Syllable weight and natural duration in textsetting popular music in English
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21695486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kevin M Ryan (0000-0003-3670-8505, Harvard University Press, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 559-582 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | English Language and Linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1360-6743 • E-ISSN: 1469-4379 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1360674322000156 |
| OpenAlex | W4293252970 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 55 |
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 syllables to a discrete grid is sensitive to natural duration. Moreover, onset effects reveal that the domain of weight for textsetting is not the syllable, rime, or vowel-to-vowel interval, but rather the interval between p-centers (perceptual centers). Finally, I argue that the textsetting grammar invokes both natural duration and categorical weight; weight mapping cannot be reduced to one or the other
Art · Categorical variable · Combinatorics · Linguistics · Literature · Speech recognition · Statistics · Syllable · Vowel · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |