<OT> New Posting: ROA-821

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ROA 821-0406

Half rhymes in Japanese rap lyrics and knowledge of similarity

Shigeto Kawahara <kawahara at linguist.umass.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=821


Abstract:
Using data from a large-scale corpus, this paper establishes
the claim that in Japanese rap rhymes, the degree of similarity
of two consonants positively correlates with their likelihood
of making a rhyme pair. For example, similar consonant pairs
like {m-n}, {t-s}, and {r-n} frequently rhyme, whereas dissimilar
consonant pairs like {m-sh}, {w-k}, and {n-p} rarely do.
This finding adds to a body of literature that suggests
that similarity plays a fundamental role in half rhyme formation
(Holtman 1996; Jakobson 1960; Steriade 2003; Zwicky 1976).
Furthermore, it is shown that Japanese speakers take acoustic
details into account when they compose rap rhymes. This
study thus supports the claim that speakers possess rich
knowledge of psychoacoustic similarity (Steriade 2001ab, 2003).

Comments: Manuscript submitted for publication (revised and resubmitted in April 2006). This draft may be subject to further revisions.
Keywords: similarity, half rhymes, gradience
Areas: Phonology,Phonetics
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=821