Home Linguistics & Semiotics Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure

  • Dinesh Ramoo , Cristina Romani and Andrew Olson
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Trends in South Asian Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Trends in South Asian Linguistics

Abstract

Syllables are universal structures in articulation, but current speech production models disagree on whether syllables play a role only during the organization of phonemes during production or whether they play a more central role. Arguments against having syllables structure within the mental lexicon are resyllabification (phonemes moving from their lexical syllabic position to another syllable during connected speech, and the storage costs of having such information in the lexicon. This study used speech corpus analysis to quantify the resyllabification rates of English and Hindi as well as the storage costs of 3 prominent speech production models. The results show that English has a higher resyllabification rate than Italian or Hindi and that models that only use post-lexical syllabification actually have larger storage costs compared to models that store syllabic information. This indicates that having syllable structures within the mental lexicon might be a plausible scenario.

Abstract

Syllables are universal structures in articulation, but current speech production models disagree on whether syllables play a role only during the organization of phonemes during production or whether they play a more central role. Arguments against having syllables structure within the mental lexicon are resyllabification (phonemes moving from their lexical syllabic position to another syllable during connected speech, and the storage costs of having such information in the lexicon. This study used speech corpus analysis to quantify the resyllabification rates of English and Hindi as well as the storage costs of 3 prominent speech production models. The results show that English has a higher resyllabification rate than Italian or Hindi and that models that only use post-lexical syllabification actually have larger storage costs compared to models that store syllabic information. This indicates that having syllable structures within the mental lexicon might be a plausible scenario.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Preface vii
  3. Contents xi
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
  6. Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
  7. A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
  8. Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
  9. A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
  10. Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
  11. Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
  12. Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
  13. How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
  14. The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
  15. Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
  16. Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
  17. A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
  18. Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
  19. Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
  20. Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
  21. List of contributors 463
  22. List of contributors 469
  23. Index of languages 477
  24. Index of subjects 479
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110753066-016

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Preface vii
  3. Contents xi
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
  6. Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
  7. A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
  8. Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
  9. A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
  10. Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
  11. Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
  12. Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
  13. How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
  14. The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
  15. Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
  16. Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
  17. A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
  18. Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
  19. Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
  20. Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
  21. List of contributors 463
  22. List of contributors 469
  23. Index of languages 477
  24. Index of subjects 479
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 30.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110753066-016/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button