Timing in talking: what is it used for, and how is it controlled?

Turk, Alice; Shattuck‐Hufnagel, Stefanie

doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0395

Cited by 65 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…This process, known as phonological encoding, would seem to imply a role for verbal working memory in speech planning. In particular, phonological encoding entails that abstract forms remain active while more detailed output representations are built according to language-specific phonetic rules, including those that would specify timing relations (see, e.g., Keating, 1990; Levelt, 1999; Turk & Shattuck-Hufnagel, 2014). Increases in the length or complexity of an abstract representation requires additional working memory resources because it increases the amount of information that must be encoded and thus the amount of time that the representation must remain active.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation and execution of articulatory timing in first and second language acquisition

Redford

2017

Journal of Phonetics

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The early acquisition of language-specific temporal patterns relative to the late development of speech motor control suggests a dissociation between the representation and execution of articulatory timing. The current study tested for such a dissociation in first and second language acquisition. American English-speaking children (5- and 8-year-olds) and Korean-speaking adult learners of English repeatedly produced real English words in a simple carrier sentence. The words were designed to elicit different language-specific vowel length contrasts. Measures of absolute duration and variability in single vowel productions were extracted to evaluate the realization of contrasts (representation) and to index speech motor abilities (execution). Results were mostly consistent with a dissociation. Native English-speaking children produced the same language-specific temporal patterns as native English-speaking adults, but their productions were more variable than the adults’. In contrast, Korean-speaking adult learners of English typically produced different temporal patterns than native English-speaking adults, but their productions were as stable as the native speakers’. Implications of the results are discussed with reference to different models of speech production.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation and execution of articulatory timing in first and second language acquisition

Redford

2017

Journal of Phonetics

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“…The choice is important because it determines the type of description that will follow. Models of fluent speech production typically start with idealized adult language (e.g., Cooper & Paccia-Cooper, 1980; Garrett, 1980; Dell, 1986; Levelt, 1989; Wheeldon, 2000; Turk & Shattuck-Hufnagel, 2014; Shattuck-Hufnagel, 2015). Because adult language is so complex, theorists who start here have adopted linguistic representations derived by others from a ‘pure’ linguistic analysis; specifically, from the transcription-based analysis of linguistic structure isolated from context.…”

Section: Speaking As the Implementation Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Unifying speech and language in a developmentally sensitive model of production

Redford

2015

Journal of Phonetics

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Speaking is an intentional activity. It is also a complex motor skill; one that exhibits protracted development and the fully automatic character of an overlearned behavior. Together these observations suggest an analogy with skilled behavior in the non-language domain. This analogy is used here to argue for a model of production that is grounded in the activity of speaking and structured during language acquisition. The focus is on the plan that controls the execution of fluent speech; specifically, on the units that are activated during the production of an intonational phrase. These units are schemas: temporally structured sequences of remembered actions and their sensory outcomes. Schemas are activated and inhibited via associated goals, which are linked to specific meanings. Schemas may fuse together over developmental time with repeated use to form larger units, thereby affecting the relative timing of sequential action in participating schemas. In this way, the hierarchical structure of the speech plan and ensuing rhythm patterns of speech are a product of development. Individual schemas may also become differentiated during development, but only if subsequences are associated with meaning. The necessary association of action and meaning gives rise to assumptions about the primacy of certain linguistic forms in the production process. Overall, schema representations connect usage-based theories of language to the action of speaking.

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“…Turk (2010) and Turk and Shattuck-Hufnagel (2014) suggest that effects of speech rate and clarity on the frequency of boundaries and prominences are general, non-grammatical factors. These effects should globally constrain the relationship of linguistic predictability with acoustic redundancy by adding a "fixed amount" of acoustic redundancy proportionally to all boundaries and prominences in an utterance.…”

Section: Prosody As An Interface Between Surprisal and The Signalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also aim to shed more light on the research questions posed by Turk (2010), Turk and Shattuck-Hufnagel (2014), and Pellegrino et al (2011) regarding the relationship between speech rate and surprisal. Specifically, we address the hypothesis that the effect of surprisal does not depend on speech rate but is robustly positive across speech rate levels in all studied languages.…”

Section: Specific Aims Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dimensions of Segmental Variability: Interaction of Prosody and Surprisal in Six Languages

et al. 2018

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Contextual predictability variation affects phonological and phonetic structure. Reduction and expansion of acoustic-phonetic features is also characteristic of prosodic variability. In this study, we assess the impact of surprisal and prosodic structure on phonetic encoding, both independently of each other and in interaction. We model segmental duration, vowel space size and spectral characteristics of vowels and consonants as a function of surprisal as well as of syllable prominence, phrase boundary, and speech rate. Correlates of phonetic encoding density are extracted from a subset of the BonnTempo corpus for six languages: American English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, and Polish. Surprisal is estimated from segmental n-gram language models trained on large text corpora. Our findings are generally compatible with a weak version of Aylett and Turk's Smooth Signal Redundancy hypothesis, suggesting that prosodic structure mediates between the requirements of efficient communication and the speech signal. However, this mediation is not perfect, as we found evidence for additional, direct effects of changes in surprisal on the phonetic structure of utterances. These effects appear to be stable across different speech rates.

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Timing in talking: what is it used for, and how is it controlled?

Cited by 65 publications

References 86 publications

The representation and execution of articulatory timing in first and second language acquisition

The representation and execution of articulatory timing in first and second language acquisition

Unifying speech and language in a developmentally sensitive model of production

Dimensions of Segmental Variability: Interaction of Prosody and Surprisal in Six Languages

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