The Foot is not an obligatory constituent of the Prosodic Hierarchy: “stress” in Turkish, French and child English

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Öner Özçelik
Keyword(s):  
Regular Word ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Opposite Edge ◽  
Early Child ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Foot Structure ◽  
Edge Stress ◽  
Phonological Phrase

AbstractThis paper proposes that the presence/absence of the Foot is parametric; that is, contra much previous research (see e. g. Selkirk, Elisabeth (1995). Sentence prosody: intonation, stress and phrasing. In J. Goldsmith (ed.)The handbook of phonological theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. 550–569., Vogel, Irene (2009). Universals of prosodic structure. In S. Scalise, E. Magni, & A. Bisetto (eds.)Universals of language today. Dordrecht: Springer. 59–82.), it is argued here that the Foot is not a universal constituent of the Prosodic Hierarchy; rather, some languages, such as Turkish and French, as well as early child languages, are footless. Several types of evidence are presented in support of this proposal, from both Turkish and French, as well as child English. A comparison of regular (word-final) and exceptional stress in Turkish reveals, for example, that regular “stress” is intonational prominence falling on the last syllable of prosodic words in the absence of foot structure. Both acoustic and formal evidence are presented in support of this proposal, as well as evidence from syntax-prosody interface. The paper also presents evidence for the footless status of French, which, unlike Turkish, is proposed to be completely footless. Several arguments are presented in support of this position, such as the fact that, in French, the domain of obligatory prominence is the Phonological Phrase (PPh), not the Prosodic Word (PWd); in a PPh consisting of several PWds, therefore, nonfinal PWds can surface without any kind of stress or prominence, suggesting that, at least for non-final PWds, one cannot assume stress or foot structure. Finally, the proposal is extended to additional languages, such as those demonstrating Default-to-Opposite Edge stress.

scholarly journals Emergência de sândi consonântico em Português Europeu: uma abordagem prosódica

2017 ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Alexandra Malho ◽  
Susana Correia ◽  
Sónia Frota
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Word Position ◽  
Fricative Voicing ◽  
Phonological Phrase ◽  
The Relationship

In European Portuguese, the domain for sandhi phenomena is the intonational phrase. Unlike the intonational phrase, the phonological phrase has been shown to be only relevant for rhythm and prominence-related phenomena (Frota, 2000, 2014). Fricative voicing between words (casa[ʒb]rancas, casa[ʃp]retas) and ressylabification before vowel-initial words (casa[zɐ]marelas) occur within the intonational phrase. In this study, we considered spontaneous productions of a Portuguese child (Luma), aged 2;04-4;00, to examine the acquisition of external consonantal sandhi. The data show that sandhi production varies according to the segmental (C#C, C#V, CFric, CVib, CLat) and prosodic context (clitic, prosodic word, position in prosodic structure). The data further confirm that sandhi occurs within the intonational phrase, supporting the analysis proposed for the adult grammar. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the acquisition of the prosodic structure and the acquisition of sandhi phenomena.

scholarly journals The prosodic word is not universal, but emergent

2010 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
RENÉ SCHIERING ◽  
BALTHASAR BICKEL ◽  
KRISTINE A. HILDEBRANDT
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Phonological Rule ◽  
Actual Degree ◽  
Construction Type ◽  
Sound Patterns ◽  
Phonological Phrase ◽  
Frequent Reference ◽  
Phonological Rules

In Prosodic Phonology, domains for the application of phonological patterns are commonly modeled as a Prosodic Hierarchy. The theory predicts, among other things, that (i) prosodic domains cluster on a single universal set of domains (‘Clustering’), and (ii) no level of prosodic structure is skipped in the building of prosodic structure unless this is required by independently motivated higher ranking principles or constraints (‘Strict Succession’). In this paper, we demonstrate that if, as is standardly done, evidence is limited to lexically general phonological processes, some languages systematically violate the Strict Succession Prediction, evidencing no prosodic word domain, and some languages systematically violate the Clustering Prediction, evidencing more than one domain between the phonological phrase and the foot. We substantiate these claims by in-depth studies of phonological rule domains in Vietnamese (Austroasiatic) and Limbu (Sino-Tibetan). As an alternative to the Prosodic Hierarchy framework, we advocate a heuristic for cross-linguistic comparison in which prosodic domains are conceived of as language-particular, intrinsic and highly specific properties of individual phonological rules or constraints. This allows us to explore empirically the actual degree of variation to be encountered across prosodic systems. It turns out that the ‘word’ has no privileged or universal status in phonology, but only emerges through frequent reference of sound patterns to a given construction type in a given language.

The Medium and the Message

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Sandler
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Special Stress ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Phonological Phrase ◽  
The Relationship

In natural communication, the medium through which language is transmitted plays an important and systematic role. Sentences are broken up rhythmically into chunks; certain elements receive special stress; and, in spoken language, intonational tunes are superimposed onto these chunks in particular ways — all resulting in an intricate system of prosody. Investigations of prosody in Israeli Sign Language demonstrate that sign languages have comparable prosodic systems to those of spoken languages, although the phonetic medium is completely different. Evidence for the prosodic word and for the phonological phrase in ISL is examined here within the context of the relationship between the medium and the message. New evidence is offered to support the claim that facial expression in sign languages corresponds to intonation in spoken languages, and the term “superarticulation” is coined to describe this system in sign languages. Interesting formaldiffer ences between the intonationaltunes of spoken language and the “superarticulatory arrays” of sign language are shown to offer a new perspective on the relation between the phonetic basis of language, its phonological organization, and its communicative content.

scholarly journals The Syntax and Prosody of Weak Pronouns in Chamorro

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Chung
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Mutual Interaction ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Austronesian Language ◽  
Independent Components ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Phonological Phrase

In the modular linguistic theory assumed by many generative linguists, phonology and syntax are interconnected but fundamentally independent components of grammar. The effects of syntax on phonology are mediated by prosodic structure, a representation of prosodic constituents calculated from syntactic structure but not isomorphic to it. Within this overall architecture, I investigate the placement of weak pronouns in the Austronesian language Chamorro. Certain Chamorro pronominals can be realized as prosodically deficient weak pronouns that typically occur right after the predicate. I showthat these pronouns are second-position clitics whose placement is determined not syntactically, but prosodically: they occur after the leftmost phonological phrase of their intonational phrase. My analysis of these clitics assumes that lexical insertion is late and can affect and be affected by prosodic phrase formation-assumptions consistent with the view that the mutual interaction of phonology and syntax is confined to the postsyntactic operations that translate syntactic structure into prosodic structure.

scholarly journals Footing is Not Always about Stress: Formalizing Variable High Vowel Deletion in Québec French

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme D. Garcia ◽  
Heather Goad ◽  
Natália Brambatti Guzzo
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foot Structure ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Vowel Deletion ◽  
The Right ◽  
Phonological Phrase

The existence of foot structure in (Québec) French is disputed, since the only position of obligatory prominence in the language is the right edge of the phonological phrase. In this paper, we propose that a segmental process, namely, high vowel deletion (HVD), supports the existence of iterative iambic footing in Québec French. We report on a judgement task with auditorily-presented stimuli in which native speakers judged whether words with and without HVD sounded natural. The results show that (i) HVD is preferred in even-numbered syllables from the right word edge, (ii) HVD is preferred when the resulting consonantal cluster mirrors an ill-formed branching onset, and (iii) although non-deletion is overall preferred to deletion, deletion is preferred in one context: when the target vowel is at a suffix boundary and in foot-dependent positions. 

scholarly journals L2 Acquisition of a Complex Stress Pattern: UG-Constrained Learning Paths in Khalkha Mongolian

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Öner Özçelik
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Complex Stress ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Opposite Edge ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Production Experiment ◽  
Edge Stress ◽  
Constrained Learning ◽  
English Speaking

This paper examines second language (L2) acquisition of stress in Khalkha Mongolian, which is one of the few Default-to-Opposite Edge stress systems of the world, and as such, demonstrates “conflicting directionality” regarding stress assignment, resulting in the leftmost edge of a word being more prominent in certain words and the rightmost edge in certain others. Given the additional fact that the language exhibits Non-finality effects, and that, unlike English, codas are not moraic, its acquisition presents unique difficulties and challenges for English-speaking learners of the language. Many of these challenges potentially lead these learners to make Universal Grammar (UG)-unconstrained (but cognitively reasonable) assumptions about how the phonology of Mongolian works, especially since the learners do not have all the Mongolian data available to them all at once. The learning scenario here, thus, provides unique opportunities to investigate whether L2 phonologies are constrained by the options made available by UG. The findings of a semi-controlled production experiment indicate that although learners do not necessarily converge on the prosodic representations employed by native speakers of the L2 (i.e., footless intonational prominence, at least for the leftmost/default edge ‘stress’), and although certain changes to the grammar are very difficult to implement, such as switching from moraic codas to non-moraic codas, the learners nevertheless demonstrate a stage-like behavior where each step exhibits the parameter settings employed by a natural language, one that is neither like the L2 nor the L1. Conversely, despite the input leading them to do so, learners do not entertain UG-unconstrained prosodic representations, such as End-Rule-Middle or End-Rule-Variable; End-Rule is set either to Right or Left, as is expected in a system constrained by the options made available by UG. We conclude that the hypothesis space for interlanguage phonologies is determined by UG.

scholarly journals Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Phonology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Kügler
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
General Process ◽  
Sensitive Analysis ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Phonological Phrase

This paper examines phonological phrasing in the Kwa language Akan. Regressive [+ATR] vowel harmony between words (RVH) serves as a hitherto unreported diagnostic of phonological phrasing. In this paper I discuss VP-internal and NP-internal structures, as well as SVO(O) and serial verb constructions. RVH is a general process in Akan grammar, although it is blocked in certain contexts. The analysis of phonological phrasing relies on universal syntax–phonology mapping constraints whereby lexically headed syntactic phrases are mapped onto phonological phrases. Blocking contexts call for a domain-sensitive analysis of RVH assuming recursive prosodic structure which makes reference to maximal and non-maximal phonological phrases. It is proposed (i) that phonological phrase structure is isomorphic to syntactic structure in Akan, and (ii) that the process of RVH is blocked at the edge of a maximal phonological phrase; this is formulated in terms of a domain-sensitive CrispEdge constraint.

scholarly journals Prosodic vowel lengthening in a spontaneous speech corpus of Vimeu Picard

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-88
Author(s):  
Eric Halicki
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Speech Corpus ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Romance Language ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries ◽  
Rate Of Speech ◽  
Vowel Lengthening ◽  
Phonological Phrase

Abstract The goal of this paper is to present findings about vowel lengthening at morpho-syntactically defined prosodic boundaries. The data come from a corpus of spontaneous speech from Vimeu Picard, a Gallo- Romance language. A total of 10 672 vowel durations are measured, and 5336 vowel ratios are calculated, providing data for the prosodic word, clitic group, phonological phrase, intonational phrase, and the utterance. A general increase in vowel duration is observed as one ascends the prosodic hierarchy, without adjusting for rate of speech. Significant differences in vowel ratio are found between the clitic group and all other phrases, the prosodic word and the intonational phrase, the phonological phrase and the intonational phrase, and the intonational phrase and the utterance. Contrary to what was expected, vowel ratios at the utterance edge were found to be significantly shorter than vowel ratios at the intonational phrase edge. This may be because pauses are greater for the utterance than for the intonational phrase.

scholarly journals The relevance of prosodic structure in tonal articulation Edge effects at the prosodic word level in Catalan and Spanish

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Prieto ◽  
Eva Estebas-Vilaplana ◽  
Maria del Mar Vanrell
Keyword(s):  
Edge Effects ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Word Level
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