Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T16:05:43.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond the Iambic-Trochaic Law: the joint influence of duration and intensity on the perception of rhythmic speech*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2014

Megan J. Crowhurst  and
Amador Teodocio Olivares
Megan J. Crowhurst*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
Amador Teodocio Olivares*
Affiliation:
Center for the Study and Development of the Indigenous Languages of Oaxaca
*
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Iambic-Trochaic Law (ITL) asserts that listeners associate greater acoustic intensity with group beginnings and greater duration with group endings. Some researchers have assumed a natural connection between these perceptual tendencies and universal principles underlying linguistic categories of rhythm. The experimental literature on ITL effects is limited in three ways. Few studies of listeners' perceptions of alternating sound sequences have used speech-like stimuli, cross-linguistic testing has been inadequate and existing studies have manipulated intensity and duration singly, whereas these features vary together in natural speech. This paper reports the results of three experiments conducted with native Zapotec speakers and one with native English speakers. We tested listeners' grouping biases using streams of alternating syllables in which intensity and duration were varied separately, and sequences in which they were covaried. The findings suggest that care should be taken in assuming a natural connection between the ITL and universal principles of prosodic organisation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , May 2014 , pp. 51 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by National Science Foundation award 1147959 to the first author. The second author thanks the Center for the Study and Development of the Indigenous Languages of Oaxaca for release time to conduct the research. We have appreciated useful comments from Keith Johnson, Mark Liberman, Björn Lindblom, Richard Meier, Gayatri Rao, Rajka Smiljanic and Caroline Smith at various points. We are especially indebted to Colin Bannard, Randy Diehl, Matthew Gordon, Niamh Kelly, Scott Myers and four Phonology reviewers for their generous contributions to the design, statistical analysis and earlier versions of the manuscript. Finally, we thank the editors for their gracious and meticulous editing. Naturally, the responsibility for any limitations is ours alone. Portions of this research were presented at the 2013 meeting of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas and at M@90, a workshop in honour of Morris Halle's 90th birthday in Cambridge, Mass. in September 2013.

References

REFERENCES

Abercrombie, David (1967). Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Adams, Corinne & Munro, R. R. (1978). In search of the acoustic correlates of stress: fundamental frequency, amplitude, and duration in the connected utterance of some native and non-native speakers of English. Phonetica 35. 125–156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Altshuler, Daniel (2009). Quantity-insensitive iambs in Osage. IJAL 75. 365–398.Google Scholar
Avelino, Heriberto (2004). Topics in Yalálag Zapotec, with particular reference to its phonetic structures. PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Beckman, Mary E. (1986). Stress and non stress accent. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckman, Mary E. & Edwards, Jan (1994). Articulatory evidence for differentiating stress categories. In Keating, Patricia A. (ed.) Phonological structure and phonetic form: papers in laboratory phonology III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 7–33.Google Scholar
Bell, Alan (1977). Accent placement and perception of prominence in rhythmic structures. In Hyman, Larry M. (ed.) Studies in stress and accent. Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. 1–13.Google Scholar
Bhatara, Anjali, Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie, Unger, Annika, Nazzi, Thierry & Höhle, Barbara (2013). Native language affects rhythmic grouping of speech. JASA 134. 3828–3843.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bion, Ricardo A. H., Silvia Benavides-Varela & Nespor, Marina (2011). Acoustic markers of prominence influence infants' and adults' segmentation of speech sequences. Language and Speech 54. 123–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David (2011). Praat: doing phonetics by computer (version 5.2.17). http://www.praat.org.Google Scholar
Bolton, Thaddeus L. (1894). Rhythm. American Journal of Psychology 6. 145–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, Eugene (1998). Iambic lengthening and final vowels. IJAL 64. 179–223.Google Scholar
Butler, Inez M. (1980). Gramática zapoteca: zapoteco de Yatzachi el Bajo. México, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.Google Scholar
Byrd, Dani (2000). Articulatory vowel lengthening and coordination at phrasal junctures. Phonetica 57. 3–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chávez-Peón, Mario E. (2008). Phonetic cues to stress in a tonal language: prosodic prominence in San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec. Proceedings of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. Available (January 2014) at http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/actes2008/CLA2008_Chavez-Peon.pdf.Google Scholar
Chávez-Peón, Mario (2010). The interaction of metrical structure, tone, and phonation types in Quiaviní Zapotec. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, Megan J. (1991). Minimality and foot structure in metrical phonology and prosodic morphology. PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, Megan J. (1994). Foot extrametricality and template mapping in Cupeño. NLLT 12. 177–201.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, Megan J. (2013). Perceptual influences on rhythmic grouping preferences. Paper presented at M@90: a workshop on metrical structure in honor of Morris Halle's 90th birthday, MIT.Google Scholar
Cutler, Anne & Butterfield, Sally (1992). Rhythmic cues to speech segmentation: evidence from juncture misperception. Journal of Memory and Language 31. 218–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, Anne & Carter, David M. (1987). The predominance of strong initial syllables in the English vocabulary. Computer Speech and Language 2. 133–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, Anne & Norris, Dennis (1988). The role of strong syllables in segmentation for lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 14. 113–121.Google Scholar
de Lacy, Paul (2002). The interaction of tone and stress in Optimality Theory. Phonology 19. 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derbyshire, Desmond C. (1985). Hixkaryana and linguistic typology. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics & University of Texas at Arlington.Google Scholar
Demuth, Katherine (1996). Alignment, stress, and parsing in early phonological words. In Bernhardt, Barbara H., Gilbert, John & Ingram, David (eds.) Proceedings of the UBC International Conference on Phonological Acquisition. Somerville, Mass.: Cascadilla. 113–125.Google Scholar
Earl, Robert (1968). Rincon Zapotec clauses. IJAL 34. 269–274.Google Scholar
Echols, Catharine H. (1993). A perceptually-based model of children's earliest productions. Cognition 46. 245–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Echols, Catharine H. & Crowhurst, Megan J. (1998). Developing knowledge of metrical rhythm in infancy. CLS 34:2. 207–212.Google Scholar
Echols, Catharine H., Crowhurst, Megan J. & Childers, Jane B. (1997). The perception of rhythmic units in speech by infants and adults. Journal of Memory and Language 36. 202–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, Janet (2010). The prosody of speech: timing and rhythm. In Hardcastle, William J., Laver, John & Gibbon, Fiona E. (eds.) The handbook of phonetic sciences. 2nd edn. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. 523–602.Google Scholar
Fry, D. B. (1955). Duration and intensity as physical correlates of linguistic stress. JASA 27. 765–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fry, D. B. (1958). Experiments in the perception of stress. Language and Speech 1. 126–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fry, D. B. (1965). The dependence of stress judgments on vowel formant structure. In Zwirner, Eberhard & Bethge, Wolfgange (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Münster, 1964. Basel & New York: Karger. 306–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerken, LouAnn (1991). The metrical basis of children's subjectless sentences. Journal of Memory and Language 30. 431–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerken, LouAnn (1994). A metrical template account of children's weak syllable omissions from multisyllabic words. Journal of Child Language 21. 565–584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gordon, Matthew (2002). A phonetically driven account of syllable weight. Lg 78. 51–80.Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew (2005). A perceptually driven account of onset sensitive stress. NLLT 23. 595–653.Google Scholar
Grabe, Esther & Low, Ee Ling (2002). Durational variability in speech and the Rhythm Class Hypothesis. In Gussenhoven, Carlos & Warner, Natasha (eds.) Laboratory phonology 7. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 515–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos & Rietveld, A. C. M. (1992). Intonation contours, prosodic structure, and preboundary lengthening. JPh 20. 283–303.Google Scholar
Halle, Morris & Vergnaud, Jean Roger (1987). An essay on stress. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Handel, Stephen (1989). Listening: an introduction to the perception of auditory events. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hay, Jessica S. F. & Diehl, Randy L. (2007). Perception of rhythmic grouping: testing the iambic/trochaic law. Perception and Psychophysics 69. 113–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, Bruce (1982). Extrametricality and English stress. LI 13. 227–276.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce (1985). A metrical theory of stress rules. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce (1987). A revised parametric metrical theory. NELS 17. 274–289.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce (1989). Compensatory lengthening in moraic phonology. LI 20. 253–306.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce (1995). Metrical stress theory: principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. (1970). A peeking rule in Cupeño. LI 1. 534–539.Google Scholar
Hyman, Larry M. (1985). A theory of phonological weight. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, John R., Patel, Aniruddh D. & Ohgushi, Kengo (2008). Perception of rhythmic grouping depends on auditory experience. JASA 124. 2263–2271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaeger, Jeri J. (1983). The fortis/lenis question: evidence from Zapotec and Jawoñ. JPh 11. 177–189.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, Peter W., Cutler, Anne & Redanz, Nancy J. (1993). Infants' preference for the predominant stress patterns of English words. Child Development 64. 675–687.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kager, René (1989). A metrical theory of stress and destressing in English and Dutch. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Kager, René (1991). The moraic iamb. CLS 27:1. 291–305.Google Scholar
Kager, René (1993). Alternatives to the iambic trochaic law. NLLT 11. 381–432.Google Scholar
Kelly, Niamh, Crowhurst, Megan J. & Cobb, Crystal (2014). The effect of duration and glottalization on the perception of rhythm among English speakers. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusumoto, Kiyomi & Moreton, Elliott (1997). Native language determines parsing of nonlinguistic rhythmic stimuli. JASA 102. 3204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, Mary (1950). Patterns of tone substitution in Zapotec morphology. IJAL 16. 132–136.Google Scholar
Leander, Anita (2008). Acoustic correlates of fortis/lenis in San Francisco Ozolotepec Zapotec. MA thesis, University of North Dakota.Google Scholar
Lehiste, Ilse (1970). Suprasegmentals. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Long, Rebecca & Cruz, Sofronio (1999). Diccionario zapoteco de San Bartolomé Zoogocho, Oaxaca. México, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. (1984). Prosodic organization in morphology. In Aronoff, Mark & Oehrle, Richard T. (eds.) Language sound structure. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 299–317.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. & Prince, Alan (1990). Foot and word in prosodic morphology: the Arabic broken plural. NLLT 8. 209–283.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. & Prince, Alan (1996). Prosodic morphology 1986. Ms, University of Massachusetts, Amherst & Brandeis University.Google Scholar
Meira, Sérgio (1998). Rhythmic stress in Tiriyó (Cariban). IJAL 64. 352–378.Google Scholar
Morgan, James L. (1996). A rhythmic bias in preverbal speech segmentation. Journal of Memory and Language 35. 666–688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Jane L., Edwards, Stephanie & Wheeldon, Linda R. (2014). The relationship between language production and verbal STM: the role of stress grouping. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 67. 220–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nellis, Donald G. & Hollenbach, Barbara E. (1980). Fortis versus lenis in Cajonos Zapotec phonology. IJAL 46. 92–105.Google Scholar
Nespor, Marina & Vogel, Irene (1986). Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Ortega-Llebaria, Marta, Vanrell, Maria del Mar & Prieto, Pilar (2010). Catalan speakers' perception of word stress in unaccented contexts. JASA 127. 462–471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pankratz, Leo & Pike, Eunice V. (1967). Phonology and morphotonemics of Ayutla Mixtec. IJAL 33. 287–299.Google Scholar
Patel, Aniruddh D. (2008). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pike, Eunice V. (1948). Problems in Zapotec tone analysis. IJAL 14. 161–170.Google Scholar
Potisuk, Siripong, Gandour, Jack & Harper, Mary P. (1996). Acoustic correlates of stress in Thai. Phonetica 53. 200–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, Alan (1983). Relating to the grid. LI 14. 19–100.Google Scholar
Pye, Clifton (1983). Mayan telegraphese: intonational determinants of inflectional development of Quiché Mayan. Lg 59. 583–604.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team (2012). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at http://www.r-project.org.Google Scholar
Ramus, Franck, Nespor, Marina & Mehler, Jacques (1999). Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition 73. 265–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Revithiadou, Anthi (2004). The Iambic/Trochaic Law revisited: lengthening and shortening in trochaic systems. In Arsenijevic, Boban, Elouazizi, Noureddine, Salzmann, Martin & de Vos, Mark (eds.) Leiden Papers in Linguistics 1. Leiden: University of Leiden. 37–62.Google Scholar
Riad, Tomas (1992). Structures in Germanic prosody: a diachronic study with special reference to the Nordic languages. PhD dissertation, Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Rice, Curt (1992). Binarity and ternarity in metrical theory: parametric extensions. PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward (1930). Southern Paiute, a Shoshonean language. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 65. 1–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth (1980). The role of prosodic categories in English word stress. LI 11. 563–605.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth (1984). Phonology and syntax: the relation between sound and structure. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sluijter, Agaath M. C. & van Heuven, Vincent J. (1996). Spectral balance as an acoustic correlate of linguistic stress. JASA 100. 2471–2485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sluijter, Agaath M. C., van Heuven, Vincent J. & Pacilly, Jos J. A. (1997). Spectral balance as a cue in the perception of linguistic stress. JASA 101. 503–513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sonnenschein, Aaron Huey (2004). A descriptive grammar of San Bartolomé Zoogocho Zapotec. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Teodocio Olivares, Amador (2009). Betaza Zapotec phonology: segmental and suprasegmental features. MA report, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Trainor, Laurel J. & Adams, Beth (2000). Infants' and adults' use of duration and intensity cues in the segmentation of tone patterns. Perception and Psychophysics 62. 333–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voegelin, Charles F. (1935). Tübatulabal grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Vos, Peter (1977). Temporal duration factors in the perception of auditory rhythmic patterns. Scientific Aesthetics/Sciences de l'Art 1. 183–199.Google Scholar
Woodrow, Herbert (1909). A quantitative study of rhythm: the effect of variations in intensity, rate and duration. New York: Science Press.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Katherine A., Iversen, John R., Patel, Aniruddh D., Mazuka, Reiko, Nito, Hiromi, Gervain, Judit & Werker, Janet F. (2010). The development of perceptual grouping biases in infancy: a Japanese-English cross-linguistic study. Cognition 115. 356–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Crowhurst Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Crowhurst Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 686.6 KB