Glottal stop insertion and production planning domains in French
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Tobias Scheer
Abstract
The article introduces an experimental study of glottal stops that are generated by h aspiré (H) in French (il [ʔ] hoche la tête). To date the phenomenon is merely mentioned in passing, and evidence only comes from native speaker intuitions and cursory personal observation. Participants pronounced verbs that either did (hocher) or did not (aimer) begin with an H, whereby the left context was controlled for: the preceding word could end in a vowel (tu hoches/aimes), in a consonant (il hoche/aime) or in a liaison consonant (LC nous hochons/aimons). Results confirm the observation made in the literature regarding the high variability of H: lexical (elision is much more frequent in j’harcèle than in j’hais), inter-speaker (some participants chose unelided je for 10 out of 12 H verbs, while others only for 4 H verbs) and intra-speaker (participants pronounced vous [z] hissez with liaison, while they chose je hisse in a multiple choice-based pretest). Results also confirmed that H is indeed a glottal stop creator: glottal stops occur much more often before H-initial than before V-initial words. The glottal stop rate also depended on the left context: while LC + H (nous hochons) and C + H (il hoche) are statistically indistinguishable, both are significantly distinct from V + H (tu hoches). This suggests that glottal stop insertion is sensitive to all types of preceding consonants, whether they are pronounced (C + H) or not (LC + H). This result is relevant in the debate on French liaison where it was claimed that (some) LCs are epenthetic, that is absent from phonological computation when unpronounced: this view is challenged by the experimental evidence. On the analytic side, the article argues that all glottal stops that occur stand in Strong Position, i.e. word-initially or after a consonant {#,C}__ (Ségéral, Philippe & Tobias Scheer. 2001. La Coda-Miroir. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 96. 107–152). The word-initial position is in fact domain-initial, and it is a long standing observation in the literature that H sets off its word into a separate domain. Thus even glottal stops in V + H (tu hoches) that appear to occur in intervocalic position may in fact be domain-initial V + [H]. The question then is what kind of domain could be responsible for the (rare) presence of glottal stops in V + V (tu aimes): such a domain V + [V] cannot stem from H, nor can it be of morpho-syntactic origin. It is argued that these domains are production planning domains in the sense of Wagner (2012. Locality in phonology and production planning. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 22. 1–18 and following).
Pilot study with H nouns
LC + V probed in two configurations: Adj + N DET + N 1 un petit exposé ce sont des évêques 2 un grand évier ce sont des éditeurs 3 un gros enjeu ce sont des examens 4 un long institut ce sont des instituts 5 un faux atome ce sont des annuaires 6 un excellent annuaire ce sont des enjeux 7 un vilain abandon ce sont des abandons 8 un soi-disant évêque ce sont des éviers 9 un inquiétant examen ce sont des exposés 10 un plaisant éditeur ce sont des atomes Main experiment with H verbs
a. X + H (CL, C, V followed by H) CL + H C + H V + H 1 nous hantons nos ennemis elle hache l’oignon tu haches le persil 2 nous haïssons le chômage elle harcèle sa copine tu hais les dictateurs 3 nous heurtons la glissière elle harponne le poisson tu hantes tes voisins 4 nous hochons la tête elle hausse la voix tu harcèles le prof 5 nous huons l’attaquant elle hisse le pavillon bleu tu harponnes les requins 6 nous hâtons l’échéance elle hurle au voleur tu hausses le ton 7 vous hachez la viande il hait les examens tu heurtes la loi 8 vous harcelez le directeur il hante le château tu hisses le drapeau 9 vous harponnez la baleine il heurte le bon goût tu hoches la tête 10 vous haussez les épaules il hoche les épaules tu hues l’arbitre 11 vous hissez la voile il hue le ministre tu hurles à l’injustice 12 vous hurlez au loup il hâte son départ tu hâtes la guérison b. X + V (CL, C, V followed by V) CL + V C + V V + V 1 nous aimons le foot elle aide sa mère tu aides les clients 2 nous appelons le prof elle apprend l’anglais tu aimes le cinéma 3 nous entendons la rue elle arrête la cigarette tu appelles ta mère 4 nous envoyons des lettres elle attend le bus tu apprends un métier 5 nous essayons un plat exotique elle occupe toute la place tu arrêtes le café 6 nous ouvrons le livre elle oublie le temps tu attends les résultats 7 vous aidez les enfants il aime les fraises tu entends les chiens 8 vous apprenez l’espagnol il appelle son copain tu envoies le document 9 vous arrêtez le sport il entend le tram arriver tu essaies le pantalon 10 vous attendez le train il envoie un colis tu occupes le créneau prévu 11 vous occupez peu d’espace il essaie la nouvelle voiture tu oublies les ennuis 12 vous oubliez vos obligations il ouvre la porte tu ouvres le garage
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- How word stress is realized in Thai: evidence from the ordering of coordinate compounds
- Only states can be gradable
- A syntactic analysis of <no + event deverbal nominalization> in Spanish
- Glottal stop insertion and production planning domains in French
- Chinese topic constructions are derived by movement: evidence from acceptability judgment experiments
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- How word stress is realized in Thai: evidence from the ordering of coordinate compounds
- Only states can be gradable
- A syntactic analysis of <no + event deverbal nominalization> in Spanish
- Glottal stop insertion and production planning domains in French
- Chinese topic constructions are derived by movement: evidence from acceptability judgment experiments
