2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An empirical research on the prosodic properties of a word-final moraic consonant in Japanese mimetics

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23520455
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Linguistics
Research Institution	University of Tsukuba
Principal Investigator	NASU Akio 筑波大学, 人文社会系, 准教授 (00294174)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	音韻論 / 促音 / オノマトペ / アクセント / 最適性理論
Research Abstract	The present research project attempts to shed light on the prosodic properties of a word-final moraic obstruent (word-final suffix /Q/) in Japanese mimetics by means of experimental methods. I conducted two kinds of phonetic experiments in order to elucidate characteristics of the pitch patterns observed both in mimetic words containing the suffix /Q/ and in bare mimetic roots containing no /Q/. The result of the experiments was that these two types of mimetic forms exhibit quite similar pitch patterns. This result is revealing in that these two mimetic forms are substantially equivalent to each other. The word-final suffix /Q/ plays no role in making a lexical distinction between the two types of mimetic forms. This inquiry provides strong support for a theoretical analysis in which the word-final suffix /Q/ serves as an unmarked default that produces the typical mimetic prosody, with an accented foot in word-final position.