Language processing and the evolution of rhythmic patterns

Rhythmic stress is assigned automatically in everyday speech. Usually, it is produced without conscious planning of which syllables have to be stressed. However, the ‘grammaticalisation’ of rhythmic patterns is the result of language processing. It is the outcome of a selective process which is proposed to lead to a preference or dispreference for specific rhythmic structures. In the languages of the world, judging by the typological data available, some rhythmic patterns seem to be completely avoided – even if this means an increase of complexity within a stress system. Focussing on asymmetries in binary stress systems, it is suggested in this paper that processing limitations in speech production motivate stress patterns. It is also demonstrated that the domain of the prosodic word is insufficient for a motivation of these asymmetries. Since one-word sentences are not the rule, but the exception, asymmetries find their motivation on the level of the sentence

Arithmetic · Binary number · Cognitive psychology · Grammaticalization · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Rhythm · Sentence · Speech recognition · Stress (linguistics · Word (group theory · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Mathematics · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

• Native and Non-native Perception of Stress in Mapudungun

  Open Access•Benjamin Molineaux, Benjamin J Molineaux•Language and Speech•2017

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