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Title:
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Foot-Timing and Word-Timing in English
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Author:
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Guangsheng Zhang
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Delaware
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1996
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Phonetics
Phonology
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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H. Bunnell
William Idsardi
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Abstract:
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This dissertation is an experimental investigation of the temporal properties of a) the foot as a phonological constituent, b) the word as a production unit, and c) their interactions. The primary goal is to clarify a potential confusion in the literature as to which components are responsible for the observed timing effects. It also seeks to improve the accuracy of current timing models for computer processing of human speech.
It is reported that in English, the durations of the syllables in a foot tend to be inversely related to the number of syllables in the foot (the so-called stress-timing effect). On the other hand, a similar effect has also been reported for words: Syllable durations are inversely proportional to the number of syllables in the word (the so-called temporal compensation effect). Previous studies have failed to distinguish potential foot-level effects from potential word-level effects; therefore, it is not known whether the timing effect observed in one category is an artifact of the other, or a mixture of both.
In the present investigation, the variables of foot length and word length were controlled throughout the experiments. Both real words and reiterant words were used in order to ensure the generality of the findings and their comparability with the findings in the related studies.
It was found that in English, the foot is a domain in which syllable durations are regulated, and its effect is independent of word length. In addition to the reported shortening of the stressed syllable in a left-headed foot being confirmed, a shortening of the word-initial unstressed syllable accompanied by a lengthening of its following stressed syllable was also observed, and their grouping into a right-headed foot was proposed. A novel footing algorithm assuming that feet of different types can be constructed on separate tiers was proposed. Finally, a computational timing model mainly based on the metrical structure of the word was developed. This was shown to account for 73% of the variance of 9,844 syllable durations produced by 20 talkers under 51 different word-length-position specifications.
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