Timothy L. Face

Laboratory approaches to Spanish phonology

This volume contains a collection of papers that address issues in Spanish phonology from the perspective of laboratory phonology. It is the first volume on Spanish dedicated exclusively to experimental phonology, and represents the variety of issues in Spanish phonology that can be addressed experimentally as well as the numerous types of experimentation that can be used to further our knowledge of phonological issues. This volume is sure to be an important addition to the library of not only Spanish phonologists, but also of any professional or graduate student interested in the contributions that empirical work can make to the study of phonology.

Second Language Spanish Vowel Production: An Acoustic Analysis

Abstract Findings from a cross-sectional study of the Spanish vowel productions of sixty adult second language learners of Spanish are presented in this article. The data set is based upon digitally recorded readings of an authentic Spanish-language short story. An acoustic examination of F1 and F2 values was carried out on twenty tokens of each vowel, 10 in stressed syllables, 10 in unstressed. The findings show that learners in the early stages of their Spanish study struggle to produce vowels in a native-like way, but the vowels of more advanced learners are similar to those of native speakers. The unstressed vowels of all learners are produced with some degree of centralization, confirming the much theorized influence of English on Spanish vowel productions.

Cognitive factors in the perception of Spanish stress placement: Implications for a model of speech perception

Abstract Four cognitive factors potentially influencing the perception of Spanish stress placement are examined experimentally through a nonce word perception task, and the results are considered from the perspective of their implications for a psychological model of perception. The four factors considered for a potential influence on the perception of Spanish stress placement are segmentally similar words, syllable weight, subregularities in the lexicon, and morphological category. Each of these, with the exception of syllable weight, is shown to influence the perception of Spanish stress placement. The results of the experiment probe the structure of the lexicon in a way that shows that speakers are sensitive to lexical organization, and hence provide a window into the lexical system.

Lexical and Acoustic Factors in the Perception of the Spanish Diphthong vs. Hiatus Contrast

The present study considers the case of exceptional hiatus which recent literature reports to exist in the syllabification of certain vocoid sequences in Peninsular varieties of Spanish. The potential influence of lexical and acoustic factors on the perception of the syllabification of these vocoid sequences is considered. It is shown that both lexical and acoustic factors influence perception. An experiment was conducted to determine the relative strength of the lexical and the acoustic factors in stress perception, but the results were confounded by the dominance of an unexpected factor in perception. The frequency of occurrence of different syllabification patterns proved to play a large role in the perception, causing subjects to employ linguistic prediction based on the most common patterns found in the language. This study provides insight into the perception of syllabification patterns in Spanish, and presents new data in support of usage-based models of lexical storage.

The Necessity of Both Naturally-Occurring and Elicited Data in Spanish Intonational Phonology

Abstract In Spanish intonational phonology, as well as intonational phonology more generally, far more work has been carried out using elicited data than naturallyoccurring data. This is to be expected given the complexities of intonation in naturally-occurring speech and the many factors that affect it. Examining intonation in a more controlled context allows an understanding of it that can serve as a starting point for the examination of intonation in naturally-occurring speech. But even then, both types of data are necessary. There are intonation patterns that occur in naturally-occurring speech that either do not exist or exist in very limited contexts in elicited speech, and therefore they are not (adequately) analyzed until naturally-occurring speech is investigated. At the same time, however, intonation patterns are complex, containing various pitch movements, and elicited data, such as through perception tasks, can help tease apart the pieces of intonation patterns and determine which ones are meaningful in communication.

Sp_ToBI and the Phonological Analysis of Spanish Intonation: A Critical Perspective

Abstract A Spanish version of the Tones and Break Indices framework for the phonological analysis of intonation, Sp_ToBI, has existed, in one level of development or another, for over a decade. The early, preliminary system was incomplete, but since, the system has been revised and expanded to the point of being a fully developed analytical tool. With recent work, Sp_ToBI has come into its own and now has a significant place in research on Spanish intonational phonology, especially given the considerable amount of research that has applied it to a wide range of Spanish varieties. As a system that is explicitly designed to be pan-Spanish, such research is crucial. After outlining the development of Sp_ToBI, this paper considers both the benefits and the challenges of the pan-Spanish nature of Sp_ToBI. Additionally, the contributions that Sp_ToBI has made to the phonological analysis of Spanish intonation are considered, as are the general challenges it faces. The paper concludes with a look at the future of Sp_ToBI as a tool for intonational phonologists.