Gestural intrusions in Taiwanese and English.

Kinematic studies of repetitive speech production tasks involving English sequences such as “cop top” have provided abundant evidence for gestural intrusion errors: errorful constrictions that are co‐produced with intended target constrictions (Pouplier and Goldstein, 2005; Goldstein et al., 2007). These intrusions have been analyzed as transitions to more dynamically stable coordination modes. This work investigates Taiwanese speakers’ production of similar repetitive sequences such as [kap tap]. If the speech sequences are planned and executed in Taiwanese in the same way as in English, similar patterns of intrusive speech errors should be observed. However, analysis of the kinematic data from three speakers shows that these effects in Taiwanese differ from those in English in a number of ways. A systematic comparison of Taiwanese and English intrusions is presented in terms of frequency of occurrence (much higher in Taiwanese), standard deviation of magnitude (smaller in Taiwanese), and temporal relati...