Articulatory Movements and Phrase Boundaries

Abstract The present study investigates the systematic effect of two prosodic parameters, syllable duration reflecting magnitude of the syllable and magnitude of the gap between two syllables, on the strength of consonantal gestures. In general, consonantal gestures show a larger excursion in phrase-final and -initial, than in phrasemedial position (Kelso et al. 1985; Ostry and Munhall 1985; Bonaventura 2003; Keating et al. 2003; Cho 2005). For example, previous research on articulatory strengthening by Fougeron and Keating (1997) has shown that the magnitude and duration of consonantal gestures depend on syllable boundaries, position in the phrase, and strength of phrase boundaries. Further research has confirmed these results, showing larger displacements and longer relative durations of consonantal movements during constriction formation and release at phrase edges than in phrase-medial positions (Beckman and Edwards 1992; Byrd and Saltzman 1998; Byrd et al. 2000). Such effects have been interpreted as due to the presence of a prosodic gesture (π-gesture; Byrd and Saltzman 2003) that is activated at phrase boundaries, with a strength related to the strength of the juncture, and that slows down adjacent onset and coda gestures at phrase edges (Byrd et al. 2005). Although specific measurements of syllable-position (onset, coda) and phrase-position (medial, edge) effects have shown inconsistent patterns of gestural lengthening, both within and across subjects and across consonantal locations in the syllable and consonant types, the general pattern of lengthening of onset and coda consonantal gestures at phrase boundaries, more prominent for consonants adjacent to the boundary and more evident in onsets than in codas, is upheld in the literature (Byrd et al. 2005).