30.709, Diss: Linguistic Theories; Phonetics; Phonology; Typology: Stacy J Petersen: ''Accounting for Diphthongs: Duration as Contrast in Vowel Dispersion Theory''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-709. Wed Feb 13 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.709, Diss:  Linguistic Theories; Phonetics; Phonology; Typology: Stacy J Petersen: ''Accounting for Diphthongs: Duration as Contrast in Vowel Dispersion Theory''

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Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2019 11:25:01
From: Stacy Petersen [stacyjpetersen at gmail.com]
Subject: Accounting for Diphthongs: Duration as Contrast in Vowel Dispersion Theory

 
Institution: Georgetown University 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2018 

Author: Stacy J Petersen

Dissertation Title: Accounting for Diphthongs: Duration as Contrast in Vowel
Dispersion Theory 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology
                     Typology


Dissertation Director(s):
Youngah Do
Elizabeth Zsiga
Jennifer Nycz
Hannah Sande

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation investigates the production and perception properties of
diphthong vowels at different speech rates in order to advance the
understanding of diphthong phonetics and to incorporate diphthongs into
phonological theory of vowel dispersion. Dispersion Theory (Flemming, 2004;
Liljencrants & Lindblom, 1972b; Lindblom, 1986a) models vowel inventories in
terms of contrast between all vocalic elements, yet currently only accounts
for quality contrasts. Problematically, diphthongs have been excluded from
most previous acoustic and theoretical work due to their complex duality of
being composed of two vowel endpoints while acting as one phonological unit.
Two experiments are presented which test diphthong production and perception
by altering speech rate and duration to determine fundamental properties of
diphthongs cross-linguistically.

In an elicitation experiment that uses a novel methodology for speech rate
modulation, it is shown that speakers maintain diphthong endpoint targets in
Vietnamese, Faroese, and Cantonese. Both diphthong endpoints and monophthong
targets show similar movement as a natural effect of reduction of the vowel
space at faster speech rates, unifying monophthongs and diphthongs in terms of
their phonetic properties. Contra the predictions of Gay (1968), it is shown
that diphthong slope is variable across speech rates and slope variability is
language-dependent.

The second section examines the effect of duration manipulation on diphthong
perception with a vowel identification experiment. The findings indicate the
effect of duration manipulation is dependent on phonological vowel length, but
otherwise increasing duration improves perception through an increase in
percent correct, lower confusability, and lower reaction times. Increasing
duration also reduces confusability between diphthongs and monophthongs. 

This study finds that duration is an important dimension of contrast both
within diphthongs and the vowel inventory as a whole. The analysis shows that
in order to adapt Dispersion Theory to account for diphthongs, the theory must
include an additional contrast dimension of time. Based on the results of the
experiments, three constraints are proposed to initiate the inclusion of
diphthongs into Dispersion Theory: *DUR, MINDIST ONSET, and MINDIST OFFSET.
Including duration in theoretical models of vowel dispersion is the first step
in accounting for vocalic elements that are contrastive along multiple
dimensions.




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