The stress foot as a unit of planned timing: evidence from shortening in the prosodic phrase

This study investigates whether the stress foot is a planned timing unit in American English, by examining the durational characteristics of the foot in three different prosodic contexts i) within an intermediate phrase, ii) across an intermediate phrase and iii) across an intonational phrase. The results show that as the number of syllables in a foot increases, the duration of the foot increases, but the mean duration of syllables is reduced. Our examination of the internal structure of the foot reveals that there is a consistent shortening of stressed syllables within an intermediate phrase. These findings indicate that the stress foot within the intermediate phrase is a timing unit where durational shortening occurs in compensation for an increase in syllable count within the foot.