ABSTRACT
DOES PROSODIC WORD RECURSION CAUSE PHONETIC
INITIAL STRENGTHENING?
The paper is the very first study to address the issue of domain-initial
strengthening in recursive prosodic words. Domain-initial strengthening concerns
the articulatory strength of segments at the left edges of prosodic domains. The
widely-used scale of prosodic positions is the prosodic hierarchy. The current
study employs a different scale, i.e., recursive prosodic words in which smaller
prosodic words are recursively embedded in a larger word. The length of /s/ is
measured when it is placed in the initial positions of 2-, 3- and 4-word Vietnamese
noun compounds in order to investigate whether prosodic word recursion causes
articulatory strengthening. The findings show that there is no significant duration
difference among the domains of recursive prosodic words, which reflects no
strengthening effect of prosodic recursion on segmental articulation. Therefore,
domain-initial strengthening appears to be sensitive to the categories of prosodic
constituents rather than the depth of their embedding.
Key words: domain-initial strengthening, prosodic word recursion
Phuong Hoai Dang
May 2013
DOES PROSODIC WORD RECURSION CAUSE PHONETIC
INITIAL STRENGTHENING?
by
Phuong Hoai Dang
A thesis
submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Linguistics
in the College of Arts and Humanities
California State University, Fresno
May 2013
APPROVED
For the Department of Linguistics:
We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student
meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the
university and the student's graduate degree program for the
awarding of the master's degree.
Phuong Hoai Dang
Thesis Author
Chris Golston (Chair)
Linguistics
Brian Agbayani
Linguistics
Sean Fulop
Linguistics
For the University Graduate Committee:
Dean, Division of Graduate Studies
AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION
OF MASTER’S THESIS
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I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in
its entirety without further authorization from me, on the
condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction
absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of
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Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must
be obtained from me.
Signature of thesis author:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis
supervisor Chris Golston and committee members Brian Agbayani and Sean Fulop
for their devoted support, invaluable guidance and constructive feedback during
the preparation and completion of the thesis.
I would like to send my special thank to Thuong Bui and Duc Dang for
their indispensable help in the process of data collection.
I also owe a big debt to the participants in the current thesis. I could not
have completed the thesis without their patient and devoted participation.
Last but not least, I am indebted to my family who always give me
encouragement and support towards the completion of the thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1 Domain-initial strengthening ...................................................................... 1
1.2 Prosodic recursion ....................................................................................... 3
1.3 The current study......................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 2: NOUN COMPOUNDS IN VIETNAMESE ..................................... 8
2.1 Description .................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Prosodic organization ................................................................................ 14
CHAPTER 3: METHODS ..................................................................................... 16
3.1 Prosodic domains ...................................................................................... 16
3.2 Participants ................................................................................................ 17
3.3 Materials .................................................................................................... 17
3.4 Data collection procedures ........................................................................ 19
3.5 Data analysis procedures ........................................................................... 20
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................... 21
4.1 Results ....................................................................................................... 21
4.2 Discussion ................................................................................................. 22
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 25
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 27
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 32
APPENDIX A: VIETNAMESE NOUN COMPOUNDS ...................................... 33
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1. Speech materials for the study ................................................................. 18
Table 2. Variation across compounds and speakers ............................................... 23
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1. Prosodic organization of 2-, 3- and 4-noun compounds ......................... 15
Figure 2. The waveform and spectrogram of the compound mui sɛ ‘car roof’ ...... 20
Figure 3. Mean /s/ duration for all speakers ........................................................... 21
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Domain-initial strengthening
It has been observed that the phonetic properties of segments vary
according to their positions in the prosodic structure of languages thanks to a wide
range of research regarding the interaction between prosody and segmental
articulation. French consonants and vowels have greater amplitude and duration in
stressed syllables than in unstressed syllables. English /s/ seems to have less
aspiration noise in the middle of Word than at the beginning of Word and
Intonational Phrase. There is an increase in the Voice Onset Time of Korean
aspirated consonants from Word-medial positions to Word-initial positions to
Accentual Phrase-initial positions (see Fougeron 1999 for a review). The examples
above are only a few out of different studies on the effect of prosodic positions on
phonetic segments which is called prosodic strengthening. Cho (2005: 3867)
defines prosodic strengthening as “temporal and/ or spatial expansion of
articulation due to accent and/ or prosodic boundaries” and mentions the three socalled strong prosodic positions are the left edges of prosodic domains, the right
edges of prosodic domains and accented syllables.
One line of prosodic strengthening research is domain-initial strengthening
which concerns “prosodic strengthening associated with left edges of prosodic
domains” (Cho et al. 2007: 211). Trask (1996) defines “strengthening” as “a
phonological process in which some segment becomes stronger.” The widely used
scale of prosodic positions for domain-initial strengthening is the prosodic
hierarchy which is a hierarchically organized structure of prosodic domains such
as Utterance, Intonational Phrase, Phonological Phrase, Word, Syllable, etc.
(Selkirk 1978; Selkirk 1984; Nespor & Vogel 1986; see Selkirk 1995; Selkirk
2
2009 for a review). In general, domain-initial strengthening is a phonological
process in which segments at the left edges of higher prosodic constituents are
articulatorily stronger than those at the left edges of lower prosodic constituents.
The phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening has been investigated in
different languages such as English (Fougeron & Keating 1996; Keating et al.
1999), Taiwanese (Hsu & Jun 1998; Hayashi et al. 1999; Keating et al. 1999),
Korean (Keating et al. 1999; Cho & Keating 2001), French (Keating et al. 1999;
Fougeron 2001), German (Kuzla et al. 2007; Kuzla & Ernestus 2011), and Arabic
(Al Taisan 2011). These studies generally explore two research questions. The
first concerns how the organization of prosodic constituents affects the articulation
of speech segments, and the second examines whether the articulatory variation of
segments at the beginning of prosodic domains can help mark the prosodic
hierarchy of a language.
The common measurements are linguopalatal contact and segment
duration. Some acoustic parameters are also used in the domain-initial
strengthening studies; however, the results concerning them and their correlations
with linguopalatal contact or segment duration are not consistent to reflect the
general picture of domain-initial strengthening. On the one hand, Fougeron and
Keating (1996) do not find any strong correlations between linguopalatal contact
and acoustic measurements like VOT, vowel duration and stop burst energy for
the English nasal /n/; Hsu and Jun (1998) and Hayashi et al. (1999) see that there
is no significant effect of prosodic positions on VOT duration of the investigated
stops in Taiwanese. On the other hand, Cho and Keating (2001) find that the
acoustic measurements like stop closure duration, VOT, Total Voiceless Interval,
% voicing during closure, vowel duration, stop burst energy, nasal duration and
3
nasal energy vary according to the prosodic positions of the four tested Korean
stops and some of them have correlations with linguopalatal contact; Kuzla and
Ernestus (2011) find that /b/, /d/, and /g/ have less glottal vibration and /p/, /t/, /k/
have shorter VOT duration after higher prosodic boundaries in German.
The general finding is that speech segments in higher prosodic domains
have more linguopalatal contact and/or longer duration than those in lower
domains; and the increase of segmental articulation from the lowest to highest
domain is usually cumulative. The found pattern of domain-initial strengthening,
on the one hand, reflects the effect of prosodic organization on phonetic
articulation, on the other hand, provides articulatory and/or acoustic cues to
distinguish prosodic boundaries. Note that the findings of domain-initial
strengthening show certain variation across languages, segments, speakers, and
prosodic domains. For instance, Cho and Keating (2001:185) observe that Korean
has a clearer and more consistent picture of domain-initial strengthening than
English, French, and Taiwanese. Regarding the variation across segments,
Fougeron (2001:119) sees that “/s/ is less systematically affected by prosodic
position compared to the other consonants studied like stops and /l/.” Furthermore,
it is observed that not all speakers distinguish all prosodic domains. Fougeron and
Keating (1996) report two speakers make distinction among three levels while the
other speaker distinguishes only two. In the study which compares domain-initial
strengthening in four languages, Keating et al. (1999) also discuss that all speakers
make at least two domains distinct, which is robust in the findings.
1.2 Prosodic recursion
In the discussion of prosodic recursion, it is crucial to mention the Prosodic
Hierarchy Theory proposed by Selkirk (1978) and developed by Selkirk (1984)
4
and Nespor and Vogel (1986) (see Selkirk 1995; Selkirk 2009 for a review). The
theory claims that a string of speech in a language can be exhaustively parsed into
different prosodic constituents in which higher domains contain lower ones.
(1) The Prosodic Hierarchy (Selkirk 1995: 5)
Utt
Utterance
IP
Intonational Phrase
PhP
Phonological Phrase
PWd Prosodic Word
Ft
Foot
σ
Syllable
There is a set of constraints on prosodic domination which characterizes the
features of the prosodic hierarchy. Specifically, the two constraints of Layeredness
and Headedness claim that speech in every language is hierarchically organized in
prosodic constituents; higher-ranked constituents dominate lower-ranked
constituents. In a stricter sense, the constraints of Exhaustivity and Non-recursivity
require that every higher domain must dominate or must be completely parsed into
immediate lower domains, which means that there is no level skipping or
repetition at any prosodic domain. The first two constraints are inviolable and
undominated thanks to the observation that every language has several prosodic
levels. On the other hand, it has been argued that Exhaustivity and Non-recursivity
are violable and low-ranked because certain prosodic levels are found to be
skipped or recurred in a number of languages (Selkirk 1995; Ito & Mester 2009).
In sum, the violability and low ranking of Exhaustivity and Non-recursivity result
in prosodic skipping and recursion.
5
Prosodic recursion refers to the repetition of prosodic domains at a certain
level of the prosodic structure. Specifically, prosodic recursion involves the
embedding of a prosodic domain of a certain level in another prosodic domain of
the same level; the larger domains contain the smaller ones (Inkelas 1990; Selkirk
1995; Ito & Mester 2008; Ito & Mester 2009; Kabak & Revithiadou 2009; Selkirk
2009; Féry 2010). Furthermore, it is observed that compound structures are
frequently exemplified as prosodic recursion thanks to the notion that the
compound structures as well as their components belong to the same category and
the compounds are larger constituents containing their smaller components (Ladd
1990; Ladd 1996; Inkelas 1990; Green 2007; Kabak & Revithiadou 2009).
1.3 The current study
As mentioned above, domain-initial strengthening, a type of prosodic
strengthening concerning the articulatory strength of segments at the left edges of
prosodic constituents has been explored in a wide range of research in which the
currently-employed scale of prosodic positions is the prosodic hierarchy of
languages. It is interesting to revisit this phenomenon with a different prosodic
scale. Particularly, the current study investigates the articulation of phonetic
segments in the initial positions of prosodic domains of the same level called
recursive prosodic words. The study is the first to examine the interaction between
prosodic recursion and segmental articulation.
More specifically, the paper addresses the issue of domain-initial
strengthening in recursive prosodic words. Prosodic recursion involves the
containment of smaller constituents inside a larger constituent of the same
category; therefore, the formation of recursive prosodic words concerns the
embedding of smaller prosodic words in a larger prosodic word. Compounds in
6
languages are argued to be recursive prosodic words (Inkelas 1990; Green 2007;
Kabak & Revithiadou 2009).
The studied case is Vietnamese noun compounds. Vietnamese is a tonal
monosyllabic language in which syllables are argued to be the smallest units of
phonological and morphological analysis (Ngo 1984; Nguyen 2011). Particularly,
Ngo (1984) proposes the notion of “syllabeme” is the minimal grammatical unit in
Vietnamese; it can function as a syllable, a morpheme and a word. Nguyen (2011)
argues that a word in Vietnamese is a minimal meaningful unit whose spoken
form is a syllable and written form is a separate group of letters. A compound in
Vietnamese can be comprised of two or more elements; each is a one-syllable
word; and the compounding of these monosyllabic elements creates a new lexical
item. Therefore, Vietnamese compounds are appropriate candidates for the notion
of recursive prosodic words thanks to the fact that the whole compounds are larger
prosodic words which are constituted by smaller prosodic words.
In order to investigate the articulatory variation across initial positions of
recursive prosodic words, the duration of the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is
measured when it is at the beginning of each monosyllabic word of 2-, 3-, and 4word noun compounds. The two possibilities are hypothesized towards the
findings of the study. First, there is a cumulative increase of segmental length
from the smallest to the largest constituent-initial positions, which reflects the
significant role of the embedding of smaller prosodic words in larger prosodic
words. Second, there is no strong distinction among the domains of recursive
prosodic words, which implies the effect of prosodic categories on domain-initial
strengthening.
7
Generally speaking, the study aims at exploring the phenomenon of
domain-initial strengthening with the scale of recursive prosodic words. /s/ is
placed in the initial positions of 2-, 3-, and 4-word compounds and its duration is
measured to examine whether prosodic word recursion causes articulatory
strengthening.
8
CHAPTER 2: NOUN COMPOUNDS IN VIETNAMESE
2.1 Description1
Compounding is the word formation process which involves the
combination of existing words to build new lexical items. Vietnamese compounds
are formed under such the process; two or more monosyllabic words are combined
to generate a single category. There are three word types of compounds in
Vietnamese: compound nouns, verbs and adjectives; each of them is classified into
two subtypes including coordinate and subordinate compounds.
Coordinate compounds involve the compounding of two or more words in
which “each constituent is a center” and “occurs in juxtaposition” (Nguyen
1997:66). Semantically, they are called generalizing compounds because the
meanings of the two centers are combined to form a more general lexical item.
These centers belong to the same category or are synonyms or antonyms.
(1)
a. bàn
ɣé
table chair
‘furniture’
b. muə bán
buy sell
‘buy and sell’
c. cɑ̉i
cuót
brush polish
‘be meticulous’
1 See more examples of Vietnamese noun compounds in Appendix A.
9
Subordinate compounds concern the combination of the words with the
head-complement order. The heads are more general lexical items or concepts and
the complements modify and narrow the meanings of the heads. Subordinate
compounds refer to more specific lexical items and then are called specializing
compounds.
(2)
a. nɯɤ́k dɑ́
water ice
‘ice’
b. làm ruọŋ
do rice field
‘do farming’
c. sɛ
lɯ̉ə
vehicle fire
‘train’
More specifically, coordinate noun compounds involve the combination of
nouns and their meanings reflect the generic category of the constituent nouns.
The examples in (3), (4) and (5) exemplify the 2-word, 3-word and 4-word noun
coordinate compounds respectively. Note that 3-word coordinate compounds are
not as popular as the other two.
(3) a. cim
muoŋ
bird
beast
‘animals’
b.
rau
kɔ̉
vegetable
grass
‘veggies’
c.
ruo͎ŋ
nɯɤŋ
10
wet field
dry field
‘cultivated fields’
d.
ruòi
muõi
fly
mosquito
‘flies/ bugs’
e.
kwʌ̀n Ɂɑ́u
pant
coat
‘clothes’
(4) a. vɯɤ̀n
Ɂɑu cuòŋ
garden
pond shed
‘traditional Vietnamese farm’
b.
Ɂaɲ
cị
Ɂɛm
brother sister younger sibling
‘brothers and sisters’
c.
ræŋ
hàm
mæ͎t
tooth jaw
face
‘the medical study of teeth, jaws and face’
d.
tai mũi hɔ͎ŋ
ear nose throat
‘the medical study of ears, noses and throats’
(5) a. bɑ̀
kɔn
ko
grandmother child aunt
bák
uncle
‘relatives’
b.
sɤn
hɑ̀
sɑ̃
mountain
river
village principle
‘country’
tǽk
11
c.
soŋ
nɯɤ́k nɔn
núi
river mountain
water mountain
‘country’
d.
zɯɤ̀ŋ tủ
bàn
bed
table chair
wardrobe
ɣé
‘furniture’
e.
maj
lan
apricot orchid
kúk
ʈúk
chrysanthemum
bamboo
‘set of four symbolic flowers and plants’
Subordinate noun compounds involve the combination of heads and
complements in which the complements follow and modify the heads. Regarding
2-word subordinate compounds, Nguyen (1997) observes that there are the three
combinations; the heads are always nouns whereas the complements can be nouns,
verbs and adjectives. The examples in (6) exemplify the 2-word subordinate
compounds which involve the three types of noun compounding such as a noun
and a noun (6a-b), a noun and a verb (6c-d) as well as a noun and an adjective (6ef).
(13) a. bɔ̀
kɔn
cow/ox child
‘calf’
b.
kɤm ɣɑ̀
rice chicken
‘chicken rice’
c.
sɛ
dạp
vehicle to pedal
‘bike’
12
d.
kɤm
nǽm
rice
to wisp
‘rice ball’
e.
bɔ̀
dɯ͎k
cow/ox male
‘ox’
f.
bɔ̀
kái
cow/ox female
‘cow’
The examples in (7) and (8) are 3-word and 4-word compounds in which
the heads are left-edged.
(7) a. dɯɤ̀ŋ cʌn
ʈɤ̀i
line
sky
foot
‘horizon’
b.
báɲ
sɛ
bɔ̀
wheel vehicle cow/ox
‘cow/ox cart wheel’
c.
bụi
than
dɑ́
dust coal stone
‘coal dust’
d.
vụn báɲ
mì
crust cake wheat
‘bread crust’
e.
kỏ
Ɂɑ́u
neck blouse suit
‘suit collar’
vét
(8) a. vɔ̉
bark
thʌn
kʌi
body tree
dɑ
banyan
‘banyan tree bark’
b.
duoi kɑ́
nɯɤ́k mæ͎n
tail
water salty
fish
‘sea water fish tail’
c.
thʌn
kʌi
body tree
kɑ̀
cuə
eggplant
sour
‘tomato tree body’
d.
vɔ̉
báɲ
sɛ
bɔ̀
tire
wheel vehicle cow/ox
‘cow/ox cart wheel tire’
e.
kiẻu
kỏ
Ɂɑ́u
vét
model collar blouse suit
‘suit collar model’
Another type of 4-word subordinate compounds is also found to be popular
in Vietnamese; they involve the combination of two 2-word subordinate
compounds, as seen in (9).
(9) a. bén
station
sɛ
mièn
doŋ
car
region
east
‘Eastern station’
b.
bɯ́k
tɯɤ̀ŋ Ɂʌm thaɲ
piece wall
audio sound
‘sound wall’
c.
bài
thɤ
tìɲ
Ɂieu
14
piece poem sentiment
love
‘love poem’
d.
vɔ̀i
nɯɤ́k bòn
tǽm
faucet water tub
bath
‘bathtub tap’
e.
Ɂóŋ
bɤm
sɛ
pipe
pump vehicle
dạp
bike
‘bike pump’
2.2 Prosodic organization
Vietnamese noun compounds are recursive prosodic words; the whole
compounds are the largest word constituents which contain smaller word
constituents. In the current study, 2-, 3- and 4-word coordinate and subordinate
compounds are investigated. The prosodic organizations of these compounds are
presented in (10). Coordinate and subordinate compounds are abbreviated as ‘CC’
and ‘SC’, respectively.
(10) Prosodic organizations of 2-, 3- and 4-word compounds
2-word SC
(word (word))
2-word CC
(word (word))
3-word SC
(word (word (word)))
4-word SC with left-edged heads (word (word (word (word)))
4-word SC of two 2-word SCs
(word (word)) (word (word))
4-word CC
(word (word)) (word (word))
The diagrams in Figure 1 provide a clearer picture of the prosodic
organizations of the compounds. The arrows below the transcriptions display the
meaning relation among the words; the single arrows refer to the head-
15
complement relation and the double arrows refer to the equal relation between two
words.
2-word SC
2-word CC
3-word SC
4-word SC of two 24-word CC
4-word SC with leftword SCs
edged heads
Figure 1. Prosodic organization of 2-, 3- and 4-word noun compounds
CHAPTER 3: METHODS
3.1 Prosodic domains
The paper addresses the issue of domain-initial strengthening in recursive
prosodic words. The studied case is the length variation of /s/ in the initial
positions of each word of Vietnamese noun compounds which are recursive
prosodic words in which the whole compounds are larger word constituents and
component words are recursively embedded smaller constituents. 2-, 3- and 4word noun compounds are speech materials; therefore, the tested domains are the
left edges of each word of these compounds. They are coded as W1i, W2i, W3i
and W4i which refer to the initial positions of the words in the compounds; for
instance, W1i corresponds to the initial position of the first word in the
compounds.
Recalling the prosodic organization of these compounds in Section 2.2, for
all compounds, the leftmost edge is the largest word boundary where the edge of
the whole compounds coincides with that of the first word; the smaller boundaries
are those of component words embedded inside the compounds; and the smallest
is the left edge of the last word. Particularly, in 2-word compounds, the W1i
position is the largest word boundary; and the W2i the smallest. In 3-word
compounds, the W1i position is the largest; the W2i the second largest; and the
W3i the smallest. In 4-word subordinate compounds with left-edged heads, the
word boundaries progressively decrease from the W1i position to the W4i
position. In 4-word subordinate compounds of two 2-word subordinate
compounds, the W1i position is the largest, the W3i the second largest, the W2i
the third largest, and the W4i the smallest. In 4-word coordinate compounds, the
17
W1i position is the largest, the W3i the second largest, and the W2i and W4i the
smallest.
3.2 Participants
Ten speakers, five males and five females, participate in the study. These
participants are native speakers of Vietnamese; they all speak the Southern dialect.
Among the ten speakers, four live in Ben Tre City and six live in Ho Chi Minh
City; these two cities locate in South Vietnam where the Southern dialect is
mainly spoken. The age of the participants ranges from 18 to 53. All of the
speakers are literate and have no speech problems.
3.3 Materials
The investigated speech segment is /s/, which is chosen thanks to the ease
of recognition and measurement. It is placed in the initial position of each word
noun compounds. It is surrounded by sonorants like nasals and vowels. Also, the
carrier word of the segment is kept the same for each set of the target compounds
so as to avoid the impact of other sounds on the segment if any.
The tested environments are coordinate and subordinate noun compounds.
Regarding coordinate compounds, 2- and 4-word compounds are under
investigation due to the fact that the small number of the 3-word compounds in the
language does not provide sufficient environments containing the target speech
segment. In addition to 2-, 3- and 4-word left-headed compounds, 4-word
compounds composed of two 2-word subordinate compounds are also employed.
All of the investigated positions are at the word domain of the prosodic
hierarchy but in different word constituents of recursive PWs from the largest to
the smallest. /s/ is placed in the initial positions of the first and second words in 2word compounds, in those of the first, second and third words in 3-word
compounds or in those of the first, second, third and fourth words in 4-word
18
compounds. Then the compounds are embedded in the same carrier sentence (e.g.
læ͎p la͎i sɛ hɤi bɑ lʌ̀n ‘Repeat car three times’).
Table 1 below presents the speech materials used in the study and illustrates
the descriptions concerning the speech segment /s/, the tested environments of
Vietnamese noun compounds and the investigated domains of recursive prosodic
words.
Table 1. Speech materials for the study
Subordinate compounds
hɤi
2-word compounds sɛ
soŋ núi
vehicle car
river mountain
‘car’
‘the whole country’
mui sɛ
núi
roof vehicle
mountain river
‘car roof’
‘the whole country
bɑ
3-word compounds sɛ
báɲ
vehicle three wheel
‘three-wheeled cart’
hɤi
mui sɛ
roof vehicle gas
‘car roof’
vɔ̉
báɲ
sɛ
tire wheel vehicle
‘bike/motorbike/car tire’
4-word compounds sɛ
with
heads
Coordinate compounds
hòŋ thʌ͎p tɯ͎
left-edged vehicle red cross word
‘ambulance’
mui sɛ
Ɂo to
soŋ
19
roof vehicle auto
‘car roof’
vɔ̉
báɲ
hɤi
sɛ
tire wheel vehicle gas
‘car tire’
màu
vɔ̉ báɲ
sɛ
color tire wheel vehicle
‘vehicle tire color’
hɤi dò
4-word compounds sɛ
of
two
compounds
cɤi
2-word vehicle gas thing play
‘toy car’
vɔ̉
sɛ
soŋ núi
bɤ̀
kɔĩ
river mountain bank region
‘the whole country’
dò
cɤi
nɔn
soŋ dʌ́t
nɯɤ́k
tire vehicle thing play
mountain river earth water
‘toy car tire’
‘the whole country’
kʌu cwie͎n sɛ
dạp
bɤ̀
kɔĩ
soŋ núi
fish story vehicle bike
bank region river mountain
‘bike story’
‘the whole country’
kʌu cwie͎n vɔ̉
sɛ
bɤ̀
kɔ̃i
núi
soŋ
fish story tire vehicle
bank region mountain river
‘tire story’
‘the whole country’
3.4 Data collection procedures
The speakers were given the list of 19 Vietnamese noun compounds like
those in Table 1 above. They were asked to read through these compounds and
explained that they were going to read them aloud as naturally as possible, each
compound was repeated three times, and their speech was recorded individually.
570 speech tokens (19 compounds x 3 repetitions x 10 speakers) were recorded
and analyzed in the study.
20
3.5 Data analysis procedures
Two criteria are used to define the segment length. First, /s/ is a fricative,
which means that its large acoustic energy is distributed at a high frequency. The
view range of the spectrograms is adjusted to be as high as 10000 Hz in order that
such energy is clearly observed. Second, /s/ is a voiceless sound and, as mentioned
in Section 3.3, it is surrounded by nasals and vowels, which implies the absence of
the pitch line on the spectrograms. Figure 2 below presents the waveform and
spectrogram of the compound mui sɛ ‘car roof’. It is seen that the target duration
of /s/ is the shaded part on the waveform and the high frequency section between
the pitch lines on the spectrogram.
Figure 2. The waveform and spectrogram of the compound mui sɛ ‘car roof’
The t-test for independent samples is used to investigate the difference of
segment durations in each set of compounds. The p-values are expected to be
smaller than 5% in order that the mean scores of the two investigated values
achieve a significant difference.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results
Figure 3 below presents the findings regarding the duration of /s/ in each
word domain of 2-, 3- and 4-word compounds measured for all of the ten speakers.
Coordinate compounds are abbreviated as ‘CC’; and subordinate compounds ‘SC’.
Figure 3. Mean /s/ duration for all speakers
Paired-samples t-tests were run to investigate statistically significant
contrasts in each pair of word constituents in the compounds for all speakers and
for each speaker. The null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the
mean durations of /s/ in each pair of domains is rejected with p < .05.
The results of the t-tests appear to support the null hypothesis thanks to the
findings that the speakers make very few significant distinctions among the
domains of the compounds. Besides, it is observed from the chart that there are
uniformly very small differences in either of the two directions that segments in
larger words are longer or shorter than those in smaller words. Therefore, despite
the statistical significance, these differences seem to have no linguistically
meaningful value in the whole picture of the effect of recursive prosodic words on
22
segmental duration investigated in the study. Instead, they are likely to behave in a
random manner, which may be due to the variation in the speakers’ speech
production. Generally speaking, there is no significant difference among the word
domains of the investigated compounds; that is, prosodic word recursion does not
cause any domain-initial strengthening.
4.2 Discussion
This paper addresses the issue of domain-initial strengthening in recursive
prosodic words; specifically it investigates the question whether prosodic word
recursion causes articulatory strengthening to segments at the left edges of
recursively embedded word constituents.
The results show that there are few statistically significant distinctions
among the word domains of 2-, 3- and 4-word compounds investigated in the
current study. These distinctions are relatively small, which is consistent across
the compounds for all speakers and for each speaker. Therefore, their effects as
well as their direction of difference are not likely to play any crucial role in
deciding whether prosodic word recursion causes articulatory variation. On the
other hand, the much larger and more uniform part of the findings show that the
speakers participating in the study do not distinguish the word constituents of the
tested compounds, which strongly supports the conclusion that there is no effect of
prosodic word recursion on segmental articulation.
Domain-initial strengthening concerns the articulatory strength of phonetic
segments at the left boundaries of prosodic constituents; those in higher prosodic
domains are expected to be temporally and/or spatially stronger than those in
lower prosodic domains. The prosodic structure of languages is currently
employed as the scale of prosodic positions in the studies of domain-initial
23
strengthening. In such the scale, the prosodic constituents of different categories
are hierarchically embedded in the way that the higher ones contain the lower
ones; that is, the labeling of prosodic domains is subject to the depth of their
embedding. Thus the phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening found in the
studies with the use of this scale reflects the effect of the depth of the structural
embedding; segments in higher-embedded levels are found to have more
linguopalatal contact and/or longer duration than those in lower embedded levels
(Fougeron & Keating 1996; Hsu & Jun 1998; Hayashi et al. 1999; Keating et al.
1999; Cho & Keating 2001; Fougeron 2001; and others). At the same time,
domain-initial strengthening informs the categories of the prosodic domains. The
more strongly articulated segments mark the higher prosodic boundaries in the
prosodic structure. The strengthening details provide prosodic cues for listeners to
recognize the prosodic hierarchy of languages (Keating et al. 1999; Cho &
Keating 2001; Cho et al, 2007).
In the current study, the employment of a different scale of prosodic
positions, i.e., recursive prosodic words challenges the role of the embedding and
labeling of prosodic domains in the issue of domain-initial strengthening. The
question is which of them does matter in the strengthening of speech segments.
The first hypothesis is that the depth of prosodic embedding causes articulatory
variation; that is, segments at the left edges of larger constituents are stronger than
those at the left edges of smaller constituents. The second hypothesis is that no
strengthening effect is found; there is no significant articulatory variation of
segments in the initial positions of recursive prosodic words. The findings of the
study support the second hypothesis. There is no significant difference among the
word domains of 2-, 3- and 4-word compounds. Therefore, it may be concluded
that prosodic word recursion does not cause any articulatory strengthening to
24
segments at the left edges of recursively constructed words; therefore, the
phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening is sensitive to the type or category of
prosodic constituents rather than the depth of prosodic embedding.
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
The paper addresses the issue of domain-initial strengthening in recursive
prosodic words. Domain-initial strengthening concerns the effect of prosody on
articulation of segments at the left edges of prosodic domains. It has been
investigated in different studies with the use of the prosodic hierarchy as the scale
of prosodic positions. The prosodic hierarchy is a hierarchically organized
structure of prosodic constituents; the higher ones dominate and contain lower
ones. Therefore, the pattern of domain-initial strengthening is that segments in
higher prosodic levels are more strongly articulated than those in lower levels. The
current study employs a different scale, that is, recursive prosodic words in which
larger word constituents contain smaller word constituents.
The duration of the voiceless fricative /s/ is measured when it is in the
initial positions of each word of 2-, 3- and 4-word Vietnamese noun compounds in
order to investigate the effect of prosodic recursion on segmental articulation. The
findings show that the speakers make few distinctions among the word domains of
the tested compounds. This reflects that prosodic recursion has no strengthening
effect on the articulation of speech segments. Furthermore, it shows that the types
or categories of prosodic constituents matter in the phenomenon of domain-initial
strengthening. The speakers somehow acknowledge that recursively embedded
domains belong to the same categories.
The paper is the very first study concerning the issue of domain-initial
strengthening in recursively embedded structures. It explores a new angle in a
well-researched issue of domain-initial strengthening. Therefore, it is expected to
attract more research on the effect of prosodic recursion and segmental
26
strengthening which can be extended to different languages, different recursive
word patterns and different recursive domains.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: VIETNAMESE NOUN COMPOUNDS
(1) 2-word coordinate compounds
a.
sác
vɤ̉
book notebook
‘books’
b.
bàn
ɣé
table chair
‘furniture’
c.
bát
jĩə
bowl plate
‘dishes/ dinnerware’
d.
cùə
cièn
pagoda
temple
‘temples/ pagodas’
e.
kɔn
cáu
child grandchild
‘offspring/ descendants’
f.
Ɂéc
ɲái
frog
tree toad
‘batrachians’
g.
zʌ́i
bút
paper pen
‘desk supplies’
h.
mɯə zɔ́
rain
wind
‘inclement weather’
35
i.
fó
fɯɤ̀ŋ
street guild
‘streets’
j.
thɔ́k
lúə
paddy rice
‘rice’
k.
kʌi
kɔ̉
tree
grass
‘vegetation’
l.
thwièn bɛ̀
boat
raft
‘boats’
m.
soŋ
núi
river mountain
‘country’
n.
ɲɑ̀
kɯ̉ə
house door
‘houses’
o.
ʈʌu
bɔ̀
buffalo
ox/cow
‘livestock’
(2) 4-word coordinate compounds
a.
lɔŋ
lʌn
dragon unicorn
kwi
fụŋ
turtle phoenix
36
‘set of four symbolic animals’
b.
doŋ tʌi
nam
bǽk
east west
south north
‘directions’
c.
kɤm
Ɂɑ́u
ɣɑ͎u
tièn
rice
blouse
rice
money
‘daily earnings’
d.
ŋeu
sɔ̀
Ɂók
hén
shell oyster snail mussel
‘a drama title’
e.
hỉ
nọ
Ɂái
Ɂó
happiness
anger love
disgrace
sáŋ
ʈɯə
cièw
tói
morning
afternoon
evening
night
‘emotions’
f.
‘different times of a day’
g.
koŋ
juŋ
ŋon
hạɲ
labor beauty speech behavior
‘four female virtues’
h.
dʌ́t
dai
earth land
ruọŋ vɯɤ̀n
field garden
‘lands and farms’
i.
ʈɤ̀i
ʈæŋ
sky
moon cloud wind
‘weather’
mʌi
zɔ́
37
j.
nɔn
soŋ
dʌ́t
nɯɤ́k
mountain
river earth water
‘country’
k.
soŋ
núi
bɤ̀
kɔĩ
river
mountain
river bank
region
núi
soŋ
‘country’
l.
bɤ̀
kɔĩ
river bank region mountain
river
‘country’
m.
Ɂoŋ
bɑ̀
cɑ
mɛ͎
grandfather grandmother father mother
‘grandparents and parents’
n.
ko
jì
cú
bák
aunt
aunt
uncle uncle
‘aunts and uncles’
o.
vɤ͎
còŋ
kɔn
wife husband
kái
child child
‘parents and children’
(3) 2-word subordinate compounds
a.
sɛ
bɔ̀
vehicle cow/ox
‘cow/ox cart’
b.
fɔ̀ŋ
xác
room guest
‘living room’
38
c.
sɛ
ŋɯ͎ə
vehicle horse
‘horse cart
d.
cʌn zɯɤ̀ŋ
leg bed
‘bed leg’
e.
súŋ
mái
gun
machine
‘machine gun’
f.
bɔ́ŋ dɑ́
ball
to kick
‘football’
g.
ŋɯɤ̀i
Ɂɤ̉
person to reside
‘servant’
h.
ŋɯɤ̀i làm
person to do
‘servant’
i.
bàn ủi
table to iron
‘iron’
j.
bɔ́ŋ cwièn
ball to pass
‘volley ball’
k.
kɑ̀
cuə
39
eggplant
sour
‘tomato’
l.
dɯɤ̀ng kɑ́i
road
main
‘main road’
m.
dũə
kɑ̉
chopstick big
‘stirring chopstick’
n.
tiéŋ
fáp
language French
‘French’
o.
báɲ ŋɔ͎t
cake sweet
‘cake’
(4) 3-word subordinate compounds with left-edged heads
a.
búə
thɤ͎
rèn
hammer worker smith
‘sledgehammer’
b.
kwán kɤm ɣɑ̀
store rice chicken
‘chicken rice store’
c.
Ɂien
sɛ
ŋɯ͎ə
saddle vehicle horse
‘horse cart saddle’
d.
bọt
xwai mì
40
flour potato wheat
‘cassava flour’
e.
kʌi kɑ̀
cuə
tree eggplant sour
‘tomato tree’
f.
dạn
súŋ mái
bullet gun machine
‘machine gun bullet’
g.
bɤm sɛ
dạp
pump vehicle bike
‘bike pump’
h.
thʌn
kʌi
kaw
body tree areca
‘areca tree body’
i.
nǽp
cai
sɯ̃ə
lid
bottle milk
‘milk bottle lid’
j.
kɑ́
nɯɤ́k ŋɔ͎t
fish water sweet
‘fresh water fish’
k.
vɔ̉
ʈɯ́ŋ vịt
shell egg duck
‘duck eggshell’
l.
ɲãn
cai
rɯɤ͎u
label bottle wine
41
‘wine bottle label’
m.
cuoŋ ɲɑ̀
bell
thɤ̀
house worship
‘church bell’
n.
xuŋ
kɯ̉ə sỏ
frame door book
‘window frame’
o.
kàŋ
kuə
claw crab
dòŋ
field
‘fresh water crab claw’
p.
sɛ
bɑ
báɲ
vehicle three wheel
‘three-wheel cart’
(5) 4-word subordinate compounds with left-edged heads
a.
ʈɯɤ̉ŋ
dọi
bɔ́ŋ
captain
team ball
dɑ́
kick
‘football team captain’
b.
nǽm kɯ̉ə
fɔ̀ŋ
xác
wisp door room guest
‘living room door knob’
c.
củ
kwán kɤm
owner store
rice
ɣɑ̀
chicken
‘chicken rice store owner’
d.
màu
vɔ̉ sɛ
color tire vehicle
dạp
bike
42
‘bike tire color’
e.
tiéŋ
cuoŋ ɲɑ̀
sound bell
thɤ̀
house worship
‘church bell sound’
f.
kɤ̃
nǽp
cai
sɯ̃ə
size
lid
bottle milk
‘milk bottle lid size’
g.
ʈɯɤ̉ŋ dọi
bɔ́ŋ
captain team ball
cwièn
pass
‘volleyball team captain’
h.
màu
Ɂien
sɛ
ŋɯ͎ə
color saddle vehicle horse
‘horse cart saddle color’
i.
vièn
xuŋ
kɯ̉ə sỏ
border frame door book
‘window frame border’
j.
vɔ̉
dạn
súŋ
case
bullet gun
mái
machine
‘machine gun bullet case’
k.
vʌi
kɑ́
nɯɤ́k ŋɔ͎t
fin
fish
water sweet
‘fresh water fish fin’
l.
màu
ɲãn
cai
rɯɤ͎u
color label bottle wine
‘wine bottle label color’
43
m.
nǽp
họp
kɤm
nǽm
lid
box
rice
wisp
‘rice ball box lid’
n.
vʌi
duoi
kɑ́
biẻn
fin
tail
fish
sea
‘sea fish tail fin’
o.
duoi kɑ́
nɯɤ́k ŋɔ͎t
tail
water sweet
fish
‘fresh water fish tail’
(6) 4-word subordinate compounds of two 2-word subordinate compounds
a.
bɯ́k
tɯɤ̀ŋ tìɲ
piece wall
Ɂieu
sentiment
love
tìɲ
Ɂieu
sentiment
love
ŋɯɤ̀i
cɤi
bɔ́ŋ
cwièn
person
play
ball
pass
‘love wall’
b.
bài
hát
piece sing
‘love song’
c.
‘volley ball player’
d.
áɲ
sáŋ
dɛ̀n
reflection
bright
light electricity
‘electric light’
e.
bản
dò
ɲɑ̀
mɑ́i
piece draw house machine
‘factory map’
die͎n
44
f.
sɯ͎
tíc
thing legend
kɑ́
vɔi
fish
elephant
‘whale legend’
g.
sɛ
hɤi
dò
cɤi
vehicle
car
thing play
mɑ́i
tíɲ
sác
machine
calculator
carry hand
sɛ
lɤ̉ə
hɤi
nɯɤ́k
vehicle
fire
gas
water
mɑ́i
bɑi
sieu
thaɲ
machine
fly
super sound
‘toy car’
h.
tɑi
‘laptop’
i.
‘steam train’
j.
‘supersonic plane’
k.
ŋɯɤ̀i
sɛm
ʈwièn
hìɲ
person
watch transmit
image
‘television audience’
l.
sɛ
dạp
dò
cɤi
vehicle
bike
thing play
tiéŋ
aɲ
‘toy bike’
m.
dè
thi
text
exam language
English
‘English test’
n.
sɯ͎
tíc
jɯə
hʌ́u
45
thing legend
melon
name of a melon
‘watermelon legend’
o.
bản
mʌ̃u
piece sample
‘test sample’
dè
thi
text
exam