Dynamics of Phonological Cognition

A fundamental problem in spoken language is the duality between the continuous aspects of phonetic performance and the discrete aspects of phonological competence. We study 2 instances of this problem from the phenomenon of voicing neutralization and vowel harmony. In each case, we present a model where the experimentally observed continuous distinctions are linked to the discreteness of phonological form using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics.

[1]  D. Crawford.  Introduction , 2008, CACM.

[2]  M. Freidlin,et al.  Random Perturbations of Dynamical Systems , 1984 .

[3]  Lisa Davidson,et al.  THE ATOMS OF PHONOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION: GESTURES, COORDINATION AND PERCEPTUAL FEATURES IN CONSONANT CLUSTER PHONOTACTICS , 2003 .

[4]  B. Hayes,et al.  Stochastic phonological knowledge: the case of Hungarian vowel harmony , 2006, Phonology.

[5]  John Coleman,et al.  The phonetic interpretation of headed phonological structures containing overlapping constituents , 1992, Phonology.

[6]  Stefan Benus,et al.  Gestural coordination and the distribution of English 'geminates' , 2004 .

[7]  Dani Byrd,et al.  Task-dynamics of gestural timing: Phase windows and multifrequency rhythms , 2000 .

[8]  John Haugeland,et al.  Artificial intelligence - the very idea , 1987 .

[9]  P. D. Eimas,et al.  Speech Perception in Infants , 1971, Science.

[10]  A. Cohn.  Phonetic and phonological rules of nasalization , 1990 .

[11]  L. Goldstein.  Emergence of discrete gestures , 2003 .

[12]  B. C. Griffith,et al.  The discrimination of speech sounds within and across phoneme boundaries. , 1957, Journal of experimental psychology.

[13]  Adamantios I. Gafos,et al.  A Grammar of Gestural Coordination , 2002 .

[14]  Randall D. Beer,et al.  Computational and dynamical languages for autonomous agents , 1996 .

[15]  Björn Lindblom,et al.  Economy of Speech Gestures , 1983 .

[16]  Stephen G. Eubank,et al.  Probability, Random Processes, and the Statistical Description of Dynamics , 1997 .

[17]  John J. Ohala,et al.  There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: a personal view , 1990 .

[18]  Umberto Eco,et al.  Semiotics and the philosophy of language , 1985, Advances in semiotics.

[19]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Phonetics and Phonology of Transparent Vowels in Hungarian , 2003 .

[20]  M. Beckman,et al.  Gesture, Segment, Prosody: Prosodic structure and tempo in a sonority model of articulatory dynamics , 1992 .

[21]  P. Smolensky.  On the proper treatment of connectionism , 1988, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[22]  Desmond J. Higham,et al.  An Algorithmic Introduction to Numerical Simulation of Stochastic Differential Equations , 2001, SIAM Rev..

[23]  C. Fowler.  Converging sources of evidence on spoken and perceived rhythms of speech: cyclic production of vowels in monosyllabic stress feet. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[24]  John Kingston,et al.  Papers in Laboratory Phonology: Introduction , 1990 .

[25]  Allen Newell,et al.  Computer science as empirical inquiry: symbols and search , 1976, CACM.

[26]  C. Browman.  Gestural structures : distinctiveness, phonological processes, and historical change , 1991 .

[27]  Elliot Saltzman,et al.  Task Dynamic Coordination of the Speech Articulators: A Preliminary Model , 1986 .

[28]  A. Jongman,et al.  Acoustic and perceptual evidence for complete neutralization of manner of articulation in Korean , 1996 .

[29]  Jeffrey L. Elman,et al.  Language as a dynamical system , 1996 .

[30]  G. Kane.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition, vol 1: Foundations, vol 2: Psychological and Biological Models , 1994 .

[31]  George N. Clements,et al.  The geometry of phonological features , 1985, Phonology Yearbook.

[32]  M. Fourakis,et al.  On the ‘Incomplete Neutralization’ of German Final Obstruents , 1984 .

[33]  S. Anderson.  Nasal Consonants and the Internal Structure of Segments , 1976 .

[34]  Hermann Haken,et al.  Synergetics as a Tool for the Conceptualization and Mathematization of Cognition and Behaviour — How Far Can We Go? , 1990 .

[35]  Janet B. Pierrehumbert,et al.  Phonological and phonetic representation , 1990 .

[36]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Dynamics and articulatory phonology , 1996 .

[37]  Harry van der Hulst,et al.  The Geometry of Vocalic Features , 1988 .

[38]  A. Kaun,et al.  The Typology of Rounding Harmony: An Optimality Theoretic Approach , 1995 .

[39]  A Prince,et al.  Optimality: From Neural Networks to Universal Grammar , 1997, Science.

[40]  Gregor Schöner,et al.  A dynamic pattern theory of behavioral change , 1988 .

[41]  Khalil Iskarous.  Detecting the edge of the tongue: A tutorial , 2005, Clinical linguistics & phonetics.

[42]  J. Kelso,et al.  Skilled actions: a task-dynamic approach. , 1987, Psychological review.

[43]  Peter F. MacNeilage,et al.  The Production of Speech , 2011, Springer New York.

[44]  D. Whitteridge,et al.  Expiratory Pressures and Air Flow During Speech , 1960, British medical journal.

[45]  Patricia A. Keating,et al.  Phonetic representations in a generative grammar , 1990 .

[46]  Dani Byrd,et al.  Intragestural dynamics of multiple prosodic boundaries , 1998 .

[47]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition, vol. 1: foundations , 1986 .

[48]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition : Psychological and Biological Models , 1986 .

[49]  C A Fowler,et al.  Coordination and Coarticulation in Speech Production , 1993, Language and speech.

[50]  G. Miller,et al.  Cognitive science. , 1981, Science.

[51]  Robert Michael Vago,et al.  The Sound Pattern of Hungarian , 1980 .

[52]  R. Port,et al.  Incomplete neutralization and pragmatics in German , 1989 .

[53]  Dani Byrd,et al.  Influences on articulatory timing in consonant sequences , 1996 .

[54]  Jean Petitot-Cocorda.  Les catastrophes de la parole, de Roman Jakobson à René Thom , 1985 .

[55]  Wus van Lessen Kloeke.  Deutsche Phonologie und Morphologie: Merkmale und Markiertheit , 1982 .

[56]  K. J. Kohler,et al.  Contrastive Phonology and the Acquisition of Phonetic Skills , 1981 .

[57]  Dani Byrd,et al.  The elastic phrase: modeling the dynamics of boundary-adjacent lengthening , 2003, J. Phonetics.

[58]  C. Browman,et al.  Papers in Laboratory Phonology: Tiers in articulatory phonology, with some implications for casual speech , 1990 .

[59]  P. Denes.  On the Motor Theory of Speech Perception , 1965 .

[60]  P. Ladefoged,et al.  Factor analysis of tongue shapes. , 1971, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[61]  P. Smolensky,et al.  Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar , 2004 .

[62]  C. Habel,et al.  Language , 1931, NeuroImage.

[63]  Kenneth N. Stevens,et al.  On the quantal nature of speech , 1972 .

[64]  C. Fowler.  An event approach to the study of speech perception from a direct realist perspective , 1986 .

[65]  J A Kelso,et al.  The nonlinear dynamics of speech categorization. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[66]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Articulatory gestures as phonological units , 1989, Phonology.

[67]  Hans Georg Piroth,et al.  Speaker-dependent differences in voicing and devoicing of German obstruents , 2004, J. Phonetics.

[68]  R. Krakow.  NONSEGMENTAL INFLUENCES ON VELUM MOVEMENT PATTERNS: SYLLABLES, SENTENCES, STRESS, AND SPEAKING RATE , 1993 .

[69]  Michael Jessen,et al.  Phonetics and Phonology of Tense and Lax Obstruents in German , 1999 .

[70]  Elizabeth C. Zsiga.  Phonology and Phonetic Evidence: An acoustic and electropalatographic study of lexical and postlexical palatalization in American English , 1995 .

[71]  John J. Ohala,et al.  Towards a universal, phonetically-based, theory of vowel harmony , 1994, ICSLP.

[72]  R. Abraham,et al.  Dynamics--the geometry of behavior , 1983 .

[73]  W. Freeman.  Second Commentary: On the proper treatment of connectionism by Paul Smolensky (1988) - Neuromachismo Rekindled , 1989 .

[74]  T. Gelder,et al.  Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition , 1995 .

[75]  S. Wood.  A radiographic analysis of constriction locations for vowels , 1979 .

[76]  L Saltzman Elliot,et al.  A Dynamical Approach to Gestural Patterning in Speech Production , 1989 .

[77]  J. Kelso.  Phase transitions and critical behavior in human bimanual coordination. , 1984, The American journal of physiology.

[78]  D. Dinnsen.  A re-examination of phonological neutralization , 1985, Journal of Linguistics.

[79]  A. Liberman,et al.  The motor theory of speech perception revised , 1985, Cognition.

[80]  P. Keating.  Underspecification in Phonetics , 1988, Phonology.

[81]  J. Charles-Luce,et al.  The Effects of Semantic Context on Voicing Neutralization , 1993, Phonetica.

[82]  J. Charles-Luce,et al.  Cognitive Factors Involved in Preserving a Phonemic Contrast , 1997, Language and speech.

[83]  A. Opstal.  Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior , 1995 .

[84]  Douglas R. Hofstadter,et al.  Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid , 1981 .

[85]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Asymmetries in the perception of speech production errors , 2005, J. Phonetics.

[86]  Wiebke Brockhaus,et al.  Final devoicing in the phonology of German , 1998 .

[87]  C. Baltaxe,et al.  Principles of phonology , 1969 .

[88]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Psychological and biological models , 1986 .

[89]  Gavan Lintern,et al.  Dynamic patterns: The self-organization of brain and behavior , 1997, Complex.

[90]  Gregory K. Iverson.  Final devoicing in the phonology of German . By Wiebke Brockhaus. (Linguistische Arbeiten, 336.) Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1995. Pp. xii, 273. Paper. DM 136,00. , 1997 .

[91]  Osamu Fujimura,et al.  Allophonic variation in English /l/ and its implications for phonetic implementation , 1993 .

[92]  Kyoko Nagao,et al.  Phase transitions in a repetitive speech task as gestural recomposition , 2001 .

[93]  Adamantios I. Gafos,et al.  Dynamics in grammar : comment on Ladd and Ernestus & Baayen * , 2005 .

[94]  D. Dinnsen,et al.  Phonological neutralization, phonetic implementation and individual differences , 1984 .

[95]  C. Browman,et al.  Articulatory Phonology: An Overview , 1992, Phonetica.

[96]  Miklós Törkenczy,et al.  The phonology of Hungarian , 2000 .

[97]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Gestural specification using dynamically-defined articulatory structures , 1990 .

[98]  M H Cohen,et al.  Electromagnetic midsagittal articulometer systems for transducing speech articulatory movements. , 1992, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[99]  Nancy Elizabeth Hall,et al.  Gestures and Segments: Vowel Intrusion as Overlap , 2003 .

[100]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Sound Pattern of English , 1968 .

[101]  J. Fodor,et al.  How direct is visual perception?: Some reflections on Gibson's “ecological approach” , 1981, Cognition.

[102]  Elliot Saltzman,et al.  Dynamics and coordinate systems in skilled sensorimotor activity , 1996 .

[103]  Bruce M. Bennett,et al.  INTRODUCTION TO DYNAMICS , 1989 .

[104]  C. Browman,et al.  Competing constraints on intergestural coordination and self-organization of phonological structures , 2000 .

[105]  S. Ohman.  Coarticulation in VCV utterances: spectrographic measurements. , 1966, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[106]  Adamantios I. Gafos,et al.  On neutral vowels in Hungarian , 2003 .

[107]  Elliot Saltzman,et al.  The dynamical perspectives on speech production: Data and theory , 1986 .

[108]  Paul Smolensky,et al.  Information processing in dynamical systems: foundations of harmony theory , 1986 .

[109]  Louis Goldstein,et al.  Towards an articulatory phonology , 1986, Phonology.

[110]  Allard Jongman.  Phonological and Phonetic Representations: The Case of Neutralization , 2004 .

[111]  S. Anderson.  The Organization of Phonology , 1974 .

[112]  Richard Wiese,et al.  The Phonology of German , 1996 .

[113]  Elizabeth Caroline Sagey,et al.  The representation of features and relations in non-linear phonology , 1986 .