Phonology and phonetics of sonority-driven stress This project (my dissertation) investigates the phonology and phonetics of sonority-driven stress. One of the goals is to present acoustic evidence for (or against) sonority-driven stress. The typology of sonority-driven stress can be classified into two types: (i) stress is sensitive to peripheral vowel distinctions, and (ii) stress is solely sensitive to central vowels. For the former case, I worked on metrical structure in Gujarati (Indo-Aryan), focusing on the claim that stress is attracted to the highly sonorous vowel [a] from the default stress position. For the latter case, I am currently working on the metrical structure in Paiwan (Austronesian), focusing on the claim that stress avoids schwa in default stress position. Gujarati [paper] Default and focal prosodic phrasing This project investigates the default/focal prosodic phrasing in Taiwan Mandarin (syntactically) flat structure. For default phrasing, the five-word string /wuL wuL wuL wuL wuL/ ‘55555’ and the six-word string /wuL wuL wuL wuL wuL wuL/ ‘555555’ were used to examine the prosodic phrasing patterns. For focal phrasing, /tɕjouL/ ‘9’ was used to test the phrasing pattern. Each word in the default string was replaced by /tɕjouL/ ‘9’ one at a time. It was found that binarity and focus play important roles in prosodic phrasing in Taiwan Mandarin. WCCFL 34 [paper] Interaction between phrase-final lengthening and prosodic structure This project proposes a unified theory for the interaction between phrase-final lengthening and prosodic structure. I argue that phrase-final lengthening obeys two requirements: cumulativity and entailment. The theory makes a typology. I argue that phrase-final lengthening in Taiwan Mandarin provides evidence for the proposed theory. CLS 53 [slides] |