ARTICULATORY TIMING--ORGANIZING SYLLABLES AND PHRASES

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The focus of the proposed research program is to understand how linguistic structure above the level of the segment conditions the temporal realization of speech. Specifically, the articulatory patterning of syllables and phrases--prosodic structure--is considered. This program will investigate the temporal coordination and cohesion of oral articulatory gestures as a function of their syllabic and phrasal positions. A series of experiments, using articulatory movement data collected with a magnetometer system, are described. These experiments fall into three areas: the timing between gestures in syllable margins (initial vs. Final) and in syllable nuclei; the influence of hierarchical phrasal structure on intergestural timing; and the manner in which prosodic structure induces segmental alternations, that is, apparent substitutions of one segment for another. These experiments will provide a profile of the way in which articulatory coordination among multiple gestures is shaped by positional contexts, ultimately with the hope of defining general "signatures" of prosodic structure on articulatory organization.