here - Linguistic Society of America

Shira Calamaro (Yale University) Session 47Computing general rules over unnatural classesThis paper presents a computational model of generalized phonological rule learning, which is used to model the results of anexperimental study on the learning of positional voicing restrictions over natural and unnatural classes of segments (Saffran andThiessen 2003). The computational results align with the experimental ones, with natural rules learned more easily than unnaturalrules. This asymmetry has been attributed to a complexity bias (Moreton and Pater 2011), which the model captures with itsinability to generalize rules that occur over unnatural classes.Jeremy Calder (Stanford University) Session 28Theories of syllabification in Nuxalk: hints from text-settingThe liberal clustering of consonants in Nuxalk has ignited a variety of syllabification theories, some allowing obstruent-onlysyllables. Text-setting necessarily relies on the inherent prosodic structure of a language. This study thus examines six Nuxalksongs, comparing the language's behavior in the rhythmic structure of music to the parses generated by various theories ofsyllabification. The absence of obstruent-only rhythmic units in these songs suggests that syllabification theories generating suchunits do not reflect the prosodic structure referenced by text-setting.Jeremy Calder (Stanford University) Session 7Penelope Eckert (Stanford University)Julia Fine (Stanford University)Robert Podesva (Stanford University)The social conditioning of rhythm: the case of post-tonic lengtheningThis talk begins an exploration of the stylistic use of rhythm, focusing on intonational phrase-final posttonic lengthening. Datacome from interviews with 55 Northern California speakers ranging from 12 to 73 years of age. A mixed effects linear regressionmodel factoring the effects of linguistic and social factors shows females lengthening more than males (p