Heather Goad | McGill University (original) (raw)
Papers by Heather Goad
We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previou... more We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previous research which has shown that second language learners/users (L2ers) assign non-target interpretations to overt pronouns. We investigate effects of contrastive stress and pause, proposing that these will result in changes to default antecedent preferences for overt and null pronouns, for L2ers and for native speakers. An experiment was conducted, involving English-speaking L2ers of Italian and Italian native speakers. Participants were presented with auditory stimuli like Lorenzo ha scritto a Roberto quando Ø/lui si è trasferito a Torino 'Lorenzo wrote to Roberto when (he) moved to Turin' and indicated their preferred antecedent for the pronoun. Overt versus null pronouns, presence versus absence of stress on overt pronouns, and presence versus absence of pause between clauses were manipulated. The results yielded significant differences for antecedent choices between null and overt pronouns, consistent with earlier literature. In addition, stress was significant for both groups. Implications of a prosodic approach to ambiguity resolution are discussed.
Submitted, 2024
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that evenand odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that evenand odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
Submitted, 2024
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that even- and odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
Laboratory Phonology, 2024
This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar str... more This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Apr 28, 2011
The representation of sC clusters Heather Goad McGill University * Many thanks to two anonymous r... more The representation of sC clusters Heather Goad McGill University * Many thanks to two anonymous reviewers and the editors for helpful comments. This work was supported by grants from SSHRC and FQRSC.
Laboratory Phonology, 2024
This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar str... more This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
Journal of Phonetics, Mar 1, 2018
This study explores how individuals' second language cue weighting strategies change over time an... more This study explores how individuals' second language cue weighting strategies change over time and across different contrasts. The study investigates the developmental changes in perceptual cue weighting of two English vowel contrasts (/i/-/ɪ/ and /ɛ/-/ae/) by adult and child Korean learners of English during their first year of immersion in Canada. Longitudinal results revealed that adult learners had an initial advantage in L2 perceptual acquisition over children at least for the /i/-/ɪ/ contrast, but after one year some children showed greater improvements especially on the more difficult /ɛ/-/ae/ contrast. Both groups of Korean learners showed different acquisition patterns between the two vowel contrasts: they used both spectral and duration cues to distinguish /i/-/ɪ/ but generally only duration to distinguish /ɛ/-/ae/. By examining cue weights over time, this study partially confirmed the hypothesized developmental stages for the acquisition of L2 vowels first proposed by Escudero (2000) for Spanish learners of English. However, some unpredicted patterns were also identified. Most importantly, the longitudinal results suggest that individual differences in cue weighting are not merely random variability in the learner's response patterns, but are systematically associated with the developmental trajectories of individual learners and those trajectories vary according to vowel contrast.
Proceedings of the annual meetings on phonology, Mar 19, 2014
as well as at Phonology 2013. We would like to thank the audiences for questions and comments. Th... more as well as at Phonology 2013. We would like to thank the audiences for questions and comments. This research was supported by grants from SSHRC and FRQSC. 1 All data in this paper come from Frantz's (2009) grammar (henceforth G) and Frantz & Russell's (1995) dictionary (D), unless otherwise noted. Numbers following G and D refer to page numbers in these sources.
Journal of Phonetics, Mar 1, 2019
Theories of laryngeal realism argue for a tight correspondence between a segment's phonetic cues ... more Theories of laryngeal realism argue for a tight correspondence between a segment's phonetic cues and the (laryngeal) phonological features that represent it. As such, the 'p'/'b' contrast in French, expressed phonetically by vocal fold vibration during the stop closure, is represented by a [voice] feature while the 'p'/'b' contrast in English, expressed phonetically by contrasting long and short lag VOT, is represented by a [spread] feature. Laryngeal realist literature focuses on whether a given segment is best represented by [voice] or [spread], and proposes a set of criteria and tests by which to diagnose the representation. In this study we push laryngeal realist theory in a new direction-to segments proposed to be specified for both [voice] and [spread] features-a combination which poses challenges to the current diagnostics. To do so, we analyze acoustic data from Nepali, an Indic (a.k.a. Indo-Aryan) language with a single class of stops described as both voiced and aspirated. We apply the same criteria and diagnostics used in laryngeal realism. We find support for the proposed representation, with a caveat that the [voice] feature appears 'stronger' than [spread].
Linguistics vanguard, Aug 1, 2017
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, May 24, 2016
would like to thank the GALANA audience for questions and comments. Thanks as well to Hye-Young B... more would like to thank the GALANA audience for questions and comments. Thanks as well to Hye-Young Bang, Walcir Cardoso, Guilherme Garcia, Lauren Garfinkle, Natália Guzzo, Alexei Kochetov and Kris Onishi. This work was supported by grants from SSHRC and FRQSC. 1 The experiment reported on here appears in expanded form in Schwartz & Goad (2015). 2 Some languages provide direct positive evidence for the acquisition of subset syllable structure constraints from alternations: contextually-determined changes in the shapes of morphemes. However, alternations are not always available and often require a relatively high level of proficiency to interpret. Other direct positive evidence may include loanword adaptation (Trapman & Kager, 2009) or comparison of cognates (Bernadette Plunkett, p.c.). See Schwartz & Goad (2015) for discussion of the challenges that each of these types of evidence presents.
Umeda. Thanks to the audience at GASLA for questions and comments. The study discussed in section... more Umeda. Thanks to the audience at GASLA for questions and comments. The study discussed in section 2.4 was done in collaboration with Lydia White and Jeff Steele, and that reported on in section 3, with Lydia White. This research was funded by SSHRC and FQRSC.
This paper explore the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress... more This paper explore the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
0. Introduction. In this paper, I discuss two rules in Chilcotin (Athapaskan), both of which invo... more 0. Introduction. In this paper, I discuss two rules in Chilcotin (Athapaskan), both of which involve spreading of the feature [retracted tongue root] ((rtr]). The first rule is a coronal consonant harmony rule, Sibilant Assimilation, which requires that all coronal sibilants in a word agree in their specification for [rtr). The second rule, a tongue root harmony rule called Flattening, spreads [ +rtr] fresh velar segments and coronal sibilants onto neighbouring vowels. Only a subset of the [ +xtr] segments which trigger Flattening undergo Sibilant Assimilation. Given the structure of the feature hierarchy, the spreading of this subset in Sibilant Assimilation is impossible without violating locality. I suggest that the theory of tree geometry be modified to accomodate this problem.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 2003
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, Apr 1, 1998
Two accounts for the segmental and prosodic anomalies observed in plurals pro duced by 5 adults w... more Two accounts for the segmental and prosodic anomalies observed in plurals pro duced by 5 adults with specific language impairment (SLI), one prosodic and one morphological, are compared. The prosodic account proposed is that the grammars of these individuals do not tolerate extraprosodicity: indirect licensing by the pro sodic word. Although this account can capture a range of facts, it is rejected for several reasons, the most significant of which is that it cannot discriminate between anomalous outputs such as [dDg.s] and natural-sounding outputs such as [dngz], both of which are produced by impaired speakers. In view of this, a morphological account is proposed: The grammars of these impaired individuals lack certain sublexical features, in particular [?plural]; the notion of plurality is expressed at the level of conceptual structure. Consequently, plurals must be built through com pensatory means. They may involve the concatenation of stems and thereby struc turally resemble compounds, both morphologically and prosodically (yields [dog.s]). They may be stored as morphologically unanalyzed chunks (yields [dDgz]). Evidence in support of both options is provided.
We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previou... more We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previous research which has shown that second language learners/users (L2ers) assign non-target interpretations to overt pronouns. We investigate effects of contrastive stress and pause, proposing that these will result in changes to default antecedent preferences for overt and null pronouns, for L2ers and for native speakers. An experiment was conducted, involving English-speaking L2ers of Italian and Italian native speakers. Participants were presented with auditory stimuli like Lorenzo ha scritto a Roberto quando Ø/lui si è trasferito a Torino 'Lorenzo wrote to Roberto when (he) moved to Turin' and indicated their preferred antecedent for the pronoun. Overt versus null pronouns, presence versus absence of stress on overt pronouns, and presence versus absence of pause between clauses were manipulated. The results yielded significant differences for antecedent choices between null and overt pronouns, consistent with earlier literature. In addition, stress was significant for both groups. Implications of a prosodic approach to ambiguity resolution are discussed.
Submitted, 2024
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that evenand odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that evenand odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
Submitted, 2024
This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by pros... more This paper investigates whether high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is conditioned by prosodic structure. In Prosodic Phonology, prosodic constituents are typically assumed to be universal. However, the universality of certain constituents, such as the foot, has been questioned for languages like French, where prominence is only obligatory at the phrase level. We probe this issue by analysing HVD, a lenition process that is sensitive to prominence. We conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the role of phrasal tone profile in HVD, while Experiment 2 examined whether word-internal constituency affects HVD. The results show that, while tone profile does not affect HVD, the process is preferred in dependent positions of iambic feet in even-parity forms. Odd-parity forms show no preference regarding HVD, suggesting that even- and odd-parity forms are parsed differently in Québec French.
Laboratory Phonology, 2024
This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar str... more This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Apr 28, 2011
The representation of sC clusters Heather Goad McGill University * Many thanks to two anonymous r... more The representation of sC clusters Heather Goad McGill University * Many thanks to two anonymous reviewers and the editors for helpful comments. This work was supported by grants from SSHRC and FQRSC.
Laboratory Phonology, 2024
This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar str... more This article explores the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
Journal of Phonetics, Mar 1, 2018
This study explores how individuals' second language cue weighting strategies change over time an... more This study explores how individuals' second language cue weighting strategies change over time and across different contrasts. The study investigates the developmental changes in perceptual cue weighting of two English vowel contrasts (/i/-/ɪ/ and /ɛ/-/ae/) by adult and child Korean learners of English during their first year of immersion in Canada. Longitudinal results revealed that adult learners had an initial advantage in L2 perceptual acquisition over children at least for the /i/-/ɪ/ contrast, but after one year some children showed greater improvements especially on the more difficult /ɛ/-/ae/ contrast. Both groups of Korean learners showed different acquisition patterns between the two vowel contrasts: they used both spectral and duration cues to distinguish /i/-/ɪ/ but generally only duration to distinguish /ɛ/-/ae/. By examining cue weights over time, this study partially confirmed the hypothesized developmental stages for the acquisition of L2 vowels first proposed by Escudero (2000) for Spanish learners of English. However, some unpredicted patterns were also identified. Most importantly, the longitudinal results suggest that individual differences in cue weighting are not merely random variability in the learner's response patterns, but are systematically associated with the developmental trajectories of individual learners and those trajectories vary according to vowel contrast.
Proceedings of the annual meetings on phonology, Mar 19, 2014
as well as at Phonology 2013. We would like to thank the audiences for questions and comments. Th... more as well as at Phonology 2013. We would like to thank the audiences for questions and comments. This research was supported by grants from SSHRC and FRQSC. 1 All data in this paper come from Frantz's (2009) grammar (henceforth G) and Frantz & Russell's (1995) dictionary (D), unless otherwise noted. Numbers following G and D refer to page numbers in these sources.
Journal of Phonetics, Mar 1, 2019
Theories of laryngeal realism argue for a tight correspondence between a segment's phonetic cues ... more Theories of laryngeal realism argue for a tight correspondence between a segment's phonetic cues and the (laryngeal) phonological features that represent it. As such, the 'p'/'b' contrast in French, expressed phonetically by vocal fold vibration during the stop closure, is represented by a [voice] feature while the 'p'/'b' contrast in English, expressed phonetically by contrasting long and short lag VOT, is represented by a [spread] feature. Laryngeal realist literature focuses on whether a given segment is best represented by [voice] or [spread], and proposes a set of criteria and tests by which to diagnose the representation. In this study we push laryngeal realist theory in a new direction-to segments proposed to be specified for both [voice] and [spread] features-a combination which poses challenges to the current diagnostics. To do so, we analyze acoustic data from Nepali, an Indic (a.k.a. Indo-Aryan) language with a single class of stops described as both voiced and aspirated. We apply the same criteria and diagnostics used in laryngeal realism. We find support for the proposed representation, with a caveat that the [voice] feature appears 'stronger' than [spread].
Linguistics vanguard, Aug 1, 2017
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, May 24, 2016
would like to thank the GALANA audience for questions and comments. Thanks as well to Hye-Young B... more would like to thank the GALANA audience for questions and comments. Thanks as well to Hye-Young Bang, Walcir Cardoso, Guilherme Garcia, Lauren Garfinkle, Natália Guzzo, Alexei Kochetov and Kris Onishi. This work was supported by grants from SSHRC and FRQSC. 1 The experiment reported on here appears in expanded form in Schwartz & Goad (2015). 2 Some languages provide direct positive evidence for the acquisition of subset syllable structure constraints from alternations: contextually-determined changes in the shapes of morphemes. However, alternations are not always available and often require a relatively high level of proficiency to interpret. Other direct positive evidence may include loanword adaptation (Trapman & Kager, 2009) or comparison of cognates (Bernadette Plunkett, p.c.). See Schwartz & Goad (2015) for discussion of the challenges that each of these types of evidence presents.
Umeda. Thanks to the audience at GASLA for questions and comments. The study discussed in section... more Umeda. Thanks to the audience at GASLA for questions and comments. The study discussed in section 2.4 was done in collaboration with Lydia White and Jeff Steele, and that reported on in section 3, with Lydia White. This research was funded by SSHRC and FQRSC.
This paper explore the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress... more This paper explore the possibility that even though English and Portuguese present similar stress patterns on the surface, the two languages may be formally different: whereas English offers strong evidence for the foot, Portuguese does not. We present new data on the relationship between syllable weight and antepenultimate stress in both languages. We experimentally show that weight effects in English are consistent with an analysis of stress that employs feet. Weight effects in Portuguese, in contrast, are not optimally accounted for by a foot-based analysis. Sonority effects captured in our experimental data from Portuguese further question the role that the foot plays in this language, but not in English. Additional evidence for the foot in English comes from word minimality constraints, which are never violated in the language, unlike in Portuguese, where violations are commonly observed both in the lexicon and in derived words.
0. Introduction. In this paper, I discuss two rules in Chilcotin (Athapaskan), both of which invo... more 0. Introduction. In this paper, I discuss two rules in Chilcotin (Athapaskan), both of which involve spreading of the feature [retracted tongue root] ((rtr]). The first rule is a coronal consonant harmony rule, Sibilant Assimilation, which requires that all coronal sibilants in a word agree in their specification for [rtr). The second rule, a tongue root harmony rule called Flattening, spreads [ +rtr] fresh velar segments and coronal sibilants onto neighbouring vowels. Only a subset of the [ +xtr] segments which trigger Flattening undergo Sibilant Assimilation. Given the structure of the feature hierarchy, the spreading of this subset in Sibilant Assimilation is impossible without violating locality. I suggest that the theory of tree geometry be modified to accomodate this problem.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 2003
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, Apr 1, 1998
Two accounts for the segmental and prosodic anomalies observed in plurals pro duced by 5 adults w... more Two accounts for the segmental and prosodic anomalies observed in plurals pro duced by 5 adults with specific language impairment (SLI), one prosodic and one morphological, are compared. The prosodic account proposed is that the grammars of these individuals do not tolerate extraprosodicity: indirect licensing by the pro sodic word. Although this account can capture a range of facts, it is rejected for several reasons, the most significant of which is that it cannot discriminate between anomalous outputs such as [dDg.s] and natural-sounding outputs such as [dngz], both of which are produced by impaired speakers. In view of this, a morphological account is proposed: The grammars of these impaired individuals lack certain sublexical features, in particular [?plural]; the notion of plurality is expressed at the level of conceptual structure. Consequently, plurals must be built through com pensatory means. They may involve the concatenation of stems and thereby struc turally resemble compounds, both morphologically and prosodically (yields [dog.s]). They may be stored as morphologically unanalyzed chunks (yields [dDgz]). Evidence in support of both options is provided.
International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2019 Annual Meeting, 2019
Sensitivity measures the detection rate of true positives (i.e. presence of LI), while specificit... more Sensitivity measures the detection rate of true positives (i.e. presence of LI), while specificity measures that of true negatives (no LI). The XL-NWR achieved over 70% in both, e.g. at the cut-offs highlighted above.
17th Conference on Laboratory Phonology (LabPhon 17), 2020