This paper is a selective state-of-the-art report on a variety of issues related to the adoption of experimental methods to the study of syllable structure. The rationale for an experimental approach is presented in the first section, followed by a brief section on of some of the main theoretical issues involved. Section three then presents a recap of the most important empirical findings, focusing on the key factors involved, rather than the details of the specific results. Section four then presents an illustrative case where the experimental results seem to conflict, along with discussion of some of the factors that are likely responsible for this. Finally, in the last section, an appeal is made for a deeper theoretical perspective than the one that has guided research in this area heretofore.
Berg, T. (2001). An experimental study of syllabification in Icelandic. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 241, 71–106.
Berg, T., & Niemi, J. (2000). Syllabification of Finnish and German: Onset filling versus onset maximization. Journal of Phonetics, 281, 187–216.
Bertinetto, P.M. (1999). Psycholinguistic evidence for syllable geometry: Italian and beyond. In John Rennison, & Klaus Kühnhammer (Eds.), Phonologica 1996. Syllables!? (pp. 1–28). The Hague, Holland: Academic Graphics.
Bertinetto, P.M., Cioni, L., & Agonigi, M. (1994). The hierarchical structure of the syllable in Italian. (Or: Does one really start from the beginning?)Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica, 81, 9–31. (Cited from working paper available at [URL].)
Bertinetto, P.M., Agonigi, M., Cioni, L., Lecumberri, M.L.C., & Parra, E.G. (1998-1999). An experimental investigation on syllable geometry in Spanish. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica, 12–131, 57–66.
Bertinetto, P.M., Caboara, M., Gaeta, L., & Agonigi, M. (1994). Syllabic division and intersegmental cohesion in Italian. Phonologica 1992. In Wolfgang U. Dressler, Martin Prinzhorn, & John R. Rennison (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th international phonology meeting (pp. 19–33). Torino: Rosenberg and Sellier.
Blevins, J. (1995). The syllable in phonological theory. In John A. Goldsmith (Ed.), The handbook of phonological theory (pp. 206–244). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Brière, E.J., Campbell, R.M., & Saemarmo, M. (1968). A need for the syllable in contrastive analysis. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 71, 384–389.
Chang, Y-H. (1992). On defining rime categories and rime groups in Taiwanese Hokkien. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, 221, 143–193.
Cheng, R.L. (1973). Some notes on tone sandhi in Taiwanese. Linguistics, 111, 5–25.
Côté, M.H., & Kharamov, V. (2011). The impact of experimental tasks on syllabification judgments: A case study of Russian. In C.E. Cairns, & E. Raimy (Eds.), Handbook of the syllable (pp. 273–294). Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Cutler, A., Mehler, J., Norris, D., & Segui, J. (1986). The syllable’s differing role in the segmentation of French and English. Journal of Memory and Language, 25 (4), 385–400.
Davidsen-Nielsen, N. (1974). Syllabification in English words with medial sp, st, sk. Journal of Phonetics, 21, 15–45.
Derwing, B.L. (1973). Transformational grammar as a theory of language acquisition: A study in the empirical, conceptual, and methodological foundations of contemporary linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Derwing, B.L. (1992a). Orthographic aspects of linguistic competence. In P. Downing, S.D. Lima, & M. Noonan (Eds.), The linguistics of literacy (pp. 193–210). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Derwing, B.L. (1992b). A ‘pause-break’ task for eliciting syllable boundary judgments from literate and illiterate speakers: Preliminary results for five diverse languages. Language and Speech, 351, 219–235.
Derwing, B.L. (2007). What’s in CVC-like things? Ways and means to look at phonological units across languages. In M-J. Solé, P.S. Beddor, & M. Ohala (Eds.), Experimental approaches to phonology (pp. 325–338). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Derwing, B.L., & Almeida, R.G. (2009). Non-chronometric experiments in linguistics. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Quantitative and experimental linguistics (pp. 234–282). Muenchen: LINCOM.
Derwing, B.L., Dow, M.L., & Nearey, T.M. (1989). Experimenting with syllable structure. In J. Powers, & K. de Jong (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Eastern States Conference on Linguistics (pp. 83–94). Columbus, OH: Ohio State University.
Derwing, B.L., & Nearey, T.M. (1991). The ‘vowel-stickiness’ phenomenon: Three experimental sources of evidence. Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 31, 210–213. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence.
Derwing, B.L., Wang, H.S., & Tsai, J. (2011). The syllable in Minnan: Making sense of conflicting sources of evidence. In J.-H. Chang (Ed.), Language and cognition: Festschrift in honor of James H.-Y. Tai on his 70th birthday (pp. 309–343). Taipei: Crane.
Eddington, D., & Elzinga, D. (2008). The phonetic context of American English flapping: Quantitative evidence. Language and Speech, 511, 235–266.
Eddington, D., Treiman, R., & Elzinga, D. (2013a). Syllabification of American English: Evidence from a large-scale experiment, Part I. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 201, 45–67.
Eddington, D., Treiman, R., & Elzinga, D. (2013b). Syllabification of American English: Evidence from a large-scale experiment, Part II. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 201, 75–93.
Fallows, D. (1981). Experimental evidence for English syllabification and syllable structure. Journal of Linguistics, 171, 309–317.
Gillis, S., & Sandra, D. (2000). The influence of spelling rules on phonology. In M. Beers, B. van den Bogaerd, G. Bol, J. de Jong, & C. Rooijmans (Eds.), From sound to sentence: Studies on first language acquisition (pp. 33–35).Groningen: Centre for Language and Cognition.
Heffner, R-M.S. (1949). General phonetics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hualde, J.I., & Prieto, M. (2002). On the diphthong/hiatus constrast in Spanish: Some experimental results. Linguistics, 401, 217–234.
Ishikawa, K. (2002). Syllabification of intervocalic consonants by English and Japanese speakers. Language and Speech, 451, 355–385.
Jiménez-Gonález, J.E., & del Rosario Ortiz-González, M. (1994). Phonological awareness in learning literacy. Intellectica, 11, 155–181.
Kaye, J. (1989). Phonology: A cognitive view. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kaye, J., Lowenstamm, J., & Vergnaud, J-R. (1990). Constituent structure and government in phonology. Phonology Yearbook, 71, 193–231.
Li, P. J-K. (1985). A secret language in Taiwanese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 131, 91–121.
Liberman, A.M. (1970). The grammars of speech and language. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 301–323.
Lieberman, I.Y., Shankweiler, D.P., Fisher, F.W., & Carter, B. (1974). Reading and awareness of linguistic segments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 181, 201–212.
Martens, E., Daelemans, W., Gillis, S., & Taelman, H. (2002). Where do syllables come from? In W.D. Gray, & C. Schunn (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 637–642). Fairfax, VA: George Mason University
McCrary, K.M. (2004). Reassessing the role of the syllable in Italian phonology: An experimental study of consonant cluster syllabification, definite article allomorphy and segment duration. Ph.D. diss., UCLA.
Mehler, J., Dommergues, J.Y., Frauenfelder, U., & Segui, J. (1981). The syllable’s role in speech segmentation. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 201, 298–305.
Moreton, E., Feng, G., & Smith, J.L. (2008). Syllabification, sonority, and perception: New evidence from a language game. Chicago Linguistic Society, 411, 341–355.
Ohala, M. (1999). The syllable in Hindi. In H. van der Hulst, & N.A. Ritter (Eds.), The syllable: Views and facts (pp. 93–111). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Parker, S. (2008). Sound level protrusions as physical correlates of sonority. Journal of Phonetics, 361, 55–90.
Prinzmetal, W., & Keysar, B. (1989). Functional theory of illusory conjunctions and neon colors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1181, 165–190.
Rapp, B.C. (1992). The nature of sublexical orthographic organization: The bigram trough hypothesis examined. Journal of Memory and Language, 311, 33–53.
Redford, M.A., & Randall, P. (2005). The role of juncture cues and phonological knowledge in English syllabification judgments. Journal of Phonetics, 331, 27–46.
Saussure, F. de. (1915 [1959]). A course in general linguistics. New York: The Philosophical Library.
Schiller, N.O., Meyer, A.S., & Levelt, W.J.M. (1998). The syllabic structure of spoken words: Evidence from syllabification of intervocalic consonants. Language and Speech, 401, 103–140.
Smith, K.L., & Pitt, M.A. (1999). Phonological and morphological influences in the syllabification of spoken words. Journal of Memory and Language, 411, 199–222.
Treiman, R. (1983). The structure of spoken syllables: Evidence from novel word games. Cognition, 151, 49–74.
Treiman, R. (1984). On the status of final consonant clusters in English syllables. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 231, 343–356.
Treiman, R. (1985). Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: Evidence from children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 391, 161–181.
Treiman, R. (1986). The division between onsets and rimes in English syllables. Journal of Memory and Language, 251, 476–491.
Treiman, R. (1988). Distributional constraints and syllable structure in English. Journal of Phonetics, 161, 221–229.
Treiman, R., Bowey, J.A., & Bourassa, D. (2002). Segmentation of spoken words into syllables by English-speaking children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 831, 213–238.
Treiman, R., & Danis, C. (1988). Syllabification of intervocalic consonants. Journal of Memory and Language, 271, 87–104.
Treiman, R., Gross, J., & Cwikiel-Glavin, A. (1992). The syllabification of /s/ clusters in English. Journal of Phonetics, 201, 383–402.
Treiman, R., Staub, K., & Lavery, P. (1994). Syllabification of bisyllabic nonwords: Evidence from short-term memory. Language and Speech, 371, 45–60.
Treiman, R., & Zukowski, A. (1990). Toward and understanding of English syllabification. Journal of Memory and Language, 291, 66–85.
Vance, T.J. (2008). The sounds of Japanese. Cambridge: University Press.
Wang, H.S. (1996). A language game test on the sub-syllabic units of Taiwan Min [In Chinese]. In Ch-Yu Tseng, & D-A. Ho (Eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on Selected NSC Projects in Linguistics (pp. 1.1–1.6). Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Wang, H.S., & Chang, C.-L. (2001). On the status of the prenucleus glide in Mandarin Chinese. Language and Linguistics, 21, 243–260.
Watt, W.C. (1974). Mentalism in linguistics II. Glossa, 81, 3–40.
Wright, R. (2004). A review of perceptual cues and cue robustness. In B. Hayes, R. Kirchner, & D. Steriade (Eds.), Phonetically based phonology (pp. 34–57). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yoon, Y.B., & Derwing, B.L. (2001). A language without a rhyme: Syllable structure experiments in Korean. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 461, 187–237.
Zamuner, T.S., & Ohala, D.K. (1999). Preliterate children’s syllabification of intervocalic consonants. In A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield, & C. Tano (Eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd annual Boston Conference on Language Development (pp. 753–763). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Popescu, Anisia & Ioana Chitoran
2022. Linking gestural representations to syllable count judgments: A cross-language test. Laboratory Phonology 13:1
Šturm, Pavel
2018. Experimental evidence on the syllabification of two-consonant clusters in Czech. Journal of Phonetics 71 ► pp. 126 ff.
Parker, Steve
2017. Sounding out Sonority. Language and Linguistics Compass 11:9
Tilsen, Sam & Abigail C. Cohn
2016. Shared Representations Underlie Metaphonological Judgments and Speech Motor Control. Laboratory Phonology 7:1 ► pp. 14 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.