Segmental cues to IP-Initial boundaries: Data from English, Spanish, and Portuguese

This study investigates the segmental phonetic correlates of IP-initial boundaries in unstressed syllables in three lexical stress languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Using acoustic data gathered under similar experimental conditions, it tests the hypothesis that domain-initial strengthening cues prosodic boundaries in language-specific ways. Moreover, it investigates the role of lexical stress in the phenomenon by focusing on unstressed syllables in post-boundary position, while at the same time testing whether the scope of the strengthening is indeed restricted by measuring segments away from the putative boundary. Results from the analyses of 14 speakers of each of the languages (= 42) strengthen the case for language-specific effects; however, the data suggest that segments farther away from the IP boundary show strengthening as well.