INVESTIGATING METRICAL CONTEXT EFFECTS ON ANTICIPATORY COARTICULATION IN CONNECTED SPEECH DEVELOPMENT

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Developmental Linguistics
• Speech Science

Background:

• Rhythm acquisition in speech is thought to be linked to the development of articulatory timing.
• Metrical structure in language may influence this timing, but this has not been directly tested.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether metrical structure influences articulatory timing during speech production.
• To examine the relationship between speech rhythm acquisition and the development of articulatory timing.

Main Methods:

• Elicited simple Subject-Verb-Object sentences from 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults.
• Varied verb syllabic structure and noun properties (onset place-of-articulation, rhyme).
• Performed acoustic analyses of determiner coarticulation as an index of anticipatory timing.

Main Results:

• No significant effect of verb metrical structure on determiner coarticulation was observed.
• An interaction between age group and place-of-articulation was found, suggesting developmental changes in timing.

Conclusions:

• The acquisition of articulatory timing appears to be independent of metrical structure.
• Findings suggest that while articulatory timing relates to speech rhythm acquisition, metrical influences on timing itself are not evident in this developmental study.