Compound stress in English: Modelling the prosody of NN and NNN constructions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ingo Plag
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5447327

lt is generally assumed that compounds in English are stressed an the left-hand member (e.g. bláckboard, wátchmaker), However, there is a considerable amount of variation in stress assignment (e.g. silk tíe, Madison Avenue, singer-sóngwriter) that is unaccounted for in the literature. Three hypotheses will be tested in this project. The semantic hypothesis states that it is the semantic relationship between the constituents that is responsible for the particular stress pattern of a given construction. Certain relationships trigger right-hand stress, others left-hand stress. The structural hypothesis states that morphological constructions, i.e. real compounds, trigger left-hand stress, while syntactic phrases trigger right-hand stress. Lexicalization is responsible for the many aberrant cases. The analogical hypothesis states that stress follows analogical patterns. New compounds are assigned stress an the basis of their similarity to existing compounds, i.e. those already present in the speaker's mental lexicon. The aim of the project is to provide an explanation for the variable stress behavior of English compounds. To overcome the shortcomings of earlier studies, three different types of data will be used: large amounts of naturally occurring data from speech corpora, ex­periments with native speakers, and computational modelling. Dealing with the interface of phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, the project will also shed new light an the question of how linguistic knowledge is to be represented in a descriptively and explanatorily adequate model of grammar and lexicon.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Sabine Arndt-Lappe