Effects of Syntactic Constituency on Phonology and Phonetics of Tone

本研究项目旨在探讨句子的句法结构如何影响其发音的问题。该项目将对具有不同句法特征的四种语言(北部比兹开语巴斯克语、西松加语、卢甘达语、爱尔兰语)进行协调的实地调查，其中声调的分布已知特别揭示句法成分结构在决定句子发音方面的一般作用。在这些语言中，短语大小成分的左边缘和/或右边缘的位置由声调和其他语音现象(在短语边缘插入声调、延长倒数第二个元音等)来表示。此外，众所周知，这些语言表现出与不同的、更大的、小句级别的成分类型相关联的语音效果。因此，来自这些语言中句子发音的数据可以揭示哪些类型的句法短语或句法从句被视为音系学的“域”。此外，这些领域敏感现象还可以提供一种工具来评估纯粹基于句法的音系域结构理论是否足以作为这些现象在句子中的分布理论，或者是否也必须呼吁对域结构的适当的语音限制，例如那些表达对某些节奏模式的偏好的限制。计划中的合作团队合作将为研究生和教师提供收集和分析来自句法-音系学接口的复杂数据的独特培训机会。对这些专家的培训和将向公众提供的数据库将为进一步推进对这一相对较少研究的语法方面的理论理解奠定基础。此外，收集的数据将用来记录目前研究不足和/或濒危的语言的句子发音，从而有助于努力保持对这些语言的独特性质的了解，并将其传授给其他人。

This research project investigates the question of just how the syntactic structure of a sentence can affect its pronunciation. The project will make coordinated fieldwork investigations of four languages with diverse syntactic properties (Northern Bizkaian Basque, Xitsonga, Luganda, Irish) in which the distribution of tone is known to be particularly revealing of the general role for syntactic constituent structure in determining the pronunciation of sentences. In these languages the location of the left and/or right edges of phrase-sized constituents is indicated by tonal and other phonological phenomena (insertion of tones at phrase edges, lengthening of the penultimate vowel, etc.) Moreover these languages are known to display phonological effects associated with a distinct, larger, clause-level type of constituent. So data from the pronunciation of sentences in these languages can reveal just what types of syntactic phrases or syntactic clauses count as "domains" for phonology. These domain-sensitive phenomena can moreover provide a tool for assessing whether a purely syntax-based theory of phonological domain structure is adequate as a theory of the distribution of these phenomena in a sentence, or whether appeal also has to be made to properly phonological constraints on domain structure, such as those expressing preference for certain rhythmic patterns.The collaborative teamwork planned will provide unique training opportunities for both graduate students and faculty in the collection and analysis of complex data from the syntax-phonology interface. The training of these experts and the databases to be made publicly available will provide a foundation for further advances in the theoretical understanding of this relatively understudied aspect of grammar. Moreover, the data collected will serve to document sentence pronunciation in languages that are currently understudied and/or endangered and so will help contribute to efforts to keep the knowledge of the unique properties of these languages alive, and to teach it to others.