Ash-tensing in *ANAE* (was: The duration of /ae/ and /ai/)

[David Bowie]

From:    Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
> On 1/24/08 8:53 AM, "David Bowie" <db.list at PMPKN.NET> wrote:
>> From:    Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>

>>> No, they didn't ignore that.  As far as I'm aware, none of Labov's work on
>>> the
>>> quality of any vowel analyses unstressed tokens, for that very reason.  For
>>> this particular case, I've actually written (under his direction) formal
>>> tests
>>> to measure ash-tensing in that very word, and the approved sentences were as
>>> follows:
>>> - It's very difficult to get a good cheesesteak, but at _________ you can.
>>> - These days, Coke cans are made of __________.
>>> So, stressed tokens of *can* (n.) and *can* (v.).

>> How did you make sure that the final verb was stressed? It took me a
>> couple readings to realize that you can say the first sentence without
>> heavy stress on the blank, with stress trailing off after that. (You
>> know, "...but at *Pat's* you can.")

>> Or is north of Baltimore (your subjects) that different from south of
>> Baltimore (me) even in prosodic sorts of things?

> Maybe the point is that can't reduce the /ae/ in the aux in this sentence,
> at least I can't. Even though the main stress would be on the word filling
> in the blank, I still can't say [kIn] etc. here.

Wow--who knew? I just checked this on Jeanne (my wife, from Aberdeen,
Maryland), and she has [kAn] (using A for short-a), though only with the
vaguest sort of secondary stress, if there's any stress there at all.

Maybe north of *Wlimongton* is what's prosodically different! :-)

Of course, it's hard for me to tell what i do in that context, really,
since my stressed verb 'can' is [kEn], anyway--but i still don't think i
have any stress at all on the auxiliary in that context in the more
natural of the two possible natural stress patterns for the sentence.

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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