The company that word-boundary sounds keep
The effect of contextual ratio frequency on word-final /s/ in a sample
of Mexican Spanish
This paper analyzes the frequency with which words occur in phonological
contexts favorable to reduction, referred to here as “contextual ratio
frequency.” Duration and center of gravity of word-final /s/ are measured in
the speech of ten speakers of Mexican Spanish living in Salinas, California.
The 1,028 tokens are subjected to mixed effects linear regression, with
speaker and lexical item entered as random effects. The results suggest that
contextual ratio frequency is a better predictor of word-boundary sound
reduction than lexical frequency, and support the idea that words that occur
frequently in phonological contexts conducive to reduction are reduced more
often because words are represented mentally as malleable cognitive entities
that respond to usage-based factors.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Usage-based models of language
- Spanish /s/
- The present study
- Data and methods
- Results
- Duration
- Center of gravity
- Discussion
- Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References
References (59)
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