Is timing control of Japanese speech rhythm constrained by syntactic structure?

本研究以日语短句为研究对象，探讨其句法短语的时间变化。参照纯短语话语的平均时长，分析了句子话语中每个短语的时长。虽然日语被认为是一种莫拉时长波动很小的莫拉时节奏，但句尾短语或深层句法边界之前的短语的时长相对较长。延长乐句之前的乐句相对较短。音乐小节的持续时间也进行了声学分析。研究对象是快克里思的古典音乐片段。研究结果还表明，在乐句的结尾，通常由四个小节组成的乐句有“尾音延长”的趋势。然而，一个酒吧的持续时间之前，延长的一个往往被发现显着短。在一般的四小节短语结构中，经常观察到“短-长-短-长”模式。

Short Japanese utterances were analyzed acoustically to investigate the temporal fluctuation of syntactic phrases. With reference to the average duration of the phrase-only utterances, duration of each phrase within the sentence utterance was analyzed. Though Japanese is said to have a mora-timed rhythm with little fluctuation of mora duration, duration of a sentence-final phrase or a phrase just before a deep syntactic boundary was relatively longer. The phrase just before a prolonged phrase was relatively shorter.Duration of a musical bar was also acoustically analyzed. Pieces of classical music with quick tempo were investigated. The results also showed the tendency of "Final-lengthening" at the end of a musical phrase, which normally consists of four bars. However, the duration of a bar just before the prolonged one was often found significantly short. Within the general four-bar phrase structure, a "Short-Long-Short-Long" pattern was often observed.