The rhythm of text and the rhythm of utterances: from metrics to models
Résumé
The typological classification of languages as stress-timed,
syllable-timed and mora-timed did not stand up to empirical
investigation which found little or no evidence for the
different types of isochrony which had been assumed to be the
basis for the classification. In recent years, there has been a
renewal of interest with the development of empirical metrics
for measuring rhythm. In this paper it is shown that some of
these metrics are more sensitive to the rhythm of the text than
to the rhythm of the utterance itself. While a number of recent
proposals have been made for improving these metrics it is
proposed that what is needed is more detailed studies of large
corpora in order to develop more sophisticated models of the
way in which prosodic structure is realised in different
languages. New data on British English is presented using the
Aix-Marsec corpus.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)