2 HyperAudio: Location Awareness and Adaptivity
5. Rapid Prototyping and Testing
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Table 5.9: Mann-Whitney U Test for EEES males and females duration and RR Duration_1 RR_1
Mann-Whitney U 2625.500 2533.000
Wilcoxon W 5475.500 5383.000
Z -.703 -1.051
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .482 .293
The mean of males is not different from that of females in the group. Mann Whitney U test showed that there was no significant difference for gender with P-value
> 0.05 in terms of duration (0.482) and RR (0.293), which is greater than 0.05 (see appendix 1 for details).
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syllables. Also, it fails to account for stress clash; i.e. a situation where adjacent syllables are stressed (Kager, 1995:369; Sunday, 2005). Metrical grid however shows prominence in a hierarchical order rather than in relational property, and it as well accounts for rhythmic alternation between strong and weak syllables. The following examples below demonstrate the grids of EEES and the native baselines used in confirming the phenomena under investigation.
NB I X X X X
X X X X X
|ˈaɪ[әm]ˈɡәʊ[ɪɳ]
hәʊm|/
„I am going home‟
NB II X X X X X X X X X
|ˈaɪ[әm]ˈɡәʊ[ɪɳ]
hәʊm|/
„I am going home‟
The grids for the native baselines show that the last syllable of the English rhythm group /həʊm|/ is more prominent than other syllables. The grid enables one to know at a glance that the first and third syllables are given equal prominence as the height of the metrical grid columns correspond to the degree of prominence. However, the highest grid is on the syllable of /həʊm|/ „home‟ since this is the focus of the rhythm group as affirmed in SBE rhythm where the nuclear stress is assigned to the rightmost element.
EEES I x* x* x* x* x*
X x* x* x* x*
X X X X X
|ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn]
hm/
„I am going home‟
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EEES II x* x* x* x* x*
X x* x* x* x*
X X X X X
|ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn]
hm/
„I am going home‟
EEES III x* x* x* x* x
X x* x* x* x*
X X X X x*
|ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn]
hm/
„I am going home‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x* x*
X x* x* x* x*
X X X X X |ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn]
hm/
„I am going home‟
EEES V x* x* x* x* x*
X x* x* x* x*
X X X X X |ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn]
hm/
„I am going home‟
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables alternation in each rhythm units represented by the EEES grid /ˈaɪ[m]ˈɡ[ɪn] hm/ above differs from that of the Native Baselines. There seems to be proliferation of strong syllables as revealed by the x*, showing unresolved clashes for both the supposedly stressed and unstressed syllables in the rhythm units of EEES as opposed to the Native Baselines‟ metrical grid where
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alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables was observed. This clearly shows that EEES could not appropriately alternate stressed and unstressed syllables in the English rhythm units, thereby resulting into two strong syllables occurring simultaneously, which eventually distorts SBE rhythm.
NB I X
X X X X X X /[ɪt][wәz][әn]ˈæk[sɪ][dәnt]/
„It was an accident‟
NB II X
X X X X X X /[ɪt][wәz][әn]ˈæk[sɪ][dәnt]
„It was an accident‟
The grids of the native baselines confirm that the fourth syllable /ˈæk[sɪ][dәnt]/ of the content word receives the highest prominence as a result of the anacrues preceeding it.
In SBE, anacruses are supposed to be rushed over with the rhythm groups The girds above indicates that the native baselines were able to observe the Nuclear Stress Rule (NSR) and Lexical Category Prominence Rule (LCPR) which maintains that at the predicate and sentence the nuclear stress is assigned to the right element.
EEES I x* x* x* x* x* x*
X X X X X X /[it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt]
„It was an accident‟
119 EEES II x* x* x* x* x* x*
X X X X X X /[it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt]
„It was an accident‟
EEES III x* x* x* x* x* x*
X X X X X X /[it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt]
„It was an accident‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x* x* x*
X X X X X X [it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt]
„It was an accident‟
EEES V x* x* x* x* x* x*
X X X X X X /[it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt]
„It was an accident‟
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables alternation in each rhythm units as represented by the EEES grids /[it][wz][æn]ˈæk[si][dƐnt] differs from that of the Native Baselines. The grids of the participants revealed a proliferation of strong syllables (x*), indicating unresolved clashes for both the supposedly stressed and unstressed syllables in the rhythm units as opposed to the native baselines‟ metrical grids where alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables was eminent, with strict adherence to NSR and LCPR rules of SBE rhythm.
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NB 1 X
X X X X X X //ˈe dʒʊ keɪ tɪd//
„Educated‟
NB II X
X X X X X X //ˈe dʒʊ keɪ tɪd//
„Educated‟
From the native baselines' grids above, the first syllable of the English rhythm group //ˈe dʒʊ keɪ tɪd// is more prominent than other syllables. This is because in SBE, a polysyllabic English word such as the one above is expected to have one of the syllables carrying the primary stress.
EEES I x* x* x* x*
X X X X //ˈ Ɛ du keɪ ted//
„ Educated‟
EEES II x* x* x* x*
X X X X //ˈ Ɛ du keɪ ted//
„ Educated‟
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EEES III x* x* x* x*
X X X X //ˈ Ɛ du keɪ ted//
„ Educated‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x*
X X X X //ˈ Ɛ du keɪ ted//
„ Educated‟
EEES V
x* x* x* x*
X X X X //ˈ Ɛ du keɪ ted//
„ Educated‟
The grids of Educated Edo English Speakers differ completely from that of the Native Baselines. All the syllables of the English rhythm group //Ɛ du keɪ ted// were made prominent with indication of x* clashes. This could account for why earlier scholars (Eka, 1993; Akinjobi, 2004; Ilolo, 2013) claim NE rhythm should be best described as syllable-timed.
NB I
X X X X X
//ˈpeә rәnts әnd ɪm//
„Parents and em‟
NB II
X X X X X
//ˈpeә rәnts әnd ɪm//
„Parents and em‟
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The Native Baselines' grids //ˈpeə rənts ənd ɪm// recognise the Lexical Category Prominence Rule (LCRP), where prominent nodes are allowed to swap in a bi-direction manner, once the branching does not lead to a strong node. Only the first syllable /ˈpeə/
of the rhythm group receives more prominence as shown through the height in the grid above, which is in accordance with Standard British English rhythm.
EEES I x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm//
„Parents and em‟
EEES II x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm//
„Parents and em‟
EEES III x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm//
„Parents and em‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm//
„Parents and em‟
EEES V x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm//
„Parents and em‟
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EEES grids //pei rƐnts ænd Ɛm// differ from those of the native baselines. There is a proliferation of strong syllables as shown by the x* in the syllables of the rhythm group with unresolved clashes for stressed and unstressed syllable alternation in the rhythm units as compared to the native baselines‟ metrical grids, where alternation of stressed and unstressed syllable was observed.
NB I X
X X X /ˈkʌmf [tә [bl]
„Comfortable‟
NB II X
X X X /ˈkʌmf [tә [bl̩ ]
„Comfortable‟
In Standard British English, syllabic consonants of English words are either weakened or get deleted in speech. The metrical grids of the native baselines confirm that they were able to weaken the syllabic consonants /bl̩ / of the English words above as expected in SBE form.
EEES I x* x* x* x*
X X X X /km f [tei [bu]/
„Comfortable‟
EEES II x* x* x* x*
X X X X /km f [tei [bu]/
„Comfortable‟
124 EEES III x* x* x* x*
X X X X /km f [tei [bu]/
„Comfortable‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x*
X X X X /km f [tei [bu]/
„Comfortable‟
EEES V x* x* x* x*
X X X X /km f [tei [bu]/
„Comfortable‟
Educated Edo English Speakers grids revealed that that all the syllables of the English words with syllabic consonant /km f [tei [bu]/ were given equal prominence.
That is, syllables of English words with syllabic consonants that were supposed to be weakened or get deleted were all replaced with strong syllables /f/ and /bu/.
NB1 X
X X X X /ɪmˈpiːtʃә[bәl]/
„Impeachable‟
NBII X
X X X X /ɪmˈpiːtʃә[bәl]/
„Impeachable‟
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The native baselines grid for /ɪmˈpiːtʃə [bəl]/ show that the second syllable of the English syllabic consonant is more prominent than other syllables. As native speakers with natural intuition, they were able to appropriately alternate stressed and unstressed syllable of the English words with syllabic consonants, and this marks the SBE rhythm.
EEES I x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//prfi tei[bu]//
„Profitable‟
EEES II x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pr fit ei[bu]//
„Profitable‟
EEES III x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pr fit ei[bu]//
„Profitable‟
EEES IV x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pr fit ei[bu]//
„Profitable‟
EEES V x* x* x* x*
X X X X
//pr fit ei[bu]//
„Profitable‟
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For (//pr fit ei[bu]//), EEES grids differ from those of the native baselines. The grids of the EEES revealed proliferation of strong syllables as demonstrated by the x*, showing unresolved clashes for stressed and unstressed syllable in the English words with syllabic consonants. This indicates that EEES could not alternate stressed and unstressed syllable appropriately in the English words with syllabic consonants, thereby resulting in the substitution of strong syllables /ei/ and /bu/ for the syllabic consonants that were supposed to be weakened or get deleted as distinguished by the native baselines.