Five male speakers produced the vowels of Greek at slow and fast tempo, in lexically stressed and unstressed syllables, and in lexically stressed syllables of words appearing in focus position. Duration, fundamental frequency (F₀), amplitude, and the frequencies of the first (F1) and second formant (F2) were measured. The effects on these variables of the phonemic category of the vowel, tempo, stress, and focus were examined. The results indicated that the vowel system of Greek follows universal tendencies in terms of duration but not in terms of F₀ and amplitude. Vowels in focus position, when plotted by their F1 and F2 frequencies, defined a vowel space larger than that defined by vowels in any other condition.
This is an experimental study of segmental durations as a function of lexical stress production and syllable structure in Greek. In accordance with a production experiment, the results indicate that lexical stress production has different effects on different syllable structure constituents. Thus, the vowels are lengthened more than prevocalic consonants whereas stress production has a shortening effect on postvocalic consonants. These results imply that vowels are the main carriers of stress distinctions in Greek with reference to duration correlates of stress production.
The present investigation examines palatal production as well as the relation of phonology and phonetics in Greek. In accordance with one production experiment, the results indicate: (1) palatal productions that surface from one underlying segment are significantly longer than palatal productions that surface from two underlying segments, (2) palatal productions are voice assimilated with the preceding stop and fricative consonant production and, (3), the locus frequencies of male palatal productions are in the area of 1800-2000 Hz.
This is a study of intonation and polar questions in Greek. The results indicate that there is a rising-falling tonal structure at the right edge of polar questions. However, the alignment of both tonal rising and tonal peak depend on the position of focus as well as lexical stress. Thus, in the context of initial and medial focus productions, the tonal rising is aligned with the onset of the final stressed syllable whereas, in the context of final focus production, the tonal rising is aligned with the onset of the last syllable regardless of the position of lexical stress. On the other hand, the tonal peak is aligned with the post-stressed syllable in the context of initial and medial focus productions whereas, in the context of final focus production, the tonal peak is aligned with the nucleus of the last syllable. However, the earlier the lexical stress production, the earlier the tonal rising as well as the tonal peak in all focus contexts.
This study investigates prosody and semantic specification in Greek with reference to affirmative and negative sentence quantifier functions. A production and a perception experiment were carried out, the results of which indicate: (1) The negative interpretation of the word [ˈliɣa] (few) is produced with focus on the quantifier, whereas the positive one with focus on the preceding verb.(2) The word in focus has an enlarged tonal range associated with the stressed syllable, while the material out of focus is tonally compressed. (3) The stressed syllable of the word in focus, especially the vowel, is significantly longer. (4) The affirmative and negative functions of the quantifier had high identification rates, indicating a one-to-one production and perception relation.
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