Irene Vogel

On Clashes and Lapses.

In phonology, one of the generalisations that seems to hold true across most, if not all, languages is that the overall rhythmic pattern tends to be organised such that there is an alternation of strong and weak syllables (cf. among others, Hayes 1980, 1984; Prince 1983; Selkirk 1984). In other words, languages tend to avoid strings of adjacent strong syllables, as well as strings of adjacent weak syllables. These generalisations are expressed by clauses (a) and (b), respectively, of Selkirks Principle of Rhythmic Alternation (PRA):(1) Principle of Rhythmic Alternation (Selkirk 1984: 52)a. Every strong position on a metrical level n should be followed by at least one weak position on that levelb. Any weak position on a metrical level n may be preceded by at most one weak position on that levelOf course, the underlying rhythmic patterns of a language are not always in conformity with the PRA.

The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish

It is generally believed that Turkish stress is always word-final. Closer examination, however, reveals several types of exceptions to this pattern involving both roots and affixes. This paper proposes a unified analysis of regular and irregular stress in Turkish that crucially depends on our definition of the Phonological Word. In addition, we discuss stress in constituents beyond the word, and provide evidence for the Clitic Group as well as the Phonological Phrase. Finally, we also briefly discuss vowel harmony and a set of syllabification phenomena, and show how the latter, in particular, provide independent support for the proposal we advance here.

Prosodic Structure Above the Word

Since in various studies the term “prosody” has been used in a variety of ways, we will begin by clarifying our use of it in this contribution. We include under “prosodic phenomena” any phonological rules or processes that are not purely local, in that they cannot be described solely in terms of their phonotactic environments. Instead, additional information is required as to what larger units, or “prosodie domains”, they belong to. In other words, while certain phonological phenomena can be described with rules that modify particular segments in particular segmental contexts, these segmental contexts are not enough to determine whether or not a rule applies. Following recent proposals [e.g. Liberman and Prince, 1977; Selkirk, 1978 b, 1980], we take the prosodie domains to include rhyme, syllable, foot, phonological word, phonological phrase, intonational phrase, and utterance. To take a simple illustration, consider a rule in Dutch that inserts a schwa between a liquid and a following consonant1.

The acquisition of compound vs. phrasal stress: the role of prosodic constituents*

This paper investigates the acquisition of compound vs. phrasal stress (hót dog vs. hot dóg) in English. This has previously been shown to be acquired quite late, in contrast to recent research showing that infants both perceive and prefer rhythmic patterns in their own language. Subjects (40 children in four groups the averages ages of which are 5;4, 7;2, 9;3 and 11;6 and 10 adults) were shown pairs of pictures representing a compound word and the corresponding phrase. They heard a prerecorded tape with the names of the items, and were asked to indicate which one they heard. In addition to 9 real compounds and corresponding phrases, 9 novel compounds were presented (rédcup = invented type of flower vs. red cúp). A gradual increase in overall correct scores until age twelve was found along with a significant effect of real vs. novel compounds (p < 0.001), and an overwhelming tendency for the younger children to prefer compounds regardless of stress. We conclude that the results are due to the slow development of the ability to use prosodic information to override a strong lexical bias.

Verbs in Italian morphology

Verb forms participate in each type of morphological operation found in Italian: derivation, compounding and inflection. It is not obvious, however, which form of a verb appears with each of these operations. This paper addresses the problem of the identification of the basic form(s) of a verb, as well as the issue of the selection of the appropriate base for the different morphological operations.

The interface between phonology and other components of grammar: the case of Hungarian

When a phonological rule applies across words, it is necessary to be able to specify across which types of words it may apply and across which it may not, or in other words, within which domain it applies. That such domains do not necessarily coincide with syntactic constituents has been amply demonstrated in such works as Clements (1978), Napoli & Nespor (I979), Rotenberg (1978), Selkirk (1978, I984), Nespor & Vogel (I982, i986) and Kaisse (i985). As has been argued in recent work, what is needed instead is a somewhat more complex theory in which there is a more complex type of interaction between phonological rules and syntactic structures. In the past few years, several such theories have been proposed, in particular, those advanced by Selkirk (I984), Kaisse (I985) and Nespor & Vogel (I986). This paper will address itself to the problem of defining the domains of application of two phonological rules in Hungarian that operate between words, one involving stress and the other palatalisation. The fact that Hungarian, according to most accounts, is a non-configurational language makes it a particularly interesting language to consider in relation to the syntax-phonology interface since, thus far, the proposals advanced about this interface have primarily dealt with languages that are claimed to be configurational. The syntactic analysis of Hungarian we will be assuming here is that of Kenesei (i 984, I 986) and Maraicz (1 986). After presenting the phonological

Compounds in Modern Greek

In the present study, the acoustic properties associated with stress in compounds in Modern Greek are investigated. Specifically, the claim that Greek compounds consist of a single Phonological Word is tested since it has been argued, based on impressionistic observations, that compounds only contain a single stressed syllable. This claim about Greek is in contrast with the pattern observed in many other languages, including English, where compounds consist of multiple Phonological Words each of which retains its own word stress. Data from 6 native speakers producing 10 adjective-noun phrases and corresponding novel compounds are examined. The analysis focuses on F0 properties given that a recent study of prominence patterns in Greek has demonstrated that F0 is the main property of stress; however, data on duration, intensity and vowel centralization, the other properties commonly associated with stress are also presented. The results provide systematic confirmation of the impressionistic claims about Greek compounds having only a single stress in that the acoustic properties of the stressed vowel of the first word of compounds found to be reduced compared to the corresponding word of phrases. The second word in both constructions was similar in all measurements.

Learning new segments and reducing domains in German L2 phonology: The role of the Prosodic Hierarchy:

This paper investigates interactions between the prosodic structures of L1 and L2 in second language acquisition. We focus here on a case in which the L1 and L2 are quite different with regard to the role played by the prosodic structures: the acquisition of German by speakers of Spanish. “Demarcating languages” such as German tend to phonologically mark the beginnings and/ or ends of relatively small prosodic constituents, while “Grouping languages” such as Spanish tend to favor the application of phonological phenomena throughout relatively long constituents. The subset-superset relationship inherent in current views of L2 acquisition, in particular the Asymmetry Hypothesis, predicts that reducing the domain of application of a process should be impossible to learn. In this light, we examine data (spontaneous and read speech of 11 Spanish speakers learning German) involving phonological processes which differ both in their segmental content and in their domains of application in the two languages. Our results are different from those predicted, that is, the pattern of acquisition cuts across the categories that would be established in such framework. Our findings thus demonstrate that the Asymmetry Hypothesis cannot be maintained as a model of L2 phonological acquisition, at least in its present form.

Perception and Bias in the Processing of Compound versus Phrasal Stress: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials

Previous research using picture/word matching tasks has demonstrated a tendency to incorrectly interpret phrasally stressed strings as compounds. Using event-related potentials, we sought to determine whether this pattern stems from poor perceptual sensitivity to the compound/phrasal stress distinction, or from a post-perceptual bias in behavioral response selection. A secondary aim was to gain insight into the role played by contrastive stress patterns in online sentence comprehension. The behavioral results replicated previous findings of a preference for compounds, but the electrophysiological data suggested a robust sensitivity to both stress patterns. When incongruent with the context, both compound and phrasal stress elicited a sustained left-lateralized negativity. Moreover, incongruent compound stress elicited a centro-parietal negativity (N400), while incongruent phrasal stress elicited a late posterior positivity (P600). We conclude that the previous findings of a preference for compounds are due to response selection bias, and not a lack of perceptual sensitivity. The present results complement previous evidence for the immediate use of meter in semantic processing, as well as evidence for late interactions between prosodic and syntactic information.

Universals of Prosodic Structure

The systematic study of prosodic structures is relatively recent, and the study of universals of these structures is even more recent. This paper presents a total of ten possible universals, some of which have been extracted from the original presentation of prosodic phonology in Nespor and Vogel(1986). Additional universals have been proposed based on further examination of the model as well as certain proposed modifications, in particular with relation to the Strict Layer Hypothesis. The universals are presented and analyzed in relation to three categories: (a) general properties of prosodic structure, (b) the geometry of prosodic constituents, and (c) prosodic structure phenomena. Several areas in which potential universals have been challenged are examined, and the more general question is discussed of what it means for a theory if apparent counter-examples are presented.