Tomas Riad

The phonology of classical Greek meter

Abstract We propose an analysis of Greek meter based purely on phonology and the idea that well-formedness in meter is largely gradient, rather than absolute. Our analysis is surface-true, constraint-based and nonderivational, in line with proposals like optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). The discussion centers on two properties of meter, rhythm (dactylic, anapestic, iambic …) and line length (hexameter, pentameter, tetrameter …). Unmarked meters are expected to be binary (dimeter) and rhythmic (no clash or lapse). We analyze individual meters in terms of how they deviate from this unmarked state, where deviations (big and small) are encoded directly as constraint violations following Golston (1996). Greek anapests are shown to be unmarked in terms of rhythm, while dactyls distinctively violate the constraint NOCLASH and iambs distinctively violate NOLAPSE. Similarly, dimeter is unmarked in terms of binarity, while trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter violate constraints on binarity.

Scandinavian accent typology

Abstract Most of the Scandinavian languages and dialects exhibit a tonal accent distinction. Invariably the lexical tone is associated to the primary stressed syllable. The chief variables which instantiate the accent typology include the value of individual tones (L, H, LH), the use of spreading and interpolation, and the behaviour of the prominence tone (usually, but not always, the tone used for focus). Variables related to the prominence tone involve the association (or not) to a secondary stress, and rightward/leftward orientation (i.e. alignment). Beside the phonological typology, the article briefly discusses a couple of distributional sub-typologies relating to morphology and the lexicon.

The phonology of Classical Arabic meter

We propose a phonologically well motivated theory of metrics that avoids several problems (e.g. ternarity and center-headedness) with the traditional analysis of Arabic metrics (al-Xalīl †c. 791 ; Maling 1973 ; Prince 1989). We propose that the content of a metrical position is universally restricted to three prosodically motivated units : L, H, LL and that binarity holds at the levels of the verse foot and metron. This constrains the number of possible verse feet to nine and leads to the insight that the traditional Arabic verse feet are in reality metra (pairs of verse feet). The different degrees of popularity of the Arabic meters (cf. corpora in Vadet 1955 ; Stoetzer 1986 ; Bauer 1992), we argue, can be understood as a direct function of rythmic well-formedness. The best meters are all iambic (Ewald 1825 ; Jacob 1967 [1897] ; Fleisch 1956), the rhythmic advantage being that they contain no rhythmic lapse (Kager 1993), an important constraint in Arabic phonology and morphology generally (Fleisch 1956 ; McCarthy and Prince 1990). Relative rhythmic well-formedness is formally expressible under a simple constraint-based analysis (cf. Prince and Smolensky 1993)

The phonology of Greek lyric meter

The meter of Greek lyric poetry shows great variation within and between lines regarding the shape, number and combinations of basic metrical units. We offer a simplifying analysis in terms of markedness, in which meters are defined by distinctive violations of linguistic constraints controlling rhythm, layering, binarity, and alignment. The constraints that are distinctively violated in meter are low ranked in the phonology of Greek.

The prosodic hierarchy of Swedish

We give an overview of the phonological properties and processes that define the categories of the prosodic hierarchy in Swedish: the PROSODIC WORD (omega), the PROSODIC PHRASE (phi) and the INTONATION PHRASE (iota). The separation of two types of tonal prominence, BIG ACCENTS versus SMALL ACCENTS (previously called FOCAL and WORD ACCENT, e.g. Bruce 1977, 2007), is crucial for our analysis. The omega in Swedish needs to be structured on two levels, which we refer to as the minimal omega and the maximal omega, respectively. The minimal omega contains one stress, whereas the maximal. contains one accent. We argue for a separate category phi that governs the distribution of big accents within clauses. The iota governs the distribution of clause-related edge phenomena like the INITIALITY ACCENT and right-edge boundary tones as well as the distribution of NUCLEAR BIG ACCENTS.

Nigel Fabb and Morris Halle (2008). Meter in poetry: a new theory (with a chapter on Southern Romance meters by Carlos Piera). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. x+297.

Nigel Fabb and Morris Halle (2008). Meter in poetry: a new theory (with a chapter on Southern Romance meters by Carlos Piera). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. x+297

Interaction between word accent and intonational boundaries in Latvian

In Latvian, primary stressed long syllables of content words bear either a level or a falling pitch contour, due to a lexical tonal accent contrast. In this paper we examine the interaction between ...

Lexical Specification of Prosodic Information in Swedish: Evidence from Mismatch Negativity

Like that of many other Germanic languages, the stress system of Swedish has mainly undergone phonological analysis. Recently, however, researchers have begun to recognize the central role of morphology in these systems. Similar to the lexical specification of tonal accent, the Swedish stress system is claimed to be morphologically determined and morphemes are thus categorized as prosodically specified and prosodically unspecified. Prosodically specified morphemes bear stress information as part of their lexical representations and are classified as tonic (i.e., lexically stressed), pretonic and posttonic, whereas prosodically unspecified morphemes receive stress through a phonological rule that is right-edge oriented, but is sensitive to prosodic specification at that edge. The presence of prosodic specification is inferred from vowel quality and vowel quantity; if stress moves elsewhere, vowel quality and quantity change radically in phonologically stressed morphemes, whereas traces of stress remain in lexically stressed morphemes. The present study is the first to investigate whether stress is a lexical property of Swedish morphemes by comparing mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to vowel quality and quantity changes in phonologically stressed and lexically stressed words. In a passive oddball paradigm, 15 native speakers of Swedish were presented with standards and deviants, which differed from the standards in formant frequency and duration. Given that vowel quality and quantity changes are associated with morphological derivations only in phonologically stressed words, MMN responses are expected to be greater in phonologically stressed words than in lexically stressed words that lack such an association. The results indicated that the processing differences between phonologically and lexically stressed words were reflected in the amplitude and topography of MMN responses. Confirming the expectation, MMN amplitude was greater for the phonologically stressed word than for the lexically stressed word and showed a more widespread topographic distribution. The brain did not only detect vowel quality and quantity changes but also used them to activate memory traces associated with derivations. The present study therefore implies that morphology is directly involved in the Swedish stress system and that changes in phonological shape due to stress shift cue upcoming stress and potential addition of a morpheme.