Prosodic Boundary Strengthening in the Phonetics-Prosody Interface

Abstract

Prosodic structure has been assumed to serve as a frame for articulation, so that phonetic shaping of abstract phonological representations is fine-tuned as a function of the prosodic system of the language. The intricate relationship between phonetics and prosodic structure has been explored in the literature under the rubric of the phonetics-prosody interface. This paper reviews various aspects of the phonetics-prosody interface and discusses how prosodic structure modulates phonetic realization within and across languages. A particular attention is paid to boundary-related prosodic strengthening (i.e., spatial and/or temporal expansion of articulation that arises in the vicinity of prosodic junctures), especially in association with domain-initial positions (also known as domain-initial strengthening, DIS, effects). Prosodic boundary strengthening is further discussed in terms of how it is language-specifically fine-tuned, how it is understood in dynamical terms, and how it relates to linguistic functions (as syntagmatic vs. paradigmatic contrast enhancement) that are all further conditioned by other factors of the linguistic sound system of individual languages such as the prominence system and the phonetic feature system.