Perception of moraic and syllabic text-setting among Japanese native speakers and learners
Rebecca L Starr
National University of
Singapore rstarr@nus.edu.sg
Stephanie S Shih
University of California, Merced shih@ucmerced.edu
LSA, Portland, Oregon
January 2015
1


Japanese = prototypical example of a
“mora-based” language e.g., kai.zen = [ka]
μ
[i]
μ
.[ze]
μ
[n]
μ o o o
Rhythmic timing depends on mora units
(Homma 1981; Port et al. 1987; cf., Beckman 1982)
Phonological/morphological implications: e.g., accent placement, compensatory lengthening
Traditional Japanese poetry = mora counting e.g., haiku 5 – 7 – 5 mora form
2


Syllable usually treated as unnecessary or unimportant in Japanese phonology.

Labrune (2012) : no positive psycholinguistic evidence for the “cognitive reality” of the syllable in Japanese.
3

•
• o
Kubozono
(1999; et seq.)
: Japanese is (in part) a syllable-based language.
accent placement, word formation, etc.
Inagaki et al. (2000) find that Japanese children show no mora preference until they become literate: possible role of mora-based orthography.
4


Major lexical strata in Japanese
(Itô and Mester
1999)
:




Yamato (native Japanese)

Ex: 好 き
suki (‘to like’)
Sino-Japanese (Chinese origin)
• Ex: 人間 ningen (‘human’)
Foreign (~85% English origin)
• Ex: ベンチ benchi (‘bench’)
Mimetic

Ex: フワフワ fuwafuwa (‘fluffy’)
5


Strata characterized by different phonotactics, and phonological rules
(Itô and Mester 1999)
.
o e.g., long a never occurs in Sino-Japanese words.


Because Chinese and English are syllable-based, is it possible that the syllable is a more salient unit in the Sino and Foreign strata?
Alternatively, does widespread knowledge of
English contribute to increased salience of the syllable in just the Foreign stratum?
6




Text-setting: the pairing of language and music in song.
Typologically, text-setting makes use of salient prosodic units particular to a language.
o o
English: syllables, lexical and phrasal stresses
(Halle & Lerdhal 1993; Shih 2008; Hayes 2009; a.o.)
Cantonese: tonal melodies matched in musical melodies (Yung 1991)
Similar claims for metrical typology
(Hanson and
Kiparksy 1996)
7


Japanese text-setting:

Claimed to operate as a mora-based system
(Kubozono 1999; Hayes and Swiger 2008; cf. Manabe 2009)
= each mora must receive (at least) one note.
e.g., do.ra.gon boo .ru (Dragonball Z theme, 1989) x x x x x x x = 7 notes
8


BUT, multi-moraic notes show up frequently in modern Japanese songs.

Similar findings in poetry (Tanaka 2012)

In these settings, it is the syllable that receives one note.
 e.g., do- ra- go n bo o -ru x x x x x = 5 notes
9


Our corpus study of Japanese songs found that syllabic settings are prevalent throughout the lexical strata of Japanese.

However, syllabic settings were significantly more common in Foreign stratum words than in Sino-
Japanese and Yamato words.
 e.g., minto (‘mint’) is more likely to be mi n -to while
minna (‘everyone’) is more likely to be mi- n -na.
10



Corpus evidence suggests the syllable is a salient prosodic unit in Japanese.
Two key proposals:

The traditional preference for mora-based settings in Japanese song is a stylistic norm, not a reflection of a lack of syllables.

Knowledge of English is the most likely factor behind the preference for syllabic settings in
Foreign stratum words.
11


The corpus of Japanese songs reflects the behavior of expert Japanese lyricists.

What about ordinary Japanese listeners: do they perceive moraic and syllabic settings as equally acceptable?

Do they prefer syllabic settings for Foreign stratum words?
12

•
•
Native speakers of English (and most other languages), where the syllable is most salient, encounter a new prosodic system when learning Japanese.
Do learners of Japanese learn to attend to moraic units? Do they learn to disprefer syllabic settings, which are the default style of their native languages?
13

•
•
Perception experiment to test the judgments of native and learner listeners.
We want to test how ordinary listeners rate various possible settings of Japanese lyrics to a melody.
14

• Creating stimuli involving multiple sung arrangements presents a challenge.
• We used Yamaha’s Vocaloid 3 software, which produces synthesized sung Japanese.
“sakura”
15

• Linguistic variables:
– Coda-N (e.g, min -to vs. mi n -to)
– ai (e.g., nai -to vs. na i -to)
• Strata: Foreign vs. Sino-Japanese
– Not possible to make minimal pairs with Yamato
– Selected near-minimal pairs.
• Ex: ベンチ benchi (‘bench’) / 便宜 bengi (‘convenience’)
16

• Settings tested: “it’s a mint”
– Mora:
– Syllable: mi-n-to da-yo min-to da-yo-ne
– Demi-Syllable(melisma): mi-in-to da-yo
– Bad 1 (too small):
– Bad 2 (too large): m-in-to da-yo mi-i-i-i-intodayo
17

• Motsu-kun is learning to arrange lyrics to a melody. Help him improve by rating his work!
ミントだよね
(minto dayone)
• Asked to rate on 1-4
Likert scale.
18

• Native listener preference for syllabic settings will correspond to level of English exposure.
• Learners will like syllabic settings more than native listeners do.
• Learners will show more native-like rating patterns as they become more proficient in
Japanese.
19

• 26 native Japanese speakers
– Asked for frequency of English use
• 12 Japanese learners (Eng & Chi native spkrs)
– Asked for length of Japanese study
• Survey conducted online using Qualtrics.
– Still recruiting participants: http://bit.ly/1oblYNz
• Data analyzed using t-tests and linear mixedmodel regression in R.
20

* *
21

• Native listeners rated syllabic (mi n -to) just as highly as moraic setting (min -to) (p = .219).
• Demi-syllabic (mi-i n -to) was rated significantly lower than syllabic (p = .0075). Why?
– In the demi-syllabic setting, there are 5 moras and 5 available notes, but the setting is not mora-based.
– In contrast, in the syllabic setting, too many moras to fit into available notes. Syllabic is the only option.
 Conclusion: o Native listeners prefer a one-to-one correspondence between note and prosodic unit, whether mora or syllable.
22

• Overall, Japanese learners rate moraic, syll., and demi-syll. settings as equally good.
– Moraic settings, which do not occur in English and
Chinese, are just as highly rated as familiar syllable-based settings.
– Native and learner listeners differ significantly on only the demi-syllabic setting.
• Let’s break this down by Japanese proficiency level.
23

* *
24

• Learners pick up the moraic segmentation pattern quickly, with beginner learners giving moraic settings equally high ratings as native listeners.
– This is surprising, in the sense that moraic segmentation is not found in English or Chinese songs.
• As learners gain experience with Japanese, their ratings of demi-syllabic settings move toward native listener ratings.
25

*
26

• Moraic and syllabic settings are equally felicitous for both variables for all listeners.
• Native listeners show a stronger dispreference for demi-syllabic ai settings (e.g, na-a i -to) (p =
.0288).
• In contrast, they are relatively okay with demisyllabic coda-nasal settings (e.g., mi-i n -to)
(p =
.1222).
– Coda nasal had more syllable-based settings in corpus data.
27

*
*
28

• Native listeners who use English every day rate moraic settings significantly more highly
(p = .0212).
– Prescriptive norm, perhaps correlated with higher education / social class.
• Natives who use English less than monthly rate bad settings more favorably (p = .0217): they are worse at this task.
29

• Contra corpus results, there is no difference in the ratings for Foreign and Sino-Japanese words for any of the settings, for natives or learners
( β = 0.102, SE = 0.1115, t = 0.91).
• This is quite surprising: in the song corpora, syllabic settings were preferred for Foreign words across multiple lyricists and genres.
30

• Positive evidence for the cognitive reality of the syllable in Japanese:
– Japanese listeners fully accept syllable-based segmentation in contexts where moraic segmentation is impractical.
– This is equally true for Japanese listeners who use
English less than monthly.
31

• Evidence supports our corpus study conclusion that moraic text-setting is a prescriptive, stylistic norm in Japanese:
– Native Japanese listeners who use English more show stronger moraic preference.
• Relative acceptability of syllable-based settings does not appear to result from exposure to syllable-based languages.
32

• Corpus analysis found that songs in a range of genres show consistent difference between settings of Foreign and Sino-Japanese stratum words, yet ordinary listeners show no such difference in preferences.
• This suggests that the preference for syllabic settings for Foreign words is stylistic, rather than a result of some inherent prosodic structure difference.
33

• Learners acquire an understanding of moraic segmentation quickly, but take longer to acquire dispreference for demi-syllabic settings.
– Evidence that new prosodic systems are acquirable as an adult.
• The quick acquisition of moraic segmentation suggests that orthography indeed plays a crucial role in the salience of the mora in
Japanese.
34

Acknowledgements to Noriko Manabe, Reiko Kataoka, Roey Gafter,
Junko Ito, Mie Hiramoto, Yosuke Sato, Sakiko Kajino, Nala Lee, and
Jason Ginsburg for their input and assistance.
どうも ありがとう
ございました.
contact: rstarr@nus.edu.sg
shih@ucmerced.edu
35

• We have assumed that learners are acquiring a new pattern when they give high ratings to moraic settings.
• But perhaps native English and Chinese speakers who have never heard Japanese before also like moraic settings, although they are unfamiliar.
• We are working on this!
36

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