ENGLISH PHRASAL STRESS TARGETS MULTIPLE, OPTIONAL LENGTHENING SITES

Durations of syllables in phrasally-stressed English 4-syllable words like democratic, with primary stress on the penultimate syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable, were compared with their counterparts in words without phrasal stress. These comparisons showed considerable variation in lengthening patterns across subjects, where two subjects showed reliable lengthening on only a single syllable in the phrasally-stressed words (primary-stressed syllable for one subject, final syllable for the other). The other two subjects reliably lengthened the first syllable, the primary-stressed syllable, and the final syllable, with the greatest magnitude of lengthening on the primary-stressed syllable. Taken together, these results suggest that the initial secondary-stressed syllable, the primary-stressed syllable, and the final syllable are all distinct but optional lengthening sites in English