Research – Funding
The typology of prosodic boundaries
This project examines the tonal and kinematic profile of prosodic boundaries across languages representing distinct types of the prosodic typology. The overarching goal is to offer a dynamical model of prosodic phrasing that integrates lexical and p...
The hierarchical structure of prominence
This project tests the hypothesis that prosodic prominence reflects a hierarchical structure that emerges from the interplay between word prosody, phrase-level prosody and information structure. The ultimate goal is to offer an integrated dynamical ...
A dynamical definition of the syllable
This project focuses on Georgian, a South Caucasian language that defies current definitions of the syllable, in order to address the question of what a syllable is and/or can be. To do so, we bridge spatial and temporal dimensions of articulatory c...
The typology of linguistic rhythm
Languages are considered inherently rhythmic, belonging to one of the following rhythmic classes: stress-, syllable- or mora-timed. Interestingly, this assumption corresponds well to patterns of infant speech perception and adult speech processing. ...
The unusual use of time in Estonian
Estonian is a Balto-Finnic language with typologically unusual durational characteristics. This recently established collaborative project examines these atypical patterns, and by doing so, it promises to illuminate the role of timing and prominence...
Prosody and the lexicon
A general interest of our lab is the prosody-lexicon interface and what these interactions tell us about speech planning and cognitive processing of speech. For this specific project, we examine whether prosodic considerations play a role in lexical...
The phonology and phonetics of intonation
This project is a collaboration with Amalia Arvaniti (PI) and focuses on the relationship between phonetic variability and phonological abstraction in intonation. Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) is applied on three widely used Greek p...
The role of f0 in word identification in Korean
This is a newly formed collaborative project that assesses the role of F0 in word identification in Korean. F0 plays an important role in Korean: This is an edge-prominence language that uses small phrases, called Accentual Phrases (APs), demarcated...
Speech errors and optimization in speech planning
This is a project currently under development in collaboration with Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel and Mark Tiede. This project uses speech errors as a window on speech planning and plan optimization processes. This is because we view speech error...
Resolving the elusiveness of linguistic rhythm, cross-linguistic realities and the speech production system
It is broadly accepted that any language is inherently rhythmic. The predominant approach is that languages belong in one of the following rhythm classes: mora-, syllable-, or stress-timed. These terms imply that moras, syllables and stresses respec...
The role of timing and prominence in linguistic rhythm, the curious case of Estonian
This project is an articulatory study of timing patterns in Estonian, a language that displays typologically atypical patterns of vowel and consonant duration. It is well established that speakers produce speech characterized by rhythmically regular...
The role of linguistic rhythm in second language production
Due to constraints imposed by Covid-19, the required kinematic data for this project could not be acquired, and the project could not be completed as proposed. As a result its focus was adjusted in order to acquire acoustic data: a set of acoustic e...
The hierarchical structure of prominence and its interaction with phrasing
Prominence, along with phrasing, are the two main functions of prosody, and are essential for acquiring language, and producing and perceiving speech. Previous work has mainly focused on languages that use lexical stress and pitch accent to mark pro...
Prosodic hierarchy as an interplay of lexical stress, phrasal events and articulatory constrictions
This project assesses the role of two different types of word prosody (lexical stress and lexical pitch accent) in the production of phrasal prosody. Both tonal and temporal aspects of phrasal prosody are examined. Based on the results, a dynamical ...
Links Between Production and Perception in Speech (renewed)
Although it is agreed that most speech is produced by a human vocal tract, it is less accepted that speech production and speech perception are intricately linked. Many theorists hold that the acoustic output of the vocal tract is dealt with in a pu...
Collaborative Research, Prosodic Structure, An Integrated Empirical and Modeling Investigation
This project examines how the prosodic structure of language shapes the articulation of spoken utterances. Speaking is a complex, uniquely human ability that relies on precisely coordinated movements of the speech organs (tongue, lips, jaw, soft pal...