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Full-Text Articles in Phonetics and Phonology

The Effect Of Usage On Degrees Of Constituency: The Reduction Of Don't In English, Joan Bybee, Joanne Scheibman Jan 1999

The Effect Of Usage On Degrees Of Constituency: The Reduction Of Don't In English, Joan Bybee, Joanne Scheibman

English Faculty Publications

In this paper we take the position that there are many degrees of constituency and that these derive in a direct manner from the frequency with which elements are used together: elements that are frequently found next to each other show a tighter constituent structure than those that collocate less frequently. We use both phonological and functional evidence from conversation to argue that repetition conditions chunking (Haiman 1994), sometimes overriding the syntactic and semantic logic of the organization of utterances. Our study examines the reduction of don't in American English conversation. We find that don't is reduced the most in …


English Sound Stucture [Book Review], Janet Mueller Bing Mar 1997

English Sound Stucture [Book Review], Janet Mueller Bing

English Faculty Publications

Review of English Sound Structure, by John Harris. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.


Linguistic Rhythm And Grammatical Structure In Afghan Persian, Janet Mueller Bing Jan 1980

Linguistic Rhythm And Grammatical Structure In Afghan Persian, Janet Mueller Bing

English Faculty Publications

Afghan Persian has a rhythm rule that shifts a strong stress to the left when it occurs near another strong stress. Metrical theory (see LLBA 12/1, 7800555) states this shift as a change in the configuration of hierarchical values where the relationships "stronger than" & "weaker than" apply not only to adjacent syllables, but also to groups of syllables, words, & phrases. This rule accounts for the differences in stress patterns on words in isolation & in some phrases. By assuming the rhythm rule & a rule of stress assignment, it is possible to account for both word & phrasal …