The Mora and Syllable Structure in Japanese: Evidence from Speech Errors

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the role and reality of the linguistic unit called ‘mora’ in Japanese through analysis of several types of speech error and other linguistic phenomena. It is shown that the mora is an indispensable notion for the description and generalization of the patterns underlying speech errors in Japanese. Specifically, analysis of blend errors suggests that mora boundaries are the most common switch point in Japanese, which supports the conception of the linguistic construct as being a psychologically real unit of speech production. in addition to the question of the mora, some related questions are also addressed, notably the psychological reality of the syllable and the syllable constituents of Japanese.