Phrasal Prominence Location is Influenced by IP Boundary Location in the Absence of Stress Clash

Abstract

Several factors can influence early prominence in double-stressed words (e.g., Maltese), namely the presence of foot-level stress clash with a following word, and their adjacency to domain-initial boundaries. We test whether initial accent can occur in such words even when the words are spoken in isolation. Fourteen targets and 26 tri-syllabic filler-items were produced in isolation and in a frame sentence, e.g., [Say Maltese again], by 12 English speakers. In isolation, ‘Early’ prominence on, e.g., Mal- is more likely because the target is utterance- and phrase-initial. In the Embedded condition, phrasal prominence should be less likely on the initial syllable because there is a weaker boundary preceding the target. Three linguists coded prominence location. Early prominence rates, and Early scores (sum of ‘Early’ judgements/token) were calculated. While 96% of the Embedded tokens were perceived with ‘Late’ prominence, this pattern appeared in only 48% of the Isolated targets. The Early scores were also significantly higher in the Isolated condition. Overall, results suggest that doubly-stressed words show stress shifting to demarcate the left IP-edge. Because this study uses contexts free of stress clash with a following word, its results provide evidence that other factors, namely domain-onset-marking, can influence prominence location.