Effects of tempo and stress on German syllable structure

Abstract

A comprehensive view of German syllable structure is developed based on phonetic and psycholinguistic experimental results supplemented by phonological arguments. The account is based on the interaction between universal factors (sonority/strength constraints, effects of tempo) and language-specific factors (phonotactic constraints, effects of stress). Initial, phonological syllabification reveals the distributional constraints operating in the language. This syllabification is modified by stress and rate of speech in well defined ways. The effect of a faster tempo is to maximize and thus strengthen syllable onsets within the limits predicted by sonority/strength and to minimize and thus weaken codas. This is achieved through resyllabification of stronger consonants onto following weaker ones. The effect of stress is twofold. Stress blocks faster speech resyllabification. It also modifies initial syllabification by making stressed syllables heavier through the acquisition of a branching nucleus, and in faster tempos, a branching rhyme. The effects of syllabification adjustments due to tempo and stress are interpreted as an optimization of syllable structure. The study supports a theory of syllable structure based on the arrangement of segments according to the so-called Sonority Sequencing Principle augmented by language-specific constraints which, in the absence of counteracting factors such as stress, are relaxed in faster tempos.