Last updated by wjarek on 2011-07-27. Originally submitted by wjarek on 2011-05-19.
The Department of Contemporary English Language (DoCELu) invites you to a Phon&Phon meeting:
Michael Schäfer (University of Freiburg)
Measuring phonetic reduction in Icelandic: A corpus-based study on adverb reduction
Thursday, 26 May 2011, 18:30, Room 601A
Abstract
This paper seeks to answer two questions: (1) What are the factors shaping acoustic phonetic reduction in Icelandic compared to other Germanic languages? (2) How do different measures of reduction correlate with each other and what conclusions can be drawn from these correlations for the development of a unified measure of reduction?
In order to address these issues, a sample of adverbs containing the suffix lega ‘-ly’ (e.g., náttúrlega ‘naturally, of course’) was taken from a corpus of spontaneous Icelandic. The sample was annotated for a variety of factors that are known to influence reduction. The rhythmic (i.e. metric) environment (Dehé 2008) was included as an additional variable predictor that has not been extensively studied in the context of phonetic reduction. As dependent variables, three different measures of reduction were included: the number of syllables, ratio of deleted vs. realised segments, and duration.
The results indicate that reduction patterns in Icelandic are influenced by much the same factors as in other Germanic languages. However, differences compared to other studies are revealed, especially concerning predictability effects and the role of token frequency. While the latter does seem to play a role, other factors, such as discourse function, constitute a much better predictor for reduction.
With regard to the correlation of reduction measures, differences emerge in the effect individual factors have on the three measures included in the analysis. For example, the utterance-final placement of adverbs affects only duration, but not the other two dependent variables. This divergence lends further support to a measure of reduction, integrating both spatial and temporal aspects as developed by Kul (2011).
In conclusion, a comparative study of Icelandic can both give us new insights into the factors shaping reduction patterns and help formulate a unified measure of reduction.
Submitted by J Weckwerth
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