A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Stress Variants in present-day English
| Project/Area Number |
12610490
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | Mie University |
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Principal Investigator |
HATTORI Noriko Mie University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Associate Professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (00198764)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Keywords | sound change / stress / change / variation / phonology / 変異形 / 強勢移動 / リズム規則 / 強勢変異形 / 語彙拡散 / プロソディー / S字状カーブ / 観察者のパラドックス |
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| Research Abstract |
Based on the author's interest in diachronic and synchronic sound changes, this study deals with stress variants in present-day British English, and demonstrates that not only phonetic factors but also syntactic factors can trigger variation in stress patterns. The result of opinion polls presented in Wells' pronunciation dictionary (2000) gives a picture of current preferences in stress patterns of some controversial words. Wells asked the informants to think of the stress pattern of the word in question when it appears at the end of a sentence.
My hypothesis has been that the position in the sentence may give rise to stress variation and that we can observe variants when we put the word in question in various rhythmic and syntactic structures. Stress variants of five adjectives are examined in the recorded speech of twenty native speakers of British English. In preparing sentences to be presented to the subjects, I have used the Wordbanks online corpus. Following a detailed analysis of inter- and intra-speaker variation, it is suggested that not only rhythmic factors but also the branching structure of the phrase in which the adjective in question appears, especially the right-branching structure, have an effect on the emergence of variation.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(9 results)
