PROSODIC STRESS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ROLE OF FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY

In a previous study [14] we had concluded that amplitude and duration are the most important acoustic parameters underlying the patterning of prosodic stress in casually spoken American English, and that fundamental frequency (f o ) plays a only minor role in the assignment of stress. The current study re-examines this conclusion (using both the range and average level of f o ) in order to ascertain whether there may be circumstances in which fundamental frequency figures importantly in prosodic stress. Although the present results indicate that f o -range is slightly more effective than average-f o -level, this finding is most likely a consequence of duration-related information intrinsic to f o -range, and is thus consistent with fundamental frequency playing a relatively minor role in stress assignment in naturally spoken American English.