Factors Affecting Pretonic Deletion in English Syllables: A Corpus Study

<p>One type of variation in pronunciation that is associated with fast and/or conversational speech is <em>massive reduction</em>, in which entire syllables are deleted. We focus on a subtype of massive reduction, pretonic vowel deletion, where the vowel in an unstressed syllable is deleted and the flanking consonants form an onset cluster, V --> φ / C__C, such as the word <em>Columbus</em> reduced to the two-syllable pronunciation [klʌmbəs], resulting in the onset cluster [kl]. The main question asks what predictors are associated with pretonic vowel deletion. Furthermore, we evaluate the Lexicalist Hypothesis and Sonority Projection as explanations of the phenomenon. The results indicate that sonority distance, cluster type frequency, and word frequency have significant and independent contributions to massive reduction. This supports a combination of the Lexicalist Hypothesis and Sonority Projection accounts.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Barnett-Rhodes, Whitney

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Kyle Gorman
• Martin Chodorow

• Computational Linguistics
• Linguistics
• Phonetics and Phonology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6041

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-7164