The domain of accentual lengthening in American English

The experiments presented in this paper were designed to determine which linguistic unit, if any, serves as the domain of the durational effects of accent. Results from both experiments suggest that the durational effects of accent are bounded by a linguistic unit. Results from Experiment 1 suggest that the durational effects of accent extend beyond the syllable nucleus or rime. Results from Experiment 2 show that in disyllabic words, word-final, but not word-initial, unstressed syllables are lengthened under accent. These results suggest that the domain of accentual lengthening begins with an accented syllable and can include at least one following unstressed syllable within a word.