Karee Garvin (Harvard)

Oxley Hall Front
February 17, 2025
3:30PM - 5:00PM
Oxley 103

Date Range
2025-02-17 15:30:00 2025-02-17 17:00:00 Karee Garvin (Harvard) Variability and stability in syllabification: Evidence from speech and co-speech gestureIn speech production, grammatical, cognitive, and mechanical forces interact, giving rise to commonly occurring phonological processes. Using English syllabification as a case study, I will present three experiments, demonstrating how patterns of variation and phonetic enhancement illuminate these forces.The syllable is a fundamental unit of speech across theories of language acquisition, speech production, and speech perception, yet theories differ in assumptions about syllable structure. Phonological models typically assume that the Onset Maximization Principle governs syllabification in English, where segments are preferentially syllabified to onsets, e.g., V.spV (Kahn 1976, Prince & Smolensky 1993). Yet, coordinative frameworks demonstrate that stress mediates syllabification in English, e.g., ˈVs.pV~V.ˈspV (Byrd et al. 2009, Garvin 2021, Gick 2003, Krakow 1993, Turk 1994). Crucially, both frameworks assume a set underlying syllable structure; nevertheless, speaker judgements of syllabification are variable and speakers typically lack strong judgements of syllable boundaries. In the first study, I present novel methodology for analyzing coordinative patterns in jaw movement to demonstrate that speaker productions of word medial syllabification are variable, consistent with speaker judgements. Furthermore, the study highlights the grammatical underpinnings of syllabification and the effect of stress on patterns of variation building on theories of phonology and coordination. The second and third studies build on the findings of study one. Study two illustrates that co-speech gesture, i.e., movement of the hands, head, etc., serves as a source of phonetic enhancement similar to yet distinct from stress. Study three demonstrates the effect of co-speech gesture on patterns of syllabification. Together this research illuminates patterns in grammatical structure and bears on questions of the cognitive and mechanical properties of phonetic enhancement that underlie speech production. Oxley 103 America/New_York public

Variability and stability in syllabification: Evidence from speech and co-speech gesture

In speech production, grammatical, cognitive, and mechanical forces interact, giving rise to commonly occurring phonological processes. Using English syllabification as a case study, I will present three experiments, demonstrating how patterns of variation and phonetic enhancement illuminate these forces.

The syllable is a fundamental unit of speech across theories of language acquisition, speech production, and speech perception, yet theories differ in assumptions about syllable structure. Phonological models typically assume that the Onset Maximization Principle governs syllabification in English, where segments are preferentially syllabified to onsets, e.g., V.spV (Kahn 1976, Prince & Smolensky 1993). Yet, coordinative frameworks demonstrate that stress mediates syllabification in English, e.g., ˈVs.pV~V.ˈspV (Byrd et al. 2009, Garvin 2021, Gick 2003, Krakow 1993, Turk 1994). Crucially, both frameworks assume a set underlying syllable structure; nevertheless, speaker judgements of syllabification are variable and speakers typically lack strong judgements of syllable boundaries. In the first study, I present novel methodology for analyzing coordinative patterns in jaw movement to demonstrate that speaker productions of word medial syllabification are variable, consistent with speaker judgements. Furthermore, the study highlights the grammatical underpinnings of syllabification and the effect of stress on patterns of variation building on theories of phonology and coordination. 

The second and third studies build on the findings of study one. Study two illustrates that co-speech gesture, i.e., movement of the hands, head, etc., serves as a source of phonetic enhancement similar to yet distinct from stress. Study three demonstrates the effect of co-speech gesture on patterns of syllabification. Together this research illuminates patterns in grammatical structure and bears on questions of the cognitive and mechanical properties of phonetic enhancement that underlie speech production.