Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:30:48.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Syllable as a Unit of Prosodic Organization in Japanese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2009

Caroline Féry
Affiliation:
Universität Potsdam, Germany
Ruben van de Vijver
Affiliation:
Universität Potsdam, Germany
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The traditional typology proposed by Trubetzkoy (1969) classifies Tokyo Japanese as a typical “mora language” as opposed to a “syllable language.” The conception of the mora as an indispensable unit in Japanese can be supported by a wide range of linguistic evidence (see Kubozono 1999 for a summary). In comparison, it is not very clear yet what role the syllable plays in the same prosodic system, particularly in the nonderivational framework of Optimality Theory (OT – Prince and Smolensky 1993).

The goal of this chapter is twofold. First, I will show that several independent phenomena in Japanese exhibit the dominance of heavy-light over light-heavy structures. These phenomena include motherese (mother–baby language), emphatic mimetics, and sporadic lengthenings and shortenings, which all have drawn little or no attention in the literature, as well as the now well-known phenomena of loanword truncation and zuzya-go (jazz musicians' language). Moreover, it is argued that similar asymmetries occur in longer words involving three or more feet, such as compound nouns and the chanting phrases used in baseball cheering. By demonstrating the magnitude with which such a prosodic asymmetry occurs, I will argue for a syllable-based generalization of Japanese and, hence, for the universality of the syllable as an organizing element of phonological structure. Second, I will present an optimality-theoretic analysis of the phenomena exhibiting the asymmetries in syllabic organization.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×