| Keywords [eng] |
syncope, weak vowel deletion, phonotactics, colloquial pronunciation, standard pronunciation, articulation sinkopė, nekirčiuoto balsio praleidimas, fonotaktika, tarmės, norminė tartis, artikuliacija |
| Abstract [eng] |
A rather marginal role of synchronic syncope in the descriptions of English phonology is currently reflected in over five decades of scarce attempts to develop a theoretical framework as well as contradictory empirical data (cf. Dalby, 1984, Głowacka, 2001, Patterson, et al., 2003, Davidson, 2006). The 1970s and 1980s generativist-inspired analyses (Zwicky, 1972a, Hooper, 1978, Dalby, 1984) seem to have contributed the most to the conceptualisation of syncope, most notably, characterising weak vowel deletion on the grounds of a stress based typology. Later approaches (Carlotti et al., 2009, Bérces, 2011), questioning the centrality of tonic stress, provide a phonotactics oriented explanation thus considering syncope as embedded into the system of the language. More recently, formalist representations of post-tonic syncope (Szigetvári, 2007, Harris, 2011, Polgárdi, 2015) delineate concrete constraints it conforms to, conceptualising weak vowel deletion in parallel to syllabic consonant formation. Nevertheless, there is no consensus on any rigorous theoretical conventions making syncope a challenging concept to approach empirically. It remains unclear under what conditions weak vowel deletion tends to operate as well as the variables that govern it. Aiming to provide a more aerial outline of syncope, focusing on non-rhotic dialects widespread in the Southern parts of England, the following objectives were set: to evaluate the role of cross-dialectal variation with regard to weak vowel deletion, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive theoretical framework of syncope in English; to determine which variables, namely stress, phonotactic acceptability, and schwa-flanking articulatory context tend to show more resilience to syncopation within the boundaries of the analysed speech samples; to analyse the sociophonetic implications which may be drawn from the syncope patterns identified in the sample. A similar methodological framework applied in this paper is found in the works of Dalby (1984) and Głowacka (2001), which consisted of collecting, classifying, and codifying the data elicited from the BBC World Service five-minute news bulletins and YouTube video blogs. The sample resulted in 1181 items, assessment of which was supplemented with spectrographic analysis carried out by Praat 6.2.10 (Boersma & Weenink, 2022) and then processed statistically via SPSS 26 (2019). The identified data revealed a stronger syncopation tendency in regionally marked accents as opposed to more standard pronunciation. The statistical analysis seems to accord with the representatives of the generativist approach to syncope, since the tonic stress placement and schwa-flanking articulatory context were assumed to be the most likely variables influencing schwa deletion. Meanwhile, phonotactic acceptability was not a statistically significant factor and syncope was as likely in licit sequences as in illicit. Such data is more on par with co-articulation oriented interpretations, precisely, “pronounceability” (Zwicky, 1972a) and how specific sequences of articulatory gestures generate environments more susceptible to deletion. |
