Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted THE PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF EMPHASIS IN QASSIMI ARABIC(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-12-01) Alrashed, Abdulmajeed; Blevins, James; Kwon, HarimThis dissertation explores emphasis effects (EE) in Qassimi Arabic (QA), examining whether EE functions as a phonetic or phonological process. EE is a well-documented phenomenon in Arabic linguistics, involving the influence of emphatic consonants on neighboring segments (Ghazali, 1977; Card, 1983; Davis, 1995; among others). The study also investigates emphasis perception in QA, specifically whether EE cues assist native QA listeners in identifying preceding or following consonants as emphatic or plain. As prior research exploring EE in various Arabic varieties has revealed variation among them, and limited research exists on emphasis perception by native Arabic listeners, this dissertation addresses these gaps by examining EE production and emphasis perception in the understudied variety of QA. In the production experiment, dynamic aspects of leftward and rightward EE on QA vowels were examined by analyzing second formants (F2) at 11 temporal points. Results indicate that leftward EE had a categorical effect on non-high vowels [a] and [aː], as well as the high front vowel [i], impacting them throughout their duration, providing evidence for it being a phonological process in QA. In contrast, rightward EE primarily affected the vowel onset, suggesting it as a gradual phonetic process rather than a categorical phonological one. In the perception experiments, the perceptual correlates of emphasis in QA were investigated using the gating paradigm (Grosjean, 1980). Native QA listeners accurately identified the following consonant using leftward EE cues, even within the shortest gate containing one-third of the vowel, indicating proficiency in using leftward EE cues throughout the vowel. However, for rightward EE cues, accuracy in identifying the preceding consonant as emphatic or plain improved significantly only when the entire vowel duration was audible. These findings align with the production experiment, confirming leftward EE as a phonological process and rightward EE as a phonetic process. The dissertation’s results have implications for understanding EE and emphasis perception in QA, emphasizing the importance of considering both phonological and phonetic processes when investigating EE and highlighting the significance of coarticulatory information in rightward emphasis perception. This nuanced understanding advances research into emphasis across Arabic varieties and Semitic languages.56 0Item Restricted THE INTERACTION OF STRESS AND PHONOLOGICAL VARIATION IN QASSIMI ARABIC(2023) Alnuqaydan, Ahmed; Kaplan, AaronThis dissertation studies the phonology and phonetics of an understudied variety of Arabic: Qassimi Arabic (QA). It acoustically investigates the QA prosodic system and examines its interaction with segmental phonology. Various optional and categorical phonological processes arise from such interaction. The analyses for the optional processes are tested against a handful of optionality theories, namely, Partial Orders, Noisy Harmonic Grammar, Maximum Entropy, and rank-ordered model of EVAL. Only the first two models are compatible with the QA optional data. QA has a default-to-left stress: primary stress falls on the rightmost heavy syllable, otherwise, it falls on the initial syllable. The acoustic experiment’s results show that stress is expressed by longer duration, greater intensity, higher F0 and higher F1. An Optimality Theoretic (OT) account of the QA stress system is provided. This forms the foundation for various analyses of the optional and categorical phonological processes. Triconsonantal clusters (CCCs) in QA exhibit a complicated behavior that can only be explained by taking into account the interaction between morphosyntax, phonology and perceptibility factors. Word-internal CCCs are avoided by vowel epenthesis. Monomorphemic CCCs are variably realized as CVCC or CCVC in an older dialect, while a younger dialect categorically produces CCVC. Monomorphemic CVCC satisfies a tendency of placing heavy stressed syllables close to the right edge of the word while CCVC avoids stressed epenthetic vowels. Word-internal heteromorphemic CCCs are categorically avoided by vowel epenthesis at the morpheme boundary, a consequence of O-CONTIGUITY. However, epenthesis does not occur in two situations: when the third consonant is a glide (a fact attributed to the glide’s ability to host the middle C’s perceptual cues), and when CCC arises across word boundaries. Certain combinations of pronominal suffixes exhibit optional alternations that facilitate placing heavy stressed syllables close to the right edge of the word. These alternations can be blocked by homophony avoidance. Other combinations of pronominal suffixes do not undergo the optional alternations suggesting that when certain morphosyntactic features are present in the input, the suffixes are treated underlyingly as one which explains the blockage of optionality.18 0