Stress Placement Effects on the Formants of Intervocalic /l/ in English

Abstract

This study investigates the acoustic features of the intervocalic /l/ in English, focusing on F2 and F2-F1 values. Fifteen native English speakers participated in a phonetic experiment. The results revealed three main findings: First, the F2 and F2-F1 values of the word-medial /l/ and the intervocalic /l/ are significantly higher than those of the word-edge /l/. This suggests that the word-medial consonant phonetically differs from the word-edge consonant. Second, the pre-unstressed intervocalic /l/ is similar to the word-medial coda /l/, indicating that the former is realized as a syllable coda. The result supports Selkirk's (1982) resyllabification theory, rather than Kahn’s (1976) ambisyllabification. Third, the pre-stressed intervocalic /l/ has acoustic similarities with the word-medial onset /l/. Based on this study’s results, we argue that the syllable structure of the word-medial consonant is influenced by not only an unstressed vowel but also a stressed vowel following it.