Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Syllable structure'

The question of how to represent prosodic structure is of current theoretical interest in three dimensional phonology. Two current theories/models of representation are the onset/rime model (Kaye and Lowenstamm 1982, Kaye Lowenstamm and Vergnaud 1987 and Levin 1985) and the mora model (Hyman 1985, McCarthy and Prince 1986 and Hayes 1988). This thesis consists of a detailed investigation of the descriptive adequacy of these two theories for the Japanese language. Japanese can be considered an archetypal mora language since in the indigenous linguistic tradition it is analysed into moras. The version of each model which I am adopting is explicitly stated in a set of universal syllabification rules. This syllabification algorithm is compatible with the following assumptions: (1) a. No predictable prosodic structure is present in the underlying representation. The distribution of glides in most cases is predictable. b. Prosodic structure is built by rule and is erected around a syllabic peak which is determined by the relative sonority of segments and not by a feature [syllabic]. Furthermore, the version of the onset/rime model I propose is a paramaterized model where the unmarked setting does not include a nucleus constituent. This onset/rime model is designed to account for weight distinctions as well as the mora theory. Sample structures from both theories are given below. (2) [Diagram Omitted] A syllabification algorithm for Japanese is adapted from the general algorithm and fitted into a model of the lexical phonology of Japanese. It is shown that Japanese prosodic structure can be generated by rule, in either model, with no underlying distinctions between glides and high vowels, and with no feature [syllabic]. Therefore, it is concluded that both the onset/rime model and the mora model are adequate for describing the Japanese language. This conclusion crucially depends on the parameterization within the onset/rime model. Because Japanese is not the only language which employs the weight distinctions a Type I model represents, the parameterization is necessary for the onset/rime model to remain equal in descriptive power with the mora model.
Arts, Faculty of
Linguistics, Department of
Graduate

The variety of Arabic under investigation is one of the dialects spoken in a town on the Western Mountain (Nafuusa Mountain) in Libya. Its phonological characteristics are clearly different from what Harrama (1993) called the “Al-Jabal dialect,” which the inhabitants of the Western Mountain claim to speak. The current study is concerned with a variety spoken in the town of Riyayna (Or Alriyayna); mainly, Al’ain (henceforth identified as ALA). The objective of this thesis is to contribute a description of the phonology of a previously unexamined dialect, under a moraic approach. This approach has been adopted as the prominent role of the mora that has been established in literature by accounting for various phonological phenomena, such as vowel epenthesis (Itô, 1989) and compensatory lengthening (Hayes, 1989) (see Watson 2002). Thus, it is claimed for example, that the loss of the glottal stop in ALA is repaired by compensatory lengthening in words, such as: /biːr/ ~ /bɪʔr/, /raːs/ ~ /rʌʔs/, /juːmɪn/ ~ /joʔmɪn/ to satisfy the minimal moraicity requirement, or by gemination: /mɪjjah ~ mɪʔah/, /rɪjjah/ ~ /rɪʔah/ to satisfy the restriction of vowel-initial syllables, utterance-internally. Although, the main aim of the thesis is to examine the syllable inventories and syllabification process in ALA, focus is placed on initial consonant clusters that are claimed to exist in a cluster-resistant dialect, where it is argued that such clusters strictly occur in certain environments. Emphatics and emphatic allophones are also phonologically investigated claiming that, in addition to the four emphatic consonants, emphatic vowels (/ʌ/ and /ɑː/ in ALA) also exist in the dialect and similarly cause emphasis spread. Vowel-initial syllables is another issue whose existence in ALA is asserted in this study demonstrating that although they might surface with a glottal-stop-like gesture, they should still be treated as underlying onsetless syllables because their behaviour is different from syllables that underlyingly begin with a glottal stop. Finally, stress assignment procedures in ALA are interesting in following many North African dialects by ignoring, in many cases, syllable weight and having a tendency to stress final syllables. This is also expressed in the study.

Cette thèse est une étude du comportement spécifique des consonnes liquides en position coda à la fois du point de vue de la production et de la représentation phonologique. L’étude combine deux ensembles de résultats de la littérature dans le but d’expliquer pourquoi les liquides sont une classe de consonnes à part. D’un point de vue de la production, les consonnes liquides en position coda en anglais présentent des patrons d’organisation temporelle spécifiques à la position attaque. D’un point de vue de la représentation phonologique, il a été montré qu’en anglais, les intuitions des locuteurs natifs sur le nombre de syllabes de mots,traditionnellement monosyllabiques, comportant une voyelle longue suivie par une liquide,sont variables. Une description unifiée, de ces deux résultats, intégrant à la fois des données quantitatives et qualitatives est proposée. La proposition principale comporte deux aspects.Premièrement, je postule que les deux résultats, présentés séparément dans la littérature,doivent être considérés comme étant liés/pris ensemble. Le comportement atypique des consonnes liquides observés à la fois dans la production et la représentation peut être expliqué par la présence d’un double geste articulatoire (un geste vocalique et un geste consonantique)et en particulier par la coordination temporelle de ces deux gestes à l’intérieur de la rime.Deuxièmement, je postule que la composition gestuelle et la coordination temporelle des consonnes liquides prédisent le comportement des consonnes liquides à travers les langues.Ces hypothèses sont vérifiées et confirmée par des expériences de production et de jugements sur le nombre de syllabes dans plusieurs langues (anglais, roumain, russe et allemand). Basée sur les résultats expérimentaux, une modélisation pour les patrons de coordination observés en anglais est proposée. Les résultats montrent que c’est le geste vocalique est articulé avant le geste consonantique, ce qui détermine le comportement atypique observé pour les consonnes liquides en coda. L’articulation en premier du geste vocalique a deux conséquences importantes. Premièrement, cela donne lieu à une séquence de deux gestes vocaliques (le geste vocalique du noyau suivi par le geste vocalique de la liquide), créant un noyau complexe, qui entraine la création d’une structure de coordination compétitive à l’intérieur de la rime. Cette structure de coordination compétitive explique le comportement hors-norme des consonnes liquides en position coda. Deuxièmement, l’articulation en premier du geste vocalique rajoute des unités de poids syllabique à la structure métrique de mots monosyllabiques, ce qui explique la variabilité observée parmi les jugements du nombre de syllabes des locuteurs natifs
This dissertation investigates the behavior of coda liquid consonants from both a production and a representational standpoint. The goal is to combine two different sets of results from the literature in order to provide a clearer image on why liquids are a special class of consonants. From a production standpoint, coda liquids exhibit coordination patterns reserved for onsets. From a representation standpoint, native speakers attribute variable syllable count judgments to monosyllabic words involving a tense vowel/diphthong followed by a liquid. A unified account of liquids consonants integrating both quantitative and qualitative elements is provided.The main claim of this dissertation is two fold. First, we claim that the two results, presented separately in the literature must be considered and interpreted together. We propose that they are linked. The atypical patterns observed in the production and the representation of coda liquids stem from the presence of two gestures (one vocalic and one consonantal gesture) in the production of coda liquids, and more importantly from their relative timing with respect to other gestures in the syllable rime. Second we state that the gestural composition and the timing of liquid gestures predict liquid coda behavior cross-linguistically. These claims are tested and confirmed by cross-linguistic production and parallel production-syllable- countjudgment experiments. Furthermore, a gestural model, supported by simulations, is proposed for American English. Results show that the atypical timing pattern observed in syllables with liquid codas in American English is linked to the earlier occurrence of the vocalic gesture involved in the production of the coda liquids. This earlier occurrence of the vocalic gesture in the liquid following the vowel nucleus has two important consequences. First, it brings the liquid closer to the vowel nucleus, creating a complex nucleus, and triggering a specific competitive coordinative structure in rimes. This competitive coordinative pattern can explain the atypical temporal patterns observed for coda liquids. Second, the earlier occurrence of the vocalic gesture relative to the consonantal gesture adds weight to the metrical structure of monosyllabic words with tense vowels/diphthong nuclei followed by a liquid coda, explaining the variability in native speakers’ syllable count judgments

Remembering the sound of a new word when it is first encountered is an important skill which plays a critical role in the development of vocabulary (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989), yet the mechanisms underlying this form of verbal short-term memory are not well understood. Errors in the repetition and serial recall of nonwords indicate that structural properties of the syllable are represented in short-term memory, but existing accounts of serial learning and recall do not incorporate any representation of linguistic structure. Models of speech production implicate syllable structure in the representation of phonological form, but do not explain how such representations are acquired. This thesis draws together theories of speech production and serial memory to develop a computational model of nonword repetition based on the novel idea that short-term memory for the serial order of a sequence of speech sounds is constrained by a syllabic template. The results of simulations using the model are presented and compared with experimental findings concerning short-term memory for nonwords. The interaction of short- and long-term phonological memory systems and the aquisition of vocabulary are discussed in terms of the model. The model is evaluated in comparison with other contemporary theories.

The acquisition of second language phonology has been commanding researchers' attention in recent years. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to this area with a study on Japanese as a second language. The thesis explores both the development of phonological competence by post-puberty second language learners and the end state of pre-puberty bilingual acquisition. Reviewing the literature on the theoretical aspects of mora, syllables and syllable structure, we see that the mora is distinctive and plays vital role in Japanese phonology. We next look at the acquisition theories proposed in recent years, and adopt a Universal Grammar-based approach. Comparing first, bilingual and second language acquisition, three research hypotheses are presented: 1) the Mora Assignment Hypothesis, 2) L2 phonological Acquisition and Age Onset Hypothesis, and the 3) Quality and Quantity of Input Hypothesis. To test these hypotheses, a study was designed involving 24 bilingual children and adults, and 94 adult L2 learners of Japanese at varying levels of proficiency. The results provide evidence to support all three research hypotheses. First the data show that the both English-dominant bilinguals and second language learners at all levels deleted morae and all but the beginning second language learners added morae in oral and written production tasks, indicating non-native competence with respect to morae. In addition, learners attempt to preserve the overall mora count. Since English is not a mora sensitive language, the mora conservation exhibited here is from their Japanese. The learners, including English-dominant bilinguals, first become sensitive to the mora and only at a later stage assign segments to the correct mora slot. The difference in performance between English-dominant bilinguals and Japanese-dominant bilinguals was such that by the age of eight, those who had spent more years in Japan demonstrated native phonological competence, whereas the English-dominant bilinguals' performance pointed to non-native competence. With respect to the second and third hypotheses, results from the bilinguals indicate that in addition to age of onset, the amount of exposure to a second language must be taken into account as a factor influencing ultimate attainment. The study also reveals strong influence of literacy in both oral and written production of Japanese.

This thesis investigated the fundamental representations within the mental-lexicon and whether such representations are fixed or differ according to the characteristics of various languages. It looked at whether syllable structure is represented at distinct levels of linguistic representation at phonological and phonetic levels, with phonology governed by the demands of a combinatorial system (the need to create many distinct words from a small number of symbols) and phonetics governed by articulatory complexity (the need to keep motor programming as simple as possible). Empirical evidence as well as computational work was used to investigate whether syllable structure may be present as an abstract unit within the lexicon and not just computed online at the phonetic level. Three languages were explored in this work: English, Hindi and Italian. This project found evidence from English and Hindi patients with acquired language disorders to support the data previously collected from Italian patients. The empirical data was supported by computational work that considered the rates of resyllabification and storage costs based on the assumptions of different speech production models. Both the empirical and computational data support the hypothesis that syllable structure may be stored within the mental lexicon.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study intends to describe and explain syllable structure processes in Northern Sotho. It deals with phonological processes such as vowel deletion, semivocalization and semivowel insertion. The major aim of these processes is to restore the preferred ICVI syllable structure which has been violated by morphological processes such as passive, diminutive, the construction of absolute pronouns, etc. Two phonological models are applied with the intention to determine the one that presents the most credible explanation for the phenomenon at hand. The two models employed are, respectively, the Transformational (TG) and Feature Geometry (FG) models. It appears that Feature Geometry model yields better results in the description of syllable structure processes in Northern Sotho.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie beskryf en verklaar sillabestruktuur prosesse in Noord-Sotho. Die tersaaklike fonologiese prosesse is vokaaldelesie, semivokalisasie en semivokaalinvoeging. Die doel van hierdie prosesse is om "n bepaalde voorkeursillabestruktuur IKVI te herstel wat versteur word deur morfologiese prosesse met die vorming van die passief, diminutief, die konstruksie van absolute voornaamwoorde ensovoorts. Twee fonologiese modelle word geïmplementeer ten einde te bepaal welke model die mees geloofwaardige verklarings vir die betrokke verskynsels kan bied. Die Transformasioneel-Generatiewe (TG) en Kenmerk Geometriese(KG) modelle word respektiewelik toegepas. Dit skyn asof die Kenmerk Geometriese model beter resultate lewer in die beskrywing van sillabestruktuurprosesse in Noord-Sotho.

This study is an investigation of syllable structure and related processes in one variety of Saudi Arabic. This is the variety spoken by inhabitants of Riyadh and villages near this city in Najd province, henceforth referred to as Najdi Arabic (NA). Although this dialect has been analysed by scholars including Johnstone (1963, 1967), Lehn (1967), Ingham (1971, 1982, 1994), Abboud (1979), Al-Sweel (1987, 1990), Prochazka (1988), Kurpershoek (1999), Alezets (2007), Alessa (2008), and Alghmaiz (2013), syllable structure and related processes in this dialect have not been accounted for within Optimality Theory (OT). Therefore, the main goal of this thesis is to show how OT, as an analytical framework, is utilized to produce a better understanding syllable structure and related processes such as CV metathesis, epenthesis, vowel shortening, and syncope in NA. Accordingly, the fundamental aims of this thesis are to examine phonological processes that have an impact on the syllable structure in this dialect and to show the insights about NA syllable structures and related processes that can be gained through OT analyses. The research draws on previous work on NA as well as other Arabic varieties more generally. Thus, the theoretical literature on syllables, syllable structures and syllable typologies are taken into consideration in the analysis of NA data. The data for this study are drawn from articles, essays, theses, and journals. These sets of data underwent my own judgment as an NA native speaker. In addition, 15 native speakers of NA were interviewed and consulted on the NA set of data in this thesis. There are four findings in this study. The first deals with the comprehensive analysis of syllable structure in NA, focusing on the types of onsets and codas as well as the weight of syllables in this dialect. The second extends to the comprehensive analysis that deals with the main phonological processes in NA, focusing on CV-metathesis, epenthesis, vowel shortening, and syncope. The third sheds light on the unified set of OT constraints that has been established to explain NA syllable structure and related processes within OT. Finally, the capability of OT to account for cross-linguistic variation is demonstrated by showing how language-specific constraint rankings based on one set of constraints accounts for CV metathesis, vowel epenthesis, and syncope in Najdi and Urban Hijazi Arabic (UHA).

The present study seeks to provide a descriptive analysis of three phonological topics in Qassimi Arabic (QA)—a local variety of Najdi Arabic spoken mainly in Qassim, Saudi Arabia—based on data collected from a total of twenty-two native QA speakers. The topics are phonemic vowels, syllable structure and epenthetic vowels, and affrication. The participant recruitment was the same for all the three topics, but each topic was investigated using its own materials and methods.

Regarding the phonemic vowels in QA, the study based the results on 157 words collected from three native Qassimi speakers. Previous studies have claimed that QA has eight phonemic vowels—three short and five long. However, the findings argue that QA has nine phonemic vowels—four short vowels and five long ones. The four-short vowel system is an empirical claim since previous studies indicated that /a/ is a conditioned allophone, which is challenged in the present study by providing clear minimal pairs, such as /daf/ ‘warm up’ and /daf/ ‘he pushed’. It also indicates that short vowels have narrow vowel space compared to their long counterparts.

As for the syllable structure and epenthetic vowels, the study based its results on the analysis of 419 words targeting the syllable structure, and 72 words targeting epenthetic vowels. The results reveal that QA has 12 syllable structures, which are CV, CVV, CCV, CCVV, CVC, CVVC, CCVC, CCVVC, CVCC, VC, and VCC. The latter two structures are empirical findings to the study since the previous body of research claim that QA has the first ten structures. Regarding the location epenthetic vowels, the results suggest that they can occur, in a sequence of multiple consonants, after the first consonant, after the second consonant, and after the third consonant. These different locations are conditioned by the surrounding environment and/or the syllable structure. In addition, the quality of epenthetic vowels seems to be inconsistent, in coda group, since the participants inserted either [i], [a], [ϵ], or [i], while it is consistent in across-stem group.

In discussing the affrication, the present study investigates the environment that triggers the affrication process in the Qassimi Arabic (QA), and explores whether the syllabic structure or position in the word play a role in the process. It also investigates the phonological domain of the affrication, and the activeness of the affrication process. Based on the 282 words that have the sounds /ts, dz, k, g/, the study has identified important counter evidence to the claim that the affrication process is triggered by front vowels. This study shows that the alveolar affricates /ts/ and /dz/ occur in the environment of almost all vowels since it is occurred before/after [i, e, a, “special character omitted”, o] as well as providing multiple contrastive environments including several minimal pairs, (e.g. [j

I

mk

I

n] ‘maybe’ [j

I

mts

I

n] ‘overtake’). It also provides counter evidence for the claim that geminate consonants block the affrication. This study also demonstrates that the syllabic structure is irrelevant to the affrication process since it occurs in onset and coda position in monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. Finally, the study reveals that the affrication process cannot be triggered by affixation, even if the claimed environment is met, which might indicate that to domain of the affrication is the stem in which all the affricated words are monomorphemic words.

In sum, the present study suggests that Najdi varieties should be studied individually since they tend to have specific features that might not be shared with other varieties. That is, just because a feature may be found to exist in one type of Najdi Arabic, it cannot be assumed that feature is also attested in all other closely related varieties.

This thesis seeks to investigate how the mother tongue of 50 Vietnamese university EFL students impacts on their intelligibility in oral communication, with specific reference to syllable structure. The assumption is that there is interference between the native language (L1) and the new language (L2), and negative transfer of native oral usage habits to the target language, which affects the students’ intelligibility. Additionally, the current study also examines other potential reasons for the participating students having pronunciation errors. Mixed methods for data collection and analysis – a quantitative approach and a qualitative approach – have been used to explore these issues. The quantitative data and results provide the general picture of the research problem, whereas further analysis and rich data gained through qualitative data collection have refined, extended, and explained the intelligibility problem of Vietnamese English speakers in depth. The findings show that Vietnamese adult EFL speakers’ intelligibility is so low and that syllable structure errors impact on the students’ speech intelligibility. The syllable structure errors are generally caused by the application of Vietnamese syllable structure in the pronunciation of English syllables in the pronunciation tests. For instance, Vietnamese open syllables were used by the 50 informants to articulate English close syllables during the pronunciation tests.
Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Education (EdD)
School of Education and Professional Studies
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

Though the majority of the world’s population is bilingual, most of the existing research on child language acquisition has focused on monolinguals. Increasingly, research has begun to investigate language acquisition in bilingual contexts, and has found evidence of both similarity to and difference from patterns found in monolingual language acquisition. One evident source of difference in bilingual language acquisition is interaction, where bilinguals’ acquisition of one language affects their acquisition of the other language. Interaction has been shown to occur at multiple levels of linguistic structure (syntactic, phonological, phonetic), and manifests in three different patterns: acceleration, deceleration, and transfer. Acceleration and deceleration refer to the rate at which bilinguals acquire some property relative to monolinguals in the same language. Acceleration occurs when bilinguals acquire some property faster or earlier compared to monolingual peers, whereas deceleration occurs when bilinguals acquire some property later or more slowly than monolingual peers. Transfer refers to bilinguals’ use of a property specific to one language in their other language. While the occurrence of each of these patterns has been demonstrated in bilinguals’ language acquisition, it is not well understood what causes interaction to occur where and how it does. In this dissertation, I propose that frequency of occurrence and linguistic complexity, both features of the input that are known to affect the course of monolingual acquisition, also direct the appearance of interaction in bilinguals’ acquisition of language. I present findings from a series of studies demonstrating that differences between languages in frequency of occurrence and complexity of phonological properties influence bilinguals’ acquisition of aspects of Spanish and English phonotactics in predictable ways. Specifically, greater frequency of occurrence and greater complexity of phonological properties in one language are shown to promote bilinguals’ acquisition of related phonological properties in their other language.

Phonological phenomena related to the syllable are often analysed either in terms of the constituents defined in the Onset-Rhyme Model; or in terms of moras after the Moraic Theory. Even as arguments supporting one of these theoretical models over the other continue to be unfurled, the Moraic Theory has gained significant currency in recent years. Situated in the foregoing theoretical climate, this dissertation argues that a full-fledged model of the syllable must incorporate the insights accruing from both constituents and moras. The result is the Mora-Constituency Interface model (MCI). Syllable-internal structure as envisioned in MCI manifests in a Constituency Dimension as well as a Moraic Dimension. The dimensions interface with each other through segment-melody complexes, whose melodic content is associated with the Constituency Dimension and whose segmental (i.e. X-slot) component belongs to the Moraic Dimension. The Constituency Dimension and the Moraic Dimension are both thus necessary even to represent the atomic distinction between segments and melodies in a typical syllable. In terms of its architecture, the Constituency Dimension in MCI is formally identical to the Onset-Rhyme Model and encompasses the Onset, the Nucleus and the Coda, with which melodies are associated. The Nucleus and Coda together constitute the Rhyme. In the Moraic Dimension, moras are assigned to segments on universal, language-specific or contextual grounds. From a functional perspective, the Moraic Dimension is where the metrical relevance of segment-melody complexes is encoded (as moras), while feature-based information pertaining to them is structured in the Constituency Dimension. The independent functional justification for both the dimensions in MCI predicts that segment-melody complexes, though typically split across the dimensions as segments and melodies, may also be associated entirely with the Constituency Dimension or with the Moraic Dimension of a syllable. The former possibility finds empirical expression in extrametrical consonants, and the latter in moraic ambisyllabic consonants. Analogously, a syllable itself may have either just the Constituency Dimension (e.g. extrametrical syllables) or just the Moraic Dimension (e.g. catalectic syllables). The prosodic object called the syllable is thus a composite formal entity tailored from the constituent-syllable (C-s) and the moraic-syllable (M-s).While MCI is thus essentially a model of syllable-internal structure, it also exerts some influence on prosodic structure beyond the syllable. For example, within MCI, feet can be directly constructed from moras, even in languages whose metrical systems are traditionally thought of as being insensitive to mora count. The upshot is that a fully moraic universal foot inventory is possible under MCI.That MCI has implications for the organisation of elements within (segment-melody complexes) and outside (feet) the syllable suggests that the model has the potential to be a general theory of prosodic structure. The model is also on solid cross-linguistic ground, as evidenced by the support it receives from different languages. Those languages include but are not restricted to Kwakwala, Chugach Yupik, Hixkaryana, Paumari, Leti, Pattani Malay, Cantonese, Tamil and English. Keywords: Syllables, constituents, moras, segments, melodies.

It is widely recognized that differences in both prosodic complexity and position-sensitive contrasts exist both within and across languages. In contemporary phonological theory, these differences are often attributed to differences between heads and non-heads and the asymmetries in licensing potential that exist between such positions.
In this thesis, the consequences of such differences for the second language (L2) acquisition of prosodic complexity and position-sensitive contrasts are explored. It is argued that an explanatorily adequate account of L2 syllabification must include highly-structured representations as well as a theory of licensing, which distinguishes between the licensing of a given position and the licensing of featural content in such a position. Using data drawn primarily from a number of studies that investigate the acquisition of French by native speakers of English and Mandarin, it is demonstrated that the widely-attested interlanguage (IL) syllable-structure-modification processes of deletion, epenthesis, and feature change have a common source. Specifically, all three processes result from the IL grammar's inability to license a syllable position or (some of) the featural content present in such a position in the target representation. Within Optimality theory, the framework adopted, this is formalized through the competition between Faithfulness constraints and Markedness constraints, which evaluate the wellformedness of the licensing relationships. Finally, it is argued that Prosodic Licensing and the principle of Licensing Inheritance from Harris (1997) work together to encode prosodic markedness in representation, as they create a series of head-dependent asymmetries in which heads are strong licensors vis-a-vis their dependents.

The field of second language (L2) phonology has recently addressed the related phonological acquisition question of to what extent exposure to native speaker L2 input following exposure to non-native accented L2 input, results in c~anges in the leamer's interlanguage phonology (Akita 2001). If such learners do show changes over time, what kind of changes are these in both perception and production? My study is a contribution to interlanguage studies on the acquisition of prosodic structure, and concentrates on the acquisition of English syllable structure and metrical stress by Arabic speaker. In this study the interlanguage phonology of 28 native Arabic speakers from Libya learning English in natural settings (The UK), was investigated. The average age of the participants was 32.5 years. All the subjects started learning English in school at an average age of 16.0 years. The primary source oflanguage input was the classroom, till an average age of25.0 years. The method of collecting data involved three types of test. The first test covered syllable structure in onset and coda with epenthesised forms and included 185 words. The second test covered metrical stress, and included two sub-tests. Test 2A included 28 words, and test 2B included 84 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical forms of stress. The third test contained three sub-tests. Test 3A included 9 words, test 3B included four pictures, and test 3C included 28 sentences. Tests cover perception of syllable structure and metrical stress as well as production of syllable structure and metrical stress for each learner. In the perception test learners had to listen to a type and chose an answer from a paper in front of them whereas for production tests learners had to read words, sentences, and talk about pictures. Their production output was recorded and transcribed. Results show differences for the perception and production sub-tasks. There is also some parameter resetting and missetting at the level of metrical stress. These results mirror the findings of Archibald (1993) Pater (1997) and Mousa (1994).

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.
Thesis research directed by: Curriculum and Instruction. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

William Clarke (1976) and Nathan Greenberg (1980) offer an objective framework for the study of alliteration in Latin poetry. However, their definition of alliteration as word initial sound repetition in a verse is inconsistent with the syllabic nature both of the device itself and also of the metrical structure. The present study reconciles this disparity in the first half of the Aeneid by applying a similar method to syllable initial sound repetition. A chi-square test for goodness-of-fit reveals that the distributions of the voiceless obstruents [p], [t], [k], [k^w], [f], and [s] and the sonorants [m], [n], [l], and [r] differ significantly from a Poisson model. These sounds generally occur twice per verse more often than expected, and three or more times per verse less often than expected. This finding is largely consistent with existing observations about Vergil's style (e.g. Clarke, 1976; Greenberg, 1980; Wilkinson, 1963). The regular association of phonetic features with differences in distribution suggests phonetic motivation for the practice.

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Esta dissertação busca: (1) entender as motivações para os erros fonético-fonológicos produzidos por alunos brasileiros universitários aprendizes do Inglês, principalmente no que se refere à dificuldade desses alunos em produzir palavras que contêm agrupamentos consonantais (consonant clusters), e (2) contribuir para uma análise linguística e pedagógica, buscando mostrar a necessidade de mudança de paradigmas no ensino de Inglês com base em transformações histórico-político-sociais, causadas pela expansão da língua inglesa como fenômeno mundial, para que haja uma revisão dos parâmetros e consequente reformulação dos currículos utilizados atualmente no ensino do Inglês, inclusive e principalmente no Brasil. Para a execução da presente investigação, utilizamos pesquisa de orientação etnográfica e estudo comparativo entre o Português e o Inglês. Concluímos, em linhas gerais, que os brasileiros, não-nativos falantes do Inglês como L2, tendem a pronunciar palavras que contenham agrupamentos (clusters) ou sequências consonantais desfazendo-os, principalmente através do uso de um elemento epentético de valor [+ silábico], em geral a vogal [i], em face das diferenças fonético-fonológicas existentes entre o Português e o Inglês.
This thesis aims at: (1) seeking to understand the motivations for the phonetic-phonological errors produced by Brazilian university students, English learners, mainly in what concerns the difficulty of those students in producing words which contain consonant clusters; and (2) contributing a pedagogical and linguistic analysis, trying to show the need for paradigm shifting in the teaching of English on the basis of recent historical, political, and social changes, caused by the spreading of the English language as a world phenomenon, so that there can be a revision of the parameters and consequent restructuring of the curricula presently adopted in English language teaching, mainly in Brazil. For the execution of this work, we made use of ethnographically-oriented research and carried out a comparative study of Portuguese and English. In general lines, we conclude that, as non-native speakers of English, Brazilians are likely to pronounce words which contain consonant clusters by splitting them, mainly through the use of an epenthetic [+ syllabic] element, in general the vowel [i], because of the existing phonetic-phonological differences between Portuguese and English.

In language learning two mechanisms are of critical importance, namely, rule learning and statistical learning. Additionally, an important linguistic unit, the syllable, has been proposed to be the unit of speech segmentation and speech production. The present dissertation explores the influence of syllabic structure on rule learning and statistical learning mechanisms. First, I explored the interference of syllabic structure changes over adjacent repetition-based rules and statistical word segmentation in a series of behavioral experiments. Then, I explored the ERP signatures of a syllabic structure change over adjacent and non-adjacent repetition-based rules. Overall, results show that the learnability of abstract adjacent or non-adjacent repetition-based rules and statistical learning are not interfered by a change in syllabic structure. Our results also show that the extraction of regularities over syllables was easier to perform than over vowels, attesting the pre-eminent role of the syllable in speech processing. The electrophysiological responses to syllabic structure changes were readily detected a few hundred milliseconds after the presentation of the stimulus, manifesting the automatic perceptual nature of its detection.
En l’aprenentatge d’una llengua intervenen dos mecanismes bàsics, l’aprenentatge de regles i l’aprenentatge de relacions estadístiques. A més, s’ha proposat la síl·laba com a unitat amb rellevància lingüística per aquest estudi. La present dissertació explora la influència de l’estructura sil·làbica en els mecanismes d’aprenentatge de regles i de relacions estadístiques. Primerament, en una sèrie d’experiments comportamentals, exploro la interferència que el canvi d’estructura sil·làbica genera en regles repetitives adjacents i en mecanismes estadístics de segmentació de paraules. Després, exploro les respostes cognitives evocades del canvi d’estructura sil·làbica en l’aprenentatge de regles repetitives adjacents i no adjacents. Els resultats mostren que l’aprenentatge de regles repetitives adjacents i no adjacents, i l’aprenentatge de relacions estadístiques, no són interferits per un canvi d’estructura sil·làbica. L’extracció de regularitats sobre síl·labes va ser més fàcil que sobre vocals, confirmant el paper preeminent que la síl·laba té en el processament del llenguatge. La resposta electrofisiològica del canvi d’estructura sil·làbica va ser detectada amb rapidesa, tan sols uns dos-cents mil·lisegons després de la presentació de l’estímul, posant de manifest, doncs, la naturalesa automàtica d’aquesta detecció.

In the last decade the theory of metrical phonology has been an important development in linguistic theory. It began by concentrating on stress and rhythmical phenomena in English. The main idea of metrical phonology is that phonological strings are not merely linear sequences but are hierarchically structured. Stress patterns of rhythm reflect, to some extent at least, relations of prominence between the constituents of sentences. The relative prominence of each constituent in a metrical tree is indicated by nodes at different levels. Each node is labeled either s or w where s means 'stronger than' and w means 'weaker than' its sister node (Hogg and McCully 1987: 62-75). However, how can the relationship between strong and weak constituents be interpreted physically? What kind of value can be identified as an acoustic correlate of metrical structure? Up to now there has been little work addressing these problems. In this thesis I concentrate on· these questions in relation to rhythm, intonation, and focus in the Mandarin sentence JINTIAN TA BAN JIA (She/he is moving house today). The aim of my thesis is to develop the hierarchical rhythm approach and suggest that syllabic volume (a three dimensional acoustic value) can be identified as the acoustic correlate of metrical structure.

La place de la syllabe dans l'organisation du langage et donc dans les théories phonologiques n'est pas encore clairement définie. Pourtant comme le laissent supposer des études récentes en phonétique-phonologie, elle semble être l'une des unités de base de la parole. Il doit donc être possible de trouver des traces de son organisation dans les langues du monde. Les structures internes de la syllabe, ainsi que leur combinaison en unités lexicales, vont être analysées à travers l'étude d'une base de données composée de lexiques découpés en syllabes. L'élaboration d'une typologie, la mise en évidence de tendances générales et de lois implicationnelles, ainsi que la catégorisation des liens existants entre les différents constituants de la syllabe constitueront la majeure partie de cette étude. Mais bien que le travail de collecte et d'analyse de données soit nécessaire à une meilleure compréhension du fonctionnement du langage humain, il ne permet pas à lui seul de proposer des explications aux phénomènes observés. L'ensemble des résultats obtenus sont analysés à la lumière de travaux antérieurs pouvant fournir une base explicative des tendances, notamment ceux s'inscrivant dans le cadre d'une linguistique orientée substance, et plus particulièrement la théorie " Frame, then Conten "t (MacNeilage, 1998). Utilisant un paradigme expérimental original, nous montrons qu'il existe un corrélat perceptif de l'effet lexical Labial-Coronal. L'ensemble du travail apporte des éléments incontournables dans une perspective de modélisation de l'émergence des structures syllabiques et de la complexité des lexiques.

Cette thèse s'intéresse aux notions de continuité et de cyclicité dans les transformations de la structure syllabique depuis le latin tardif à travers l'ancien et le moyen français jusqu'en créole martiniquais. Un des aspects innovateurs de la recherche entreprise consiste dans le fait qu'un lien de parenté est supposé entre le martiniquais et le français, le martiniquais étant intégré dans la dynamique évolutive romane occidentale. De l'analyse de l'évolution phonotactique de la période examinée, il ressort une sorte de continuité dans la direction des changements et une cyclicité dans le traitement de certaines séquences phonémiques. À l'intérieur de cette dynamique évolutive, la phonotactique du martiniquais est rapprochée de celle du moyen français et des variétés populaires françaises du XVIIe siècle. Cette hypothèse est corroborée par l'étude quantitative qui est faite sur un corpus martiniquais basilectal synchronique de plus de trente mille phonèmes
The present thesis focuses on the notions of continuity and cyclicity in phonotactic changes from Late Latin through Old French and Middle French to Martinique Creole French (MCF). It appears from the phonotactic analysis of the above mentioned period that there exists a continuity in the direction of phonotactic changes as well as a cyclicity in the treatment of certain types of consonant clusters. The main argument of the thesis consists in assuming a genetic relationship between MCF and French and incorporating the former in the evolutionary processes of Western Romance dialects. Our hypothesis that MCF phonotactics are very close to Middle French and 17th-century Vulgar French phonotactics has been confirmed by quantitative analysis carried out on a MCF synchronical corpus of more than thirty thousand phonemes. This phonotactic analysis of MCF is the first of its kind

Differences in cognitive performance between boys and girls have been reported in the literature for many years (Maccoby & Jacklin 1974, Bell 2001), but their interpretation remains contentious (Feingold 1992a). Important issues have arisen over such matters as: the methods to be used to assess girls' and boys' performances on cognitive ability and achievement tasks; the appropriate statistical procedures to be used to compare those performances, including meta-analytic procedures; and whether the sex differences are cultural or biological in origin. Although some reported differences are relatively large, there is recent evidence of progressive changes in girl/boy relativities (Nowell & Hedges 1998), suggesting that much of the sex difference in cognitive performance is attributable to non-biological factors. The present research on chemistry problem solving in secondary students is positioned within this literature. As with some other areas of science (Lee & Burkham 1996), and mathematics (Beller & Gafni, 1996; Hedges & Nowell, 1995), the evidence with which the present research commenced indicated that boys' achievement in chemistry was higher, on average, than girls', and that this difference was not attributable to item difficulty confounds (Walding, Fogliani, Over, & Bain, 1994). Of the various explanations considered for this effect, the most promising appeared to be sex-correlated differences in science-related interests and in orientations to sex roles. For example, many students engage in activities, interests and sports that provide them with experiences relevant to science. Such experiences are likely to result in an incidental knowledge and understanding of these domains that the students might otherwise not possess. Sex differences in these science-related experiences may be associated with sex differences in incidental learning and ultimately with performance on formal chemistry tests. A student's sex role orientation, irrespective of biological sex, may also influence her/his experiences of the world in ways that influence the uptake and use of science-related knowledge. The main research reported in this thesis examined these possibilities, culminating in a structural equation model demonstrating sex influences on chemistry problem solving partly mediated by science–related knowledge and sex role orientation. An empirical test of science-related incidental knowledge was developed and trialled with 542 secondary school chemistry students. Clear evidence was found for sex differences in this knowledge (some areas favoured girls, others boys), and the differences thus revealed were used to construct a chemistry achievement test with three sub-scales: one biased in favour of girls' incidental knowledge, another biased in favour of boys, and a third consisting of neutral items. Performance on this test was correlated with students': science-related incidental knowledge; their sex role orientation (Antill & Cunningham, 1982); and their enrolment status for a concurrent physics course (because earlier research suggested this also might be a relevant predictor of chemistry achievement —Walding et al., 1994). Preliminary analyses showed that two of the three chemistry sub-tests performed as expected. The boy-gendered subtest produced a significant difference in scores favouring boys and with the neutral subtest there was no significant difference between boys' and girls' scores. However, the girls' subtest was expected to show a sex difference favouring girls but this did not eventuate. As mentioned above, two main variables were examined as possible factors giving rise to this sex difference in chemistry achievement. The correlation between performances on the boys' science-related incidental knowledge sub-test and the boy-gendered chemistry sub-test supported the notion that incidental knowledge influences achievement on formal chemistry tests. However, no such effect was found for the girls' science-related incidental knowledge and the girl-gendered chemistry sub-test. Although it was found that the science-related incidental knowledge scale was clearly girl-biased, this was not the case with the girl-gendered chemistry sub-test as mentioned above. The absence of a relationship between the two may reflect the lack of a girl bias in the girl biased chemistry sub-test or an absence of a relationship per se. The other variable thought likely to give rise to sex differences in formal chemical knowledge was sex role orientation. Sex role orientation – defined as masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated – was associated with differential performance on the chemistry test. Firstly, highly masculine students tended to perform significantly better than weakly masculine students on the boy gendered chemistry questions whereas highly feminine students performed significantly better than weakly feminine students on the girl gendered chemistry questions. Lastly, as anticipated, there was no sex role differentiation on the unbiased chemistry questions. However, some inadequacies were apparent with the preliminary analyses and four additional variables were included. Gendered knowledge appeared to be a factor contributing to sex differences in chemistry achievement but the influence of total incidental knowledge was uncertain. Secondly, the effect of masculine and feminine sex orientations was apparent but the influence of non-traditional sex roles was not clear. Both these variables needed to be accounted for in future analyses. The other aspects of interest were the influence of the concurrent curriculum (in this case physics) on chemistry performance and the relationship of the chemistry subscales to a more traditional test of chemistry achievement. The main analysis was motivated by two purposes: one was to take account of all variables simultaneously. Although a variety of commonly used statistical methods were applied to the data to test and control factors for one another‘s joint influence, they did not take account of measurement error, relationships among predictor variables and unequal interval scaling of independent and dependent variables. For better estimates of effects structural equation modelling was adopted. It allows the determination of construct validity of measures and the fit of the model, none of which could be handled by classical regression analysis. The second aim was to incorporate non-gendered aspects of incidental knowledge and sex role orientation in addition to the gendered aspects. To achieve these aims, a complex, multistage, mediated-effects latent variable structural model was hypothesised. The measurement design consisted of latent variables for gendered (bipolar) and non-gendered science related incidental knowledge, traditional (bipolar) and non-traditional sex roles, and a latent variable for general chemistry achievement all of which used the variables described earlier as indicators. The structural design consisted of the direct and indirect influences of sex on each of the chemistry sub-tests, with the indirect effects being defined via gendered and non-gendered science related incidental knowledge latent variables, traditional and non-traditional sex roles latent variables, and a concurrent physics enrolment variable. Several important conclusions were drawn from the structural model. One of the most obvious was that some of the chemistry test performance was sex biased and some not. Some of the influence of sex on these biased parts of the test may derive from prior sex-biased interests in science-related knowledge – an effect resulting from a knowledge difference. However, other influences of sex on the biased parts of the chemistry test may derive from students' sex role orientations – a gender difference. Irrespective of these two 'incidental curriculum' influences – science-related incidental knowledge and sex role orientation – some of the influence may be 'direct', in the sense that it is not attributable to these two major mediating factors under investigation. One interpretation is that there are unmeasured correlates of sex that influenced chemistry achievement; these could include spatial and visual perception (Linn & Petersen 1985), verbal ability (Hyde & Linn 1988), or mathematical ability (Hyde, Fennema & Lamon 1990). However, it is acknowledged that the problem with including more and more mediating variables that correlate with sex and target achievement (in this case the chemistry subtests), is that more and more imperfect substitutes for sex are being added. Hence, it may be possible to eliminate all of the direct sex effect but by splitting it into various surrogates for sex, all imperfect but collectively sufficient to replace sex. It is also possible, however, that neither of the gendered latent variables was optimally defined: a better measurement model might have resulted in a better structural model. As well as the gendered effects of science-related incidental knowledge (which showed that gendered chemistry subtests show sex differences in response to the variety of students‘ knowledge), there were non-gendered effects suggesting that amount of prior relevant knowledge is important for some aspects of chemistry achievement. In cognate areas such as physics, formal courses might act in the same way as the 'incidental curriculum', both being correlated with sex, and perhaps being responsible for differences in chemistry performance, but the mechanism for the influence of incidental and formal knowledge remains an open question. In defining the contributions to the advancement of theory and implications for theoretical advance, the mechanism that underlies the influence of science related incidental knowledge on the learning and assessment of formal chemistry is postulated: one concerns a knowledge uptake effect in which the incidental knowledge of events and phenomena is crucial; the other is a testing effect in which the vagaries of assessment and the notion of fair testing are paramount. In this way the implications for future research are elaborated. But more than build an understanding of the nature and influences of sex differences in cognition – the question is posed: what can we do about it; how can practice be changed? Various possibilities are canvassed, culminating in a description about how the new syllabuses in chemistry and physics in Queensland have been written with these questions in mind.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
Full Text

博士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
97
This study contains two main parts, concerning two issues related to Chinese syllables. The first issue is about onset and syllable boundary and the second concerns syllable internal constituencies. As for the first issue, after examining relevant literature and data, we conclude that onset is obligatory in Chinese syllables, contrary to the suggestion made in Duanmu (2007). Furthermore, the cross-syllabic place assimilation of a coda and an onset (e.g. tan + pAw → tam pAw ‘assure’) is attributed to the interaction of constraints such as AGREE[ALL], CODA-COND, MAX(place), and NO-SPREAD(place). In addition, we discover that the asymmetrical behavior of zero onset between full and weak syllables can be well accounted for in OT by the interaction of IO-Identity constraints and OO-Identity constraints. The second issue focuses mainly on the long-recognized Onset/Rime constituency, which has been argued to be problematic (Yip 2003). The major problem of Onset/Rime model happens when one tries to determine the syllabic position of a pre-nuclear glide because even in the same language, different linguistic processes may suggest different positions for a pre-nuclear glide. After analyzing data from Fanqie Languages, L-words, syllable contraction, and tautosyllabic nasal distribution of Taiwanese Southern Min, we establish OT analyses without referring to any syllable internal constituency. All the phenomena previously viewed as resulting from syllable internal structures can actually be attributed to other causes such as similarity, proximity, markedness factors, sonority, and semantics. In other words, no syllable internal constituency is required in our analyses and thus the problematic Onset/Rime model can be abandoned in OT, at least when approaching these morpho-phonological processes.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
90
In early generative phonology, the syllable was not given a place in the theory. However, during one or two decades recently, syllables are proven to possess significant functions. Syllable is viewed as the basic phonotactic unit and the domain of phonological rules. The purpose of the study is to explore segmental-moraic syllable structure in Southern Min (SM) in order to deal with the inadequacies left by previous syllable theories. In the thesis, previous syllable theories in representing SM syllables — traditional syllable structure, segmental syllable theory and moraic syllable theory — are first reviewed. Then, I further discuss the problems left by these syllable theories. With some specific inadequacies, most syllable theories fail to account for the difference between VG and VC structures. Such failure causes a great difficulty in explaining significant phonological behaviors — secret language formation, nasalization and nasal dissimilation, and labial dissimilation — in SM. I, then, present the segmental-moraic syllable structure. I first discuss the theoretical foundations of this syllable structure, represented as a four-level structure: syllable, mora, skeleton and segment. Every SM syllable contains two moras, the first of which dominates either one or two skeletons. The number of skeletons under the first mora is determined by universally phonological lengthening. Moreover, I explore the status of pre- and postvocalic glides, the former of which belongs to part of the rime, not the onset. Then, I provide a syllabification procedure to represent SM syllables by segmental-moraic syllable structure. This structure properly solves some of the problems left by previous syllable theories. Finally, I apply segmental-moraic syllable structure to secret language formation, nasalization and nasal dissimilation, and labial dissimilation. Within these phonological phenomena in SM, mora plays a significant role in defining the phonological domains. What is indeed reduplicated in secret language formation can be defined in terms of mora. Moreover, mora is also useful to demarcate not only the domain of nasalization and nasal dissimilation but also the domains to which labial dissimilation and OCP [back] are applied.

碩士
國立交通大學
外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班
106
Previous studies have shown that the shape of pitch contours has an influence on perceived vowel duration in that listeners tend to perceive vowels as shorter even when they are produced longer (Gussenhoven & Zhou, 2013). Several hypotheses have thus been proposed to account for the correlation between the perceived and produced vowel lengths, including hyperarticulation (Yu 2010), compensatory listening strategy (Gussenhoven 2007), and tone crowding (Sundberg 1973). Furthermore, Gussenhoven & Zhou (2013) have also reported that vowels of different duration steps and with different onsets (i.e., aspirated vs. unaspirated stops) were perceived as more different by Chinese listeners, whose native language uses pitch and [+spread glottis] contrastively, than by Dutch listeners, suggesting an effect of tonal and segmental contrasts in one’s native language on one’s perception. In this study, two perceptual rating experiments were used to investigate whether tonal and segmental differences would influence the perceived vowel duration by listeners of different native languages (i.e., Taiwanese Southern Min vs. Mandarin Chinese). Findings from these experiments showed that the pitch patterns are not readily explainable by a single strategy. Instead, perception often mimics actual production length (i.e., mimicking effect) and syllables with more tones are in general perceived as longer than syllables with fewer tones (i.e., a tone crowding hypothesis). Segmental differences are shown to also affect vowel perception length. Vowels with nasal [m] onset were perceived significantly longer than those with voiced obstruent onset [b], suggesting that vowels with a sonorant onset (i.e., [m]) may contribute to the perception of vowel duration. Participants gave higher rating scores to vowels with codas than to vowels without codas, suggesting that coda duration is counted towards perceived vowel duration as well. An explanation from processing these stimuli in the auditory mode is provided. Taken together, the results of this thesis show that vowel perception length may depend on fundamental frequency, onset type, and coda type.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4162. Advisers: Charles Kisseberth; Rajeshwari Pandharipande. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

碩士
國立清華大學
語言學研究所
88
Traditionally, the prevocalic glides are considered as structurally part of the final. However, in Duanmu (1990) and Bao (1990), the prevocalic glides are analyzed as forming a constituent with the initial consonant. To clarify the issues regarding the status of prevocalic glides, Wan (1997) gathered evidence from naturalistic slips of the tongue, and concluded that a prevocalic glide could be part of the onset or part of the rime depending on its preceding consonant. Faced with these contradictory analyses, we tried to gather evidence to resolve the controversy by administering two experiments: a syllable-expansion experiment and a syllable-contraction experiment. In the syllable-expansion experiment, the subjects were asked to select from two alternatives the one form that was preferable when they had to expand the key syllable into two syllables. In the syllable-contraction experiment, the subjects were asked to fuse two syllables into one on the basis of onset/rime division. As a result, we found that, unlike Duanmu’s (1990) and Bao’s (1990) analysis, there existed a general tendency for subjects to select “rime” answer in these two experiments. The place of articulation of the preceding consonant was not found to be a significant factor in the categorization of the prevocalic glide, neither was the type of glides significant, contrary to Wan’s (1997) findings. Furthermore, three other interesting findings, the superiority of the test strategy, the merging of the glides, and the replacement of the glides, were discovered in the syllable-contraction task.

碩士
國立清華大學
語言學研究所
90
This thesis aims to codify phonemic segments, define a syllable and expect to obtain further evidence for both two issues by loanwords, based on newly- collected data. The significance of the presentation about all of the possible consonant clusters in Tsou includes the great violation of Sonority Dispersion Principle (Clements, 1990), and the plausibility of homorganic consonant clusters (Tung 1964, Hsin 1999). Due to onset phonotactics, vowel~glide alternation in numeral compounding and the dialectal correspondence, glides are excluded in the inventory. Besides, reduplication, stress assignment, alternate vowel deletion (Wright and Ladefoged 1994, 1997), minimal pairs, pitch (Tsai 1999) are proved to be insufficient evidence to clarify if there are underlying long vowels. ‘Contrasting pairs in regard to the occurrence and non- occurrence of stress and the position of stress’ (Tung 1964:40~41), which seems to imply that stress is sometimes phonemic are not found; stress assignment always predictable falls on the penultimate syllable. Irregular stress assignment of some words in the older generation results from the historical and dialectal /r/ ~ /e/ correspondence. The evidence Tung (1964) and Hsin (1999) use to argue for non- coda assumption, namely empirical evidence, reduplication and affixation is proved to be insufficient; empirically there are content words that end with codas and (C(C))VC. CV syllabification and the C(C)V template are compatible with the constraint ranking MAX I-O >> NO-CODA >>MAX B-R (Chen 2001), under the principle of the emergence of the unmark (McCarthy & Prince 1994a). Phonotactics, the CCVC reduplication template and language games however show that Tsou is not a language that disallows codas. Despite the fact the intention to use loanword preservation and modification to testify the issues of native inventory and plausibility of codas fails, predictable stress assignment of Japanese loanwords mixed with native words still enforces the argument that stress is not phonemic. Furthermore, truncation of loanwords in a Tsou way is newly unearthed. The observation of X- slot- based segmental preservation is also represented, although the theoretical implication is not elucidated yet. Color terms, heavy-light redupliction, criteria for multiple reduplication templates and the segmental/ tonal preservation/ modification of Taiwanese loanwords are the suggested issues for feature research.

Inspired by Lin and Huang’s (2009) rhythmic study of Chinese dialects, this study examines speech rhythm of 21 Chinese dialects from three perspectives, timing, melody, and phonological structure. The 21 dialects belong to four major groups of Chinese and their respective sub-groups. The four major groups are Mandarin, Wu, Min, and Cantonese. Nine duration-based and four pitch-based metrics are used to quantify timing and melody, respectively. Four phonological structure-based metrics are used to explore the relationships between syllable structure and timing and between tone structure and melody. All the metrics are paired up according to five categories, duration-only, pitch-only, duration-pitch, duration-syllable, pitch-tone, and each pair is subject to a correlation analysis. Then timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are determined by correlation patterns of relevant metric pairs. The main findings of this study are as follows: 1) Timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are far from homogenous across major groups and melody patterns are more distinct than timing patterns; 2) No single metric pair is able to quantify speech rhythm consistently for all the Chinese dialects; nonetheless, pitch-based metric pairs fare better than duration-based ones; 3) Syllable-timedness and melodiousness are correlated positively for all the major groups except for Wu; 4) Phonological structure plays little role in shaping timing and melody patterns of most Chinese dialects. The above findings are both expected and unexpected. They are expected in the sense that rhythmic perception invovles multiple acoustic cues, so it comes as no surprise that not all rhythmic metrics are successful in quantifying Chinese rhythm. They are unexpected for the reason that all the metrics are developed based more or less on phonological structure, yet the rhythmic patterns they reveal do not correspond to the structure affinity or group membership of the Chinese dialects. Overall, the findings suggest that pitch is a more import cue than duration to Chinese rhythm. As the first study of Chinese rhythm across multiple dialects and from different perspectives, this study not only lays a methodological foundation for future research but also contributes to our in-depth understanding of Chinese dialects.
Graduate
0290
yali@uvic.ca

The thesis presents an overview of the layers on which speech develo- pment can be studied and a brief account of the main theoretical branches within these layers. It accounts for the periodization of a child's speech development according to Czech and foreign authors. In the thesis, a syllable is introduced as a phonological unit. Attention is also paid to the related layer of phonotactics; important works concerning the phonotactics of child's speech are mentioned. The target of the experimental part is a longitudinal case study of a child acqui- ring Czech as her mother tongue. For the purpose of the study, a corpus of the child's utterances in her natural environment between the ages of 7 to 27 months was built. The utterances have been analyzed with respect to the frequency of occurrence of different syllable types, with closed syllables and syllables with con- sonant clusters in the center of interest. The found consonant clusters and their reductions have been further analyzed with respect to the findings of the phono- tactic studies mentioned in the theoretical part, in order to confirm or dismiss their relevance for Czech. Most importantly, two theories have been checked, the frames theory commenting on the combinatory potential of the front/middle/back vowels and coronal/labial/dorsal...

碩士
元智大學
應用外語學系
107
This study investigated the stress placement in relation to structure of syllables in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Vietnamese learners of English assign the stress on English words as opposed to the performances of native speakers. We designed an experiment to test whether heavy syllables, those with long vowels (CVV) and those closed by a consonant (CVC), were more inclined to attract stress on penult syllalbes, as compared with light syllables, those wih short vowels (CV). Vietnamese learners of English and Naïve English speakers were recruited to participate in the experiment where the participants were to pronounce a series of three types of English words: common, rare, and made-up. The results showed that the Vietnamese learners performed slightly better on assigning the stress to the CV syllables, whereas the native speakers performed equally well on both types of syllable structure. We suggest that the preference for CV syllables by the Vietnamese learners may be because of the interference from the Vietnamese language, where words are monosyllabic, which leads to the prominence of the first syllable. Therefore we recommend the instruction of the notion of syllable weight in the teaching of pronunciation so that a better prosodic pattern may be learned