Emily Hanna
Spring 2000

     Duration Lengthening at Prosodic Boundaries


     The UROP project I propose will continue some of the UROP work I

have been doing on prosodic boundaries for the past three years with

the Speech Communication group.
 
    The acoustical waveforms I have been analyzing were obtained from

several dozen recordings in which the same person repeats different

phrases that contain key words.  Due to differences in the phrases,

the stress patterns and number of syllables in the key words varies.

I have been marking the boundaries between the various phonemes--that

is, individual speech sounds such as /b/ and /i/.  Knowing the

boundaries makes it possible to determine whether syllable length

varies depending on the location of the syllable in the phrase and

whether there is a difference in lengthening of syllables that contain

reduced vowels (such as the a in sofa or the first syllable of

potato).  More specifically, I will be looking to see if the

lengthening effect goes further than simply the syllable adjacent to

the prosodic boundary itself.

    To carry out the analysis, I have learned to use a computer

program that can measure and analyze the difference in length of the

various syllables.  I have also looked at and analyzed the recordings

of additional speakers using the same utterances to see whether this

effect is apparent over many speakers.  This spring I will be

finishing the data analysis using the SPSS program.

     I am interested in this project because it relates to my interest

in linguistics and cognitive science and specifically to my interest

in phonology.  I also look forward to learning the new computer skills

that the project will require.