Phonological and phonetic effects of minor phrase length (original) (raw)
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Degree of Initial Lowering in Japanese as a Reflex of Prosodic Structure Organization
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In this paper we show a significant contrast in the realization of the Minor Phrase-initial rise in Japanese as a function of the XP vs. nonXP status of the syntactic branching structure at the left edge of which the rise is located. Sentences examined consisted of a sequence of lexically unaccented nouns followed by an accented verb. F0 values of both the L and the H edge tones of Minor Phrase are found to be more extreme at left XP edge, understood to be a prosodic Major Phrase edge. These differences produce an initial rise at Major Phrase edge that is significantly larger than that at Minor Phrase edge. In sequences consisting only of unaccented lexical items, the only tonal events reliably present are instances of the initial LH rise that is found at the left edge of any MiP. Some MiP edges also coincide with the edge of the higher order MaP. The results of our experiment show that there are indeed differences in the realization of the initial rise between cases that are Major ...
Degree of Initial Lowering in Prosodic Structure
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In this paper we show a significant contrast in the realization of the Minor Phrase-initial rise in Japanese as a function of the XP vs. nonXP status of the syntactic branching structure at the left edge of which the rise is located. Sentences examined consisted of a sequence of lexically unaccented nouns followed by an accented verb. F0 values of both the L and the H edge tones of Minor Phrase are found to be more extreme at left XP edge, understood to be a prosodic Major Phrase edge. These differences produce an initial rise at Major Phrase edge that is significantly larger than that at Minor Phrase edge.
Downstep and prosodic structure in Japanese
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2004
This paper examines the relationship between the syntax and the prosodic structure of Japanese. According to Kubozono (1989), the syntactic branching direction determines the pitch pattern in downstep; in the right-branching condition, the left edge of a syntactic constituent results in an extra pitch boost (Metrical Boost, MB), while in the left-branching condition, the utterance is restructured into two prosodic constituents whose left edge is boosted (Rhythmical Boost, RB), regardless of the syntactic configuration. In this study, an experiment is conducted with two Tokyo Japanese speakers using sentences in both branching directions which contain three to six minor phrases (mps). The result suggests that Kubozono's proposal needs to be modified; the prosodic structure has an access to the syntax when there are a smaller number of mps. When there are more, the individual weight balancing strategies become more important, which results in a varied grouping configuration inter-and intraindividually.
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Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2008
In generative phonology, it has been commonly assumed since McCawley (1968) that a Japanese word has either one accent or no accent (the 'one-accent model'). Some problems for the model are discussed, both cross-linguistically and within Japanese itself. To solve the problems, I propose an alternative model, according to which a Japanese word has either one or two accents (the 'two-accent model'). The new proposal yields a more consistent treatment of metrical prominence and of the relation between stress and tone in different languages, such as English, Chinese, and Japanese.
Acoustic Properties of Japanese and English Vowels: Effects of Phonetic and Prosodic Context
search has documented large differences in the phonetic realization of American English (AE) vowels as a function of phonetic context and prosodic context Strange et al., submitted). Less research has been published on the allophonic and prosodic variation of Japanese (J) vowels. Thus, the goal of the present study was to compare the allophonic and prosodic variation in spectral and temporal structure of J and AE vowels, using acoustical analysis of corpora in which the phonetic and prosodic context was varied systematically. To the extent that the type and amount of phonetic variation differs across the two languages, we would expect that cross-language perceptual similarity might also vary with contextual variables.
Patterns of accentual lengthening in English four-syllable words
Journal of Phonetics, 2012
Previous work on English disyllabic and trisyllabic words cannot distinguish two types of views on accentual lengthening: (1) phrasal accent affects a single, multisyllabic domain (the entire word), vs. (2) phrasal accent affects multiple, potentially separate, domains (e.g., the primary stressed syllable and the final syllable). In the present paper, we distinguish these views by examining the effect of phrasal accent on the durational patterns of English four-syllable words. We studied words of three types, with different positions of primary and secondary lexical stress: pattern 1000 (e.g. " presidency), pattern 2010 (e.g. "demo " cratic), and pattern 1020 (e.g. " suffo" cating). Our results show that accent-related lengthening can affect multiple, potentially distinct, sites: the primary-stressed syllable, the secondary-stressed syllable rhyme (if the word has secondary stress), the onset of the word-initial syllable, and the final syllable. In addition, lengthening can ''spill over'' from a primary-stressed syllable onto a following unstressed syllable. Patterns of accent-related lengthening on onsets vs. rhymes are qualitatively different for stressed vs. word-edge sites, suggesting separate lengthening mechanisms.
Prosody in Japanese Reconsidered
2018
Abstract. The purpose of the paper is to examine how focus in Japanese is realized and perceived in various accentual conditions. Japanese is a pitch accent language where lexical items are divided into two groups: Accented (A) and Unaccented (U). Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988) first pointed out that the focus prosody of A words and U words are different. Much work has been done on narrow focus in A words following their work. Some previous studies (Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988), Ishihara (2003) among others) suggest that, for A words, focus boosts the pitch of the accent peak and triggers either compression of the pitch range and/or Downstep in the post-focal domain. On the other hand, the previous studies are not clear on how focus on U words is implemented. The lack of accent and apparent lack of pitch compression in their studies made it harder to measure the effects of a focus. In this paper, we would like to discuss (i) what types of cues make U words focused, and (ii) wh...
Lexical accent status affects perceived prominence of intonational peaks in Japanese
2006
This study shows that lexical accent status affects perceived prominence of fundamental frequency (F0) peaks in Japanese. In Japanese, word accent type can be identified from two different sources: lexical accent status and phonetic F0 contour shape. This study examines whether listeners compensate for the accentual boost of an accented word based only on the word's lexical accent status, when no F0 contour information is available. A perceptual experiment was conducted in which participants judged the relative prominence between two F0 peaks. The experiment showed that for a given second F0 peak height, the first F0 peak height was higher when the first word was lexically accented than when it was lexically unaccented in order for the two words to be equal in perceived prominence. This suggests that the accentual boost of an accented word is subtracted in perception. However, it is also pointed out that another account based on a perceptual compensation for downstep is possible. It is concluded that lexical accent status as phonological knowledge affects perceived prominence of F0 peaks.
Eighth Annual Conference of the International Speech …, 2007
The lexically accented words in Goshogawara Japanese can be realized in either of the two surface pitch patterns. The pitch pattern is said to alternate regularly, depending on the phrasing structure of an utterance. The organization of prosodic phrasing of this dialect, however, has been little investigated and thus it remains unclear what prosodic phrase functions as the domain for the alternation.