One of the most persistent arguments against the segment as the minimal planning unit is that the seemingly ubiquitous, thus, presumed obligatory, nature of anticipatory coarticulation (AC) effects favors the syllable or a larger unit. By contrast, we present the results of 3 experiments showing that AC is not ubiquitous, but graded and variable based on (a) phonological availability and (b) the specific criterion to initiate articulation adopted by a speaker. We further argue that phonological encoding is parallel. These results point to (a) the segment, and not the syllable, as the minimal planning unit and (b) a flexible planning scope. Implications with respect to the current formulation of AC regarding phonological availability and the minimal unit of speech articulation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.