The scope of boundary lengthening as a function of lexical stress and pitch accent

Although the phenomenon of boundary lengthening is well established, the scope of the effect and its interaction with prominence is not well understood. It is known that phrase-final prominence is a determining factor. However, it is unclear whether it is lexical stress or pitch accent that drives the effect, and whether the affected domain is continuous or discontinuous. An electromagnetic articulometer (EMA) study of five speakers of Greek was conducted to examine the effect of (1) boundary (word and IP), (2) stress (ultima, penult, or antepenult), and (3) prominence (accented and de-accented) on the duration of phrase-final word articulatory events. In both accented and de-accented conditions, lengthening affected events that immediately preceded the boundary in stress-final words, but was initiated earlier in words with non-final stress. The affected domain was continuous. The stress effect could also be observed in pausing behavior: pauses following phrase-final words were realized with specific voca...