Kevin M Ryan
Biographic Data
| ID | 3592386 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevin M Ryan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevin M |
| FAMILY NAME | Ryan |
| SIGNATURE | RYAN K M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University Press |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3670-8505 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Syllable weight and natural duration in textsetting popular music in English
Hayes & Kaun (1996) argue that the mapping of syllables onto a metrical grid in textsetting is sensitive to natural duration, not just categorical weight (heavy or light). Most of their evidence, however, derives the final lengthening effects, which admit of another possible analysis (Halle 2004). Drawing on a corpus of 2,371 popular songs in English, I confirm that even when one controls for final lengthening and other factors, the setting of sy…
Degenerate feet in phrasal phonology: Evidence from Latin and Ancient Greek
Degenerate feet, even when forbidden in isolated words, can arise within phrases due to resyllabification. In particular, when a stressed monosyllable of the shape C 0 VC (where V is short) undergoes resyllabification in Latin and Ancient Greek, it yields a degenerate foot. While degenerate feet were tolerated in prose, they were avoided in hexameter verse. Even though a degenerate foot is a kind of light syllable, a light metrical position could…
Onset Prominence in Wubuy Reduplication
Wubuy (also known as Nunggubuyu; Australia) exhibits a regular and productive pattern of partial reduplication by which the reduplicant is one syllable if its base begins with an obstruent and two if it begins with a sonorant. We compare two approaches to the synchronic analysis of this pattern based on phonotactics and weight, respectively, ultimately arguing for the latter. As we show, an analysis in terms of general markedness constraints (e.g…
Development of Diphthongs in Vedic Sanskrit
Old Indic diphthongs underwent a chain shift whereby e and o monophthongized (ai̯ > ē) and ai and au shortened, filling the gap (āi̯ > ai̯). While it is clear that these changes were complete by the end of the Vedic period, it has been unclear when during (or before) that period they occurred. Based on the avoidance of superheavy syllables in metrical cadences, which is corroborated here, I argue that both shifts took place during the composition…
Prosodic end-weight reflects phrasal stress
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs: Supplemental Material
VV > VC > V for Stress: Coercion vs. Prominence
A common approach to ternary VV > VC > V weight for stress involves coerced moraicity, by which codas are moraic only under stress, when no VV is available. As I show, coercion is untenable for about half of 17 such systems surveyed, and must be augmented by a theory of vowel prominence (e.g., VV-TO-STRESS). I further argue that vowel prominence is superior to a previously suggested solution in terms of coda prominence, which favors stress on syl…
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs
This article explores the relationship between linguistic tone and musical melody in Tommo So, a Dogon language of Mali. Most fundamentally, contrary mappings (rising tone on falling music, or vice versa) are strongly penalized, while oblique mappings (flat tone on changing music, or vice versa) are largely tolerated. Strictness of mapping is further modulated by several factors, including whether the tones straddle a word boundary, whether their…
The stress–weight interface in metre
Metres are typically classified as being accentual (mapping stress, as in English) or quantitative (mapping weight, as in Sanskrit). This article treats the less well-studied typology of hybrid accentual-quantitative metres, which fall into two classes. In the first, stress and weight map independently onto the same metre, as attested in Latin and Old Norse. In the second, stress and weight interact, such that weight is regulated more strictly fo…
Attenuated Spreading in Sanskrit Retroflex Harmony
Drawing on a two-million-word corpus of Sanskrit, the article documents and analyzes two previously unrecognized generalizations concerning the morphoprosodic conditioning of retroflex spreading ( nati). Both reveal harmony to be attenuated across the left boundaries of roots (i.e., between a prefix and a root or between members of a compound), in the sense that while harmony applies across these boundaries, when it does so, it accesses a proper …
Phonological weight
Grammars frequently categorize syllables for prosodic purposes, treating one class as heavier (e.g., more stress-attracting) than another. While such categorization is usually dichotomous, complex and gradient scales are also attested, with various organizational criteria. This article reviews the range of phenomena that invoke weight distinctions and introduces some current debates concerning weight, touching on topics such as the syllable versu…
Onsets contribute to syllable weight: Statistical evidence from stress and meter
While some accounts of syllable weight deny a role for onsets, onset-sensitive weight criteria have received renewed attention in recent years (e.g. Gordon 2005, Topintzi 2010). This article presents new evidence supporting onsets as factors in weight. First, in complex stress systems such as those of English and Russian, onset length is a significant attractor of stress both in the lexicon and in nonce probes. This effect is highly systematic an…
Gradient syllable weight and weight universals in quantitative metrics
Homeric Greek, Kalevala Finnish, Old Norse and Middle Tamil are all languages in which weight is claimed to be exclusively binary in the poetic metrics. As I demonstrate through corpus studies of these traditions, the poets were sensitive to additional grades of weight, such that finely articulated continua of syllable weight can be inferred from distributional asymmetries in the metres. Across all four languages, the scales are strongly correlat…
Variable affix order: Grammar and learning
While affix ordering often reflects general syntactic or semantic principles, it can also be arbitrary or variable. This article develops a theory of morpheme ordering based on local morphotactic restrictions encoded as weighted bigram constraints. I examine the formal properties of morphotactic systems, including arbitrariness, nontransitivity, context-sensitivity, analogy, and variation. Several variable systems are surveyed before turning to a…
Variable affix order: Grammar and learning
While affix ordering often reflects general syntactic or semantic principles, it can also be arbitrary or variable. This article develops a theory of morpheme ordering based on local morphotactic restrictions encoded as weighted bigram constraints. I examine the formal properties of morphotactic systems, including arbitrariness, nontransitivity, context-sensitivity, analogy, and variation. Several variable systems are surveyed before turning to a…
Onsets contribute to syllable weight: Statistical evidence from stress and meter
While some accounts of syllable weight deny a role for onsets, onset-sensitive weight criteria have received renewed attention in recent years (e.g. Gordon 2005, Topintzi 2010). This article presents new evidence supporting onsets as factors in weight. First, in complex stress systems such as those of English and Russian, onset length is a significant attractor of stress both in the lexicon and in nonce probes. This effect is highly systematic an…
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs
This article explores the relationship between linguistic tone and musical melody in Tommo So, a Dogon language of Mali. Most fundamentally, contrary mappings (rising tone on falling music, or vice versa) are strongly penalized, while oblique mappings (flat tone on changing music, or vice versa) are largely tolerated. Strictness of mapping is further modulated by several factors, including whether the tones straddle a word boundary, whether their…
Phonological weight
Grammars frequently categorize syllables for prosodic purposes, treating one class as heavier (e.g., more stress-attracting) than another. While such categorization is usually dichotomous, complex and gradient scales are also attested, with various organizational criteria. This article reviews the range of phenomena that invoke weight distinctions and introduces some current debates concerning weight, touching on topics such as the syllable versu…
Attenuated Spreading in Sanskrit Retroflex Harmony
Drawing on a two-million-word corpus of Sanskrit, the article documents and analyzes two previously unrecognized generalizations concerning the morphoprosodic conditioning of retroflex spreading ( nati). Both reveal harmony to be attenuated across the left boundaries of roots (i.e., between a prefix and a root or between members of a compound), in the sense that while harmony applies across these boundaries, when it does so, it accesses a proper …
Prosodic end-weight reflects phrasal stress
Variable affix order: Grammar and learning
While affix ordering often reflects general syntactic or semantic principles, it can also be arbitrary or variable. This article develops a theory of morpheme ordering based on local morphotactic restrictions encoded as weighted bigram constraints. I examine the formal properties of morphotactic systems, including arbitrariness, nontransitivity, context-sensitivity, analogy, and variation. Several variable systems are surveyed before turning to a…
Gradient syllable weight and weight universals in quantitative metrics
Homeric Greek, Kalevala Finnish, Old Norse and Middle Tamil are all languages in which weight is claimed to be exclusively binary in the poetic metrics. As I demonstrate through corpus studies of these traditions, the poets were sensitive to additional grades of weight, such that finely articulated continua of syllable weight can be inferred from distributional asymmetries in the metres. Across all four languages, the scales are strongly correlat…
Onsets contribute to syllable weight: Statistical evidence from stress and meter
While some accounts of syllable weight deny a role for onsets, onset-sensitive weight criteria have received renewed attention in recent years (e.g. Gordon 2005, Topintzi 2010). This article presents new evidence supporting onsets as factors in weight. First, in complex stress systems such as those of English and Russian, onset length is a significant attractor of stress both in the lexicon and in nonce probes. This effect is highly systematic an…
Phonological weight
Grammars frequently categorize syllables for prosodic purposes, treating one class as heavier (e.g., more stress-attracting) than another. While such categorization is usually dichotomous, complex and gradient scales are also attested, with various organizational criteria. This article reviews the range of phenomena that invoke weight distinctions and introduces some current debates concerning weight, touching on topics such as the syllable versu…
The stress–weight interface in metre
Metres are typically classified as being accentual (mapping stress, as in English) or quantitative (mapping weight, as in Sanskrit). This article treats the less well-studied typology of hybrid accentual-quantitative metres, which fall into two classes. In the first, stress and weight map independently onto the same metre, as attested in Latin and Old Norse. In the second, stress and weight interact, such that weight is regulated more strictly fo…
Attenuated Spreading in Sanskrit Retroflex Harmony
Drawing on a two-million-word corpus of Sanskrit, the article documents and analyzes two previously unrecognized generalizations concerning the morphoprosodic conditioning of retroflex spreading ( nati). Both reveal harmony to be attenuated across the left boundaries of roots (i.e., between a prefix and a root or between members of a compound), in the sense that while harmony applies across these boundaries, when it does so, it accesses a proper …
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs: Supplemental Material
VV > VC > V for Stress: Coercion vs. Prominence
A common approach to ternary VV > VC > V weight for stress involves coerced moraicity, by which codas are moraic only under stress, when no VV is available. As I show, coercion is untenable for about half of 17 such systems surveyed, and must be augmented by a theory of vowel prominence (e.g., VV-TO-STRESS). I further argue that vowel prominence is superior to a previously suggested solution in terms of coda prominence, which favors stress on syl…
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs
This article explores the relationship between linguistic tone and musical melody in Tommo So, a Dogon language of Mali. Most fundamentally, contrary mappings (rising tone on falling music, or vice versa) are strongly penalized, while oblique mappings (flat tone on changing music, or vice versa) are largely tolerated. Strictness of mapping is further modulated by several factors, including whether the tones straddle a word boundary, whether their…
Prosodic end-weight reflects phrasal stress
Development of Diphthongs in Vedic Sanskrit
Old Indic diphthongs underwent a chain shift whereby e and o monophthongized (ai̯ > ē) and ai and au shortened, filling the gap (āi̯ > ai̯). While it is clear that these changes were complete by the end of the Vedic period, it has been unclear when during (or before) that period they occurred. Based on the avoidance of superheavy syllables in metrical cadences, which is corroborated here, I argue that both shifts took place during the composition…
Syllable weight and natural duration in textsetting popular music in English
Hayes & Kaun (1996) argue that the mapping of syllables onto a metrical grid in textsetting is sensitive to natural duration, not just categorical weight (heavy or light). Most of their evidence, however, derives the final lengthening effects, which admit of another possible analysis (Halle 2004). Drawing on a corpus of 2,371 popular songs in English, I confirm that even when one controls for final lengthening and other factors, the setting of sy…
Degenerate feet in phrasal phonology: Evidence from Latin and Ancient Greek
Degenerate feet, even when forbidden in isolated words, can arise within phrases due to resyllabification. In particular, when a stressed monosyllable of the shape C 0 VC (where V is short) undergoes resyllabification in Latin and Ancient Greek, it yields a degenerate foot. While degenerate feet were tolerated in prose, they were avoided in hexameter verse. Even though a degenerate foot is a kind of light syllable, a light metrical position could…
Onset Prominence in Wubuy Reduplication
Wubuy (also known as Nunggubuyu; Australia) exhibits a regular and productive pattern of partial reduplication by which the reduplicant is one syllable if its base begins with an obstruent and two if it begins with a sonorant. We compare two approaches to the synchronic analysis of this pattern based on phonotactics and weight, respectively, ultimately arguing for the latter. As we show, an analysis in terms of general markedness constraints (e.g…
Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (10 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (9 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Syllable (7 works) · History (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)