A Usage-Based Account of Syllable- and Word-Final /s/ Reduction in Four Dialects of Spanish

Abstract

Several linguistic factors have been shown to condition the reduction of syllableand word-final /s/ in Spanish (e.g. ¿Cómo estás tú? > ¿Cómo e [h]tá [ø] tú? 'How are you?'). These include word length (mono vs. polysyllabic words), the prosodic stress of the syllable in which syllable-or word-final /s/ occurs (stressed vs. unstressed), the position of /s/ within the word (internal vs. final), as well as the factor group shown to the have the greatest conditioning effect, the phonological context that follows syllable-or word-final /s/ (consonant vs. vowel vs. pause).The influence of factors dealing with frequency has been shown only recently for this phenomenon (Brown 2004, Brown & Torres Cacoullos 2002, 2003, FileMuriel 2007, Minnick Fox 2006. These studies show that the token frequency of the word in which final /s/ occurs as well as the frequency with which a word occurs in a phonological context favorable to reduction (e.g. before a following consonant instead of a vowel or pause) significantly condition final /s/ reduction. Based in the usage-based model of phonology (Bybee 2001), this dissertation contributes to our understanding of the most-studied variable in Spanish, and consonant weakening more generally, by providing evidence that frequency factors significantly condition the reduction. An analysis was performed of 23,307 tokens of syllable-and word-final /s/ taken from four dialects of Spanish: Cali, Colombia (Travis 2005), northern New Mexico and southern Colorado (Bills & Vigil 1999, Brown 2004), Mérida, Venezuela (Domínguez & Mora 1995) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (Cortés -Torres 2005). The selection of these dialects is based on the overall rate of final /s/ reduction as high (Venezuela, Puerto Rico) and lower (Colombia, New Mexico). Tokens are coded for phonological context, the traditional, wellstudied factors mentioned above, the token frequency of the word in which final /s/ occurs and the frequency with which the word occurs in a phonological context favorable to reduction. The results of multivariate analyses (Sankoff 1988, Sankoff, Tagliamonte & Smith 2005) support the usage-based model of phonology and Exemplar Theory. The following phonological context loses conditioning effect as the overall rate of reduction approaches categorical reduction. Further, the results provide evidence that the token frequency of the word in which syllable-or word-final /s/ occurs significantly conditions this phenomenon, such that, in general, syllable-and wordfinal /s/ is reduced more often in high-frequency words than in low-frequency ones. Likewise, the string frequency of two-word combinations is also significant. When Brought to you by | University of California Authenticated Download Date | 6/7/15 2:32 AM

The variable effect of form and lemma frequencies on phonetic variation: Evidence from /s/ realization in two varieties of Colombian Spanish

“…It should be noted that all predictor factors, not just frequency, will likely lose conditioning effect as a linguistic change nears completion. 9 Although the results of this paper concur with previous literature, and specifically Brown (2009b) with regards to Spanish, the finding that frequency plays no role in /s/ weakening in the Barranquilla data contradicts the results of FileMuriel (2009), a study that also analyzes /s/ in Barranquilla Spanish. However, several factors distinguish that study from the present one.…”

“…Several studies have shown that the preceding and following phonological contexts are two of the most influential factors in predicting the phonetic realization of /s/ in Spanish. Brown (2005) shows that the preceding context is the most influential factor in the prediction of syllable-initial /s/ realization while Brown (2009b) shows that the following context is most influential in the prediction of syllable-and word-final /s/ realization. Consequently, in a study such as this one, it is vitally important to statistically control for these two highly influential variables in order to accurately measure the relative influence of the two frequency measurements investigated here.…”

“…Labov 1994: 65;Phillips 2006: 13;Brown 2009b: 207). Specifically concerning Spanish, Brown (2009b) finds that in two dialects with high levels of /s/ reduction (San Juan, Puerto Rico and Mérida, Venezuela), frequency is either not influential or minimally influential. In the same study, Brown shows that /s/ in two dialects with lower levels of overall /s/ reduction (northern New Mexico and southern Colorado colonial Spanish and Cali, Colombia 8 ) is significantly affected by frequency.…”

A new test for exemplar theory: Varying versus non-varying words in Spanish

“…K. Brown & Brown 2012). For example, rates of [h] realization can be as high as 92% for speakers from Puerto Rico, and as low as 36% for speakers from speakers from Colombia; furthermore, for these and other documented varieties, rates differ for segments in medial compared to final position (E. K. Brown 2009). (Presumably, rates also differ from one word to the next but, to our knowledge, no study of Spanish has published the relevant statistics for individual lexical items; for statistics on variation in English, see Patterson & Connine 2001;Patterson, LoCasto & Connine 2003).…”

On the Origin of Post-Aspirated Stops: Production and Perception of /s/ + Voiceless Stop Sequences in Andalusian Spanish

“…In the latter position, however, it occurs less frequently and is often sociolinguistically stigmatized (Narbona et al, 2003, p. 205). Several factors have been shown to favour a weakening of syllable-final /s/ in Spanish, such as its occurrence in unstressed syllables (e.g., Alba, 1990;File-Muriel & Brown, 2011), a fast speech rate (File-Muriel & Brown, 2011), high lexical frequency (e.g., Brown, 2009), and word-medial position preceding consonants (e.g., Alba, 1990;Momcilovic, 2009;Samper Padilla, 2011).…”