syllables & rhythm

Question 1

what can we define syllables according to>

Answer 1

measure:
-chest pulses
-sonority hierarchy
-prominence
planning unit in speech production:
-motor control

Question 2

chest pulses, (s,1951)

Answer 2

-each syllable as a contraction of the breathing muscles
-air is pushed out of the lungs

Question 3

what is the sonority of a syllable:

Answer 3

-idea sonority (loudness) increases from beginning of syllable onwards & decreases from beginning of peak onwards

Question 4

what is sonority?>

Answer 4

loudness relative to other segments (everything else held constant)

Question 5

General trend of ‘sonority hierarchy’>

Answer 5

-vowels as MOST sonorous
-consonants as less
-stops as LEAST sonorous

Question 6

sonority and explaining segment combinations>

Answer 6

-sonority explains why certain combinations are more common than others
>(e.g. ‘-mk’ vs ‘-pl’)
-[m] as more s than [k] so less likely than; pl as [p] is less s than [l]

Question 7

exceptions to sonority & explaining segment combinations>

Answer 7

-‘spa’
>[s] as not very s; [p] as even less s; [a] as very s
>^inverse order

Question 8

problems with sonority as a concept>

Answer 8

-many exeptions (spa)
-not possibly to accurately measure phonetically (abstract)
-arguments around s & syllable definitions are somewhat circular

Question 9

prominence theory>

Answer 9

idea that certain elements of an utterance are more important than others & these correspond to prosodic units–>with this measured by a combination of ‘measurable’ acoustic parameters

Question 10

acoustic parameters involved in ‘prominence theory’>

Answer 10

-amplitude
-spectral shape
-fundamental frequency
-periodicity (shape of wave, how periodic, how often repeats)

Question 11

motor control theory (L&W,1994)>

Answer 11

-syllables as a planning unit in speech
>speakers ‘store’ commonly used combinations of speech production movments
>these occur in syllable sized chunks

Question 12

so syllable ultimately as 1 of 2>

Answer 12

• some acoustic parameter we can measure
• a unit for storing speech info used in production

Question 13

phonotactics=

Answer 13

which segments pattern in what order in a particular language
>(e.g. in eng: [ŋ] can only occur syllabl-finally)

Question 14

syllable structure>

Answer 14

syllable as always having–>middle part of RHYME (+sometimes ONSET)
rhyme as–>always NUCLEUS (+sometimes CODA)

Question 15

nucleus vs rhyme>

Answer 15

-nucleus as central segment of a syllable
-rhyme as core of a syllable consisting of NUCLEUS +CODA

Question 16

what can a nucleus be phonetically?>

Answer 16

-usually is a vowel; can be a syllabic consonant

Question 17

what is the symbol for syllable?>

Answer 17

[σ]

Question 18

open vs closed syllables>

Answer 18

-open syllables= do NOT have a coda
-closed syllables=have a coda

Question 19

E.g. of phonotactic in mandarin>

Answer 19

-syllables can only be closed BY a nasal, otherwise open
(i.e. /pa/ vs /xuan/)

Question 20

cross-linguistic syllable tendencies occur in what 2 areas?>

Answer 20

• maxixmum onsets
• CV preference

Question 21

maximum onset>

Answer 21

idea of making onset as long as legitimately can be then form a legitimate coda

Question 22

CV preference=

Answer 22

cross-linguistic tendency for syllable structures to go (consonant–>vowel) (CV)

Question 23

e.g. of lang that do have VC syllable structure as default

Answer 23

-Arrernte (central aussie)

Question 24

rhythm=

Answer 24

organisation of prominent & less prominent units in time (‘units’ as syllables, vocal intervals or morae)

Question 25

rhythm & isochronicity>

Answer 25

isochronous=patterns which occur at regular intervals in time

Question 26

rhythm dichotomy>

Answer 26

every lang in world is spoken with 1 of 2 kinds of rhythm (disproven)
>syllable timed= all syllables of equal duration
>stress-timed= equal time between stressed syllables

Question 27

syllable-timing & eng varieties>

Answer 27

-some varieties of eng have been described as more ‘syllable timed’ than others:
>multicultural long eng
>maori eng
(possibily due to lang contact with lang with different timing structures)

Question 28

problems with rhythm dichotomy

Answer 28

-japanese & mora-timing
-experimental evidence for dichotomy

Question 29

japanese & mora>

Answer 29

• idea a long syllable is 2 morae & a short one is 1 mora
• short vowel + long vowel= 3 morae
• japanese as more mora-timed than syllable or stress timed

Question 30

rhythm as perceptual construct>

Answer 30

idea we may hear a more isochronous rhythm than actually exists
>B,1992> participants tapped more regularly than speech justified

Question 31

rhythm as syllable structure>

Answer 31

-percevied rhythm may be to do with pattern of consonants & vowels in particular langs
>(e.g. ‘strengths’ as complex consonant cluster; spanish as generally less complex)

Question 32

rhythm as continuum>

Answer 32

more stress timed<—>more syllable-timed

Question 33

rhythm metrics>

Answer 33

-conclude that langs can be placed somewhere along a rhythm continuum

Question 34

success of rhythm metrics>

Answer 34

-not very; inconclusive results from different metrics on same materials & different materials on same metrics

Question 35

stress-syllable dichotomy & perception >

Answer 35

0little or no perceptual evidence that listeners can make this distinction

Question 36

measuring using duration>

Answer 36

-idea duration of V/C–>to do with timing
-rhythm–>to do with repetion of strong and weak elements; each element as relying on time for these distinctions

Question 37

rhythm vs timing>

Answer 37

-rhythm metrics ONLY consider timing
-in order than actually measure rhythm need to look at cycle of prominences in a lang
-tricky as: different langs have different conceptions of ‘prominece’