Constraints on schwa-deletion in American English

Hooper, Joan Β.

doi:10.1515/9783110810929.183

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…This category of words was excluded in our analyses. We note that while Zwicky [1972a] includes these word types as possible schwa deletion sites (at least for some dialects), Hooper [1978] voices concerns we share regarding the acceptability of schwa-deleted variants. Including these words in the post-stress category may have depressed deletion rates.…”

Section: Switchboard Corpusmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Notably, Zwicky [1972a] has suggested that speakers with certain regional dialects (southern and south-western United States) have a greater propensity to delete schwas. While there may be variation in schwa deletion rates across dialects, the variant productions are regarded as unacceptable, 'substandard' variation [Hooper, 1978] 1 . The final variable, gender, was included as a potential source of systematic variability of speakers.…”

Section: Switchboard Corpusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Corpora Analyses of Frequency of Schwa Deletion in Conversational American English

Patterson¹,

LoCasto²,

Connine³

2003

Phonetica

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This study utilized two conversational speech databases to generate statistics about the frequency of occurrence of schwa deletion. Overall, the results showed a low frequency of schwa deletion in conversational American English. We investigated a number of factors that could have a potential effect on the propensity to delete schwa. The most pervasive factor was stress environment (pre-stress vs. post-stress), which showed a greater frequency of schwa deletion in the post-stress environment. The results are discussed with reference to processing spoken words and the role for corpus statistics in constraining models of word recognition.

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Section: Switchboard Corpusmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Switchboard Corpusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corpora Analyses of Frequency of Schwa Deletion in Conversational American English

Patterson¹,

LoCasto²,

Connine³

2003

Phonetica

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“…As for (i), it also manifests itself in minor points previous accounts of English tapping, very often just in passing, remark, e.g., the fact that a t immediately following the stressed vowel (e.g., Italy) must be a tap, while a later t (e.g., sanity) may be a tap (cf. Kahn 1976, 165 footnote 17;Hooper 1978;Selkirk 1982, Kreidler 1989Kenstowicz 1994: 69;Vaux 2002, and references therein). At the same time, the vowel in such a position can also be taken to be semi-weak: it is affected by reduction to a lesser extent (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consonant lenition inside and outside the “minimal foot”

Bérces¹

2015

Acta Linguistica Hungarica

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English represents stress-sensitive consonant lenition systems, in which the onsets of stressed syllables (as well as word-initial consonants) tend to resist diachronic lenition, resulting in synchronic alternations between foot-initial and foot-internal variants. However, there is empirical evidence that a further distinction needs to be drawn between two subtypes of foot-internal positions: one which is weak proper, included within a bimoraic domain (corresponding to the "minimal foot" in prosodic approaches); and a less weak ("semi-weak") position outside that minimal domain. Crucially, lenition outside the domain implies lenition within, and no cases of lenition in semi-weak only are on record. The paper uses the representations of Strict CV Phonology to capture the equivalence of two forms of the "minimal foot" (the CVCV sequence and the long-vowelled heavy syllable) and to connect this "bimoraicity" of the domain to the implications in consonant lenition, a benefit moraic theory does not offer. At the same time, it properly predicts the non-existence of the unattested lenition pattern.

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“…Data on syncope in this paper partly come from Guile (1972), Zwicky (1972), Algeo (1974), Hooper (1978), Harris (1994Harris ( , 2011 and Szigetvári (2002Szigetvári ( , 2007. In addition, I have used the electronic database at http://seas3.elte.hu/epd, based on Hornby, Cowie & Windsor Lewis (1974), and the database of Lindsey & Szigetvári (2013) at http://seas3.elte.hu/cube, where frequency counts are also supplied, to search for additional examples.…”

Section: Post-t O N I C S Y N C O P Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hooper (1978), for example, states that syncope in English creates syllable-initial clusters, i.e. branching onsets.…”

Section: Post-t O N I C S Y N C O P Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Syncope, syllabic consonant formation, and the distribution of stressed vowels in English

Polgárdi

2014

J. Ling.

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Post-tonic synope in English (Received Pronunciation) optionally deletes a schwa between a stressed and an unstressed vowel (gén(e)ral), but it cannot apply if the vowel following the schwa is stressed (gén*(e)ràte), or if no vowel follows (hápp*(e)n). Syncope is thus triggered by a metrical lapse of unstressed vowels. In addition, short stressed vowels cannot occur in an open syllable in English (Stress-to-Weight), except when preceding a single consonant and a vowel. Hammond (1997a) analyses such seemingly open stressed syllables in words like gén(e)ral as closed by a virtual geminate. I argue that post-tonic syncope can be understood as another means of satisfying the Stress-to-Weight requirement, closing the stressed syllable in a different way, at the same time avoiding a metrical lapse. In addition, surprisingly, English post-tonic syncope is sensitive to the quality of the flanking consonants: the consonant following the alternating vowel must be a sonorant which is more sonorous than the consonant preceding it (dél*(i)cate, cól*(o)ny). These are the same conditions as those applying to syllabic consonant formation, which can be regarded as a stage preceding syncope, explaining the melodic restrictions. I analyse the interplay of different forces in Stratal Optimality Theory, employing Government Phonological representations.

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Constraints on schwa-deletion in American English

Cited by 27 publications

References 1 publication

Corpora Analyses of Frequency of Schwa Deletion in Conversational American English

Corpora Analyses of Frequency of Schwa Deletion in Conversational American English

Consonant lenition inside and outside the “minimal foot”

Syncope, syllabic consonant formation, and the distribution of stressed vowels in English

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