of base modification. Derivational classes play an important role in formulating Word Formation Rules (WFRs), in that they provide the morphological conditions for the structural description of base modification rules. Significantly, semantic/syntactic information is encoded in suffixation, capturing the fact that the large number of meanings that suffixes carry (approximately 500) cannot be mapped onto a limited number of base modifications (ranging from two to fourteen). The evidence that suffixes convey meaning supports the claim that ME requires two different types of WFR, a suffixation rule that conveys semantic/syntactic information, and base modification rules that do not. Also, this study suggests that suffixes are the main exponent of ME because they make the main contribution to the meanings conveyed through ME. This study contributes to a theory of morphology not only in that seemingly distinct processes receive a unified analysis as ME, but also in that the distinct processes are formally accounted for, expanding the WP approach to derivational morphology. / Graduate / 0290 / sung17hwa@gmail.com

Es wird untersucht, ob das High-Variability-Training (HVT) die Perzeptions- und Produktionsleistungen des Gespanntheitskontrastes deutscher Vokale bei russischspra-chigen Deutschlernenden positiv beeinflusst. Dafür wurde in Anlehnung an bekannte HVT-Studien ein Aussprachetraining speziell für die Vokaldauer konzipiert. Basis ist die Gegenüberstellung zweier phonetischer Lautkontraste als Minimalpaare der fünf deutschen Vokale (A, E, I, O, U). An dem HVT nahmen dreißig fortgeschrittene russischsprachige Lernende des Deut-schen mit muttersprachlich bedingten Fehlern der L2-Vokalproduktion teil, gemäß dem Lernalter (während bzw. nach der kritischen Phase) in zwei Untersuchungsgruppen (RM1, RM2) getrennt. Die Untersuchung verlief in drei Phasen (Pretest, Training und Posttest). Das Training bestand aus acht Sitzungen von jeweils ca. zwanzig Minuten Dauer. Davor und danach wurden die Produktions- und Perzeptionsfähigkeiten ermittelt. Die Testdaten ergeben, dass 73,3 % der RM1- und 80 % der RM2-Probanden die Perzeptionsleistung der deutschen Vokalphoneme signifikant steigerten. In beiden Gruppen stiegen ebenfalls tendenziell die Produktionsfähigkeiten, 66,7 % der RM1- und 60 % der RM2-Probanden erhöhten sie signifikant. Dennoch konnte kein Teil-nehmer eine Vokalproduktion auf muttersprachlichem Niveau erreichen. Gezieltes HVT-Aussprachetraining wirkt sich demnach positiv auf die Perzeption und Produktion des Gespanntheitskontrastes bei russischsprachigen Deutschlernenden aus und ist eine effektive Erweiterung für den Vokalerwerb auch für fortgeschrittene L2-Lernende. Diese Erkenntnis unterstützt die Ergebnisse der Studien von Logan et al. (1991), Wang et al. (1999), Cenoz & Garciá-Lecumberri (1999), Lambacher et al. (2005), Nishi & Kewley-Port (2007), Iverson & Evans (2009), Liatambur & Lai (2011), Iverson, Pinet & Evans (2012), Wong (2012), Rato (2014), Jügler et al. (2015). / This study investigates whether high variability training (HVT) positively influences perception and production of the tension contrast of German vowels in Russian-speaking learners of German. For this task a pronunciation training course was developed especially for vowel length, drawing on established HVT studies. The basis for this is the comparison of two phonetic contrasts as minimal pairs, taken from the five German vowels (A, E, I, O, U). 30 advanced Russian-speaking learners of German with mother tongue interference in L2 vowel production took part in the HVT, separated according to learning age (during or after the critical phase) into two study groups (RM1, RM2). The study took place in three phases (pre-test, training and post-test). The training consisted of eight sessions, each of approx. 20 minutes in length. Production and perception abilities were tested before and after this. The test results show that 73.3% of the RM1 and 80% of the RM2 test subjects significantly increased their ability to perceive the German vowel phonemes. In both groups the production abilities also tended to rise, with 66.7% of the RM1 and 60% of the RM2 test subjects improving them significantly. However, no participant was able to achieve vowel production at native speaker level. This shows that targeted HVT pronunciation training has a positive effect on the perception and production of tension contrast in Russian-speaking learners of German and is an effective extension for vowel development, also for advanced L2 learners. These findings support the results of studies by Logan et al. (1991), Wang et al. (1999), Cenoz & Garciá-Lecumberri (1999), Lambacher et al. (2005), Nishi & Kewley-Port (2007), Iverson & Evans (2009), Liatambur & Lai (2011), Iverson, Pinet & Evans (2012), Wong (2012), Rato (2014), Jügler et al. (2015).

The thesis analyzes the non-standard vowel length and shortness in the complete hymn book of Valentin Šubar, as it is presented in the edition published by the Utraquist Jiří Hanuš of Kronenfeld in 1612 (Knihopis K16012). Based on selected transliterated segments, the level of consistency in the marking of vowel quantity is identified, and the outcome is subsequently taken into account when interpreting individual non-standard forms. Consequently, the results of previous research on vowel length marking in the 17th century Czech prints are slightly modified and the incorrect datation of surviving exemplars of the hymn book is corrected.