Pausing strategies and prosodic boundaries in Dalabon

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Prosodies

One of the main functions of prosody is to structure the message into "chunks" which have a definite size and internal structure. These prosodic constituents have been proposed to be hierarchically organized and nonisomorphic relative to syntactic constituents. Within the framework of Prosodic Phonology (Selkirk 1984; Nespor and Vogel 1986; inter alia), these constituents are the domain of realization/application of specific phonological rules. Moreover, what provides the information for the prosodic constituent to be built is surface syntactic structure (cf. Nespor and Vogel 1979, 1986; Selkirk 1980). However, early Prosodic Phonology work as well as more recent research have also accumulated a large body of evidence showing that the placement of prosodic boundaries for the purpose of structuring the utterance in various languages is often beyond the scope of syntax. In fact, factors such as information structure, constituent weight as well as speech rate appear to play a major role in phrasing decisions (Nespor and Vogel 1986; Steedman 1991; Truckenbrodt 1999; Selkirk 2000). The concept of syntactic branchingness has also been employed in order to account for specific phrasing patterns that could not be predicted by the syntax-prosody algorithms postulated by Nespor and Vogel's version of Prosodic Phonology. Some of the restructuring rules postulated by that theory are in fact based on branchingness. One of those rules, for instance, predicts that in Italian a complement immediately following a head can stand on its own only if the complement is branching. For instance, an object noun is phrased together with the preceding verb only if the NP is non-branching. This peculiarity is illustrated in (1). Among the most uncontroversially assumed constituents above the foot, some versions of Prosodic Phonology posit the phonological phrase (φ) and the Intonational phrase (Ip). 1 While in (1a) the noun is non-branching, in (1b) it is branching, thus giving rise to a second, separate phonological phrase, whose evidence is the absence of Raddoppiamento Sintattico in [p] of panini 'sandwiches'. Examples are from Nespor (1993: 204). (1) a. (mangerò [p:]anini)φ will eat sandwiches 'I will eat sandwiches' b. (mangerò)φ ([p]anini col salame)φ will eat salami sandwiches 'I will eat salami sandwiches' A similar notion of branchingness has been invoked in a number of other studies. On the other hand, work by Selkirk (1984) and, more recently, by Ghini (1993), substitute this notion of branchingness with constraints of different nature. For instance, Ghini argues that Nespor and Vogel's branching conditions can be successfully reanalyzed in terms of average weight and balance of phonological phrases. Among the constraints proposed by Ghini, one finds a binarity constraint that has also been employed in more recent work on English (Selkirk 2000) as well as on Brazilian Portuguese (Sandalo and Truckenbrodt 2002). In the last two works, a MAX-BIN constraint is employed in order to enforce binarity on the phonological phrase by stating that the average phonological phrase, at a normal speech rate, will consist of two prosodic words. Another interesting fact concerns the possible interaction between the placement of phrase boundaries and

Phonological argumentation: Essays on evidence …, 2009

In one of the pioneering works of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolen sky 1993/2004), McCarthy (1993a) offers a comprehensive analysis of r-insertion in non-rhotic dialects of English, and suggests that the constraint driving the process is not an onset-related constraint, but rather a constraint requiring prosodic words to end in a consonant('FINAL-C'). While morphological categories such as roots or stems are sometimes subject to templatic requirements involving an obligatory final consonant, independent evidence for a requirement ofthis kind on genuine prosodic constituents, such as surface prosodic words, is sparse. This paper shows that, while McCarthy's treatment remains, in its essentials, a model of optimality-theoretic analysis, it is unnecessary to take recourse to FINAL-C once the onset requirements for different levels ofthe prosodic hierarchy, together with their associated faithfulness properties, are better understood.

Lingua, 2014

This paper provides evidence that word-internal syntax can play a crucial role in the determination of phonological well-formedness. The focus is on an apparent paradox in Ojibwe; the language both avoids and tolerates vowels in hiatus. Adopting the theory of Distributed Morphology, we argue that VV sequences are avoided within domains that are realizations of syntactic phases, based on the theory of cyclic derivation proposed by and others. In contrast, when a VV sequence spans the boundary between phases, it is tolerated. The apparent paradox is a consequence of the fact that the elements outside the spell-out of a phase cannot be evaluated to determine the well-formedness of prosodic entities like syllables, feet and prosodic words. Derivation by phase and Distributed Morphology also provide insights into two strategies for avoiding vowels in hiatus within a phase-domain; vowel loss applies to combinations of vocabulary items inserted in the same phase, while consonant epenthesis applies to items inserted in different phases but merged phonologically after insertion. The conditions under which consonant epenthesis occurs provide support for post-syntactic movement at the PF interface, triggered entirely by phonological factors. Lingua 150 332--362 333 H. Newell, G. Piggott / Lingua 150 (2014) 332--362 339 9 Valentine (2001: 61--62) and others have observed that the emphatic particle /sa/ may appear immediately after a tense morpheme. This should not be construed as prima facie evidence that the tense morpheme constitutes a separate word. The location of the emphatic particle may be prosodically controlled, in a manner similar to the location of an English expletive like 'fucking' (e.g. 'fan-fucking-tastic') (see . 8 The negative particle co-occurs with an obligatory negative suffix /-si:/ on the verb. 10 The first of the above examples (21a) contains a modifier followed a root-root compound. Hiatus is resolved within the compound but not between the modifier and the verb. Note also in (21c) that hiatus is unresolved between two modifiers and between the second modifier and the verb. The difference between (21a) and (21c) is explained later.

Phonology, 2000

We also gratefully acknowledge insightful comments from So! nia Frota, Carlos Gussenhoven, Geoff Lindsey, La! szlo! Varga, two anonymous reviewers and an associate editor.

Linguistik online, 2004

Based on where and how phonological rules apply, studies in Lexical Phonology etc.) distinguish between two levels in the phonology; namely, lexical and post-lexical. At the post-lexical level, the various phonological rules normally require particular domains, without which they fail to apply. The question that follows is where and how we define these domains. Considering Akan Noun-Noun and Noun-Adjective phrasal word (compound) constructions in prosodic phonology etc.), this paper touches on some aspects of the prosody-syntax interface on the idea that the domain of a post-lexical rule is drawn from the prosodic component, an intermediate phase of interface analysis. The rules that come to bear are tonal (i.e. H-Deletion, H-Insertion and Boundary assimilation) and segmental (i.e. Prefix deletion and Diphthong simplification) ones that apply on the dictates of particular prosodic domain attainment. Thus, this paper argues that the syntactic structure influences these phonological rules, but indirectly through the prosodic structure (Inkelas 1989). Finally, the paper claims that with the prosodic domains occurrences are better defined and accounted for.

Studies in Language, 1996

This paper discusses the phonological properties of words and phrases in two Northern Arawak languages of the Upper Rio Negro, Brazil. These features are h-prosody, vowel harmony triggered by the glottal fricative h, vowel nasalization and vowel diphthongization. A feature that is used to mark a word in one language may mark a phrase in the other. There is a regular interdependence between morphemes and syllables. The most unusual characteristic of the languages is the existence of pausal forms which mark phrase-final and utterance-final boundaries. The phonological character of pause marking devices, viewed cross-linguistically, contradicts a wide-spread assumption about the entirely phonetic realization of pauses.

This paper presents a study of the prosodic correlates at the boundaries of intonation units and prosodic sentences in Jaminjung, a severely endangered language of Northern Australia, including pitch resets, final lengthening, pauses, and phonation events such as breathiness and creakiness. This analysis demonstrates that units of speech larger than IUs must be examined to account for the phenomena observed in spontaneous speech. It contributes to the ongoing debate on the nature and status of discourse units and the best methodologies for their identification (Degand and Simon 2009); it also contributes to the developing interest in examining discourse in spontaneous speech and its theoretical implications (Wichman 2006) from the perspective of an, as yet, unwritten language.

1993

environments in which they occur, much as syntax was only studied in the rarefied environment of made-up sentences. Very little study has been devoted to the distribution of phonological elements in texts. I will argue below that the text frequency of segments affects their phonetic shape and evolution. Consider subphonemic detail and variation conditioned lexically, morphologically and socially. Generative phonology, like its predecessor, phonemic theory, chose to ignore low-level phonetic detail'. Like the detail of actual language use that has enriched functionalist syntactic theory, the study of detail in phonology will reveal important facts that bear on our understanding of how language is really processed and what structures have empirical validity. Attend to exceptions and marginal cases, for they can be valuable sources of information about the nature of processing and representation. As I will argue below, marginal 'phonemes' are particularly interesting in their consequences for phonological theory. Reconsider what Langacker 1987 calls the 'rule-list fallacy' (see also Bybee 1988). Our thinking and analyses need not be restricted to only two options-either an elements occurs in a list or it is generated by rule. I propose below that lexical elements (words or phrases) consist of actual phonetic content that is modified as these elements are used. While phonetic 'rules' may exist as articulatory patterns for the realization of words, generalizations at other levels may be better thought of as emergent generalizations over lexical representations. 5 Altaic dialects, in Eskimo-Aleut [1330iuca and Mowrey 1987b]). Or consider the changes undergone by Proto-Bantu voiceless stops (Tucker and Bryan 1957, Pagliuca and Mowrey 1987h):