Anticipatory Coarticulation in the Speech of Adults and Young Children

Abstract

Three experiments investigated anticipatory lingual and labial coarticulation in the [sV] productions of children and adults. Acoustic, perceptual, and video data were used to trace the development of intrasyllabic coarticulation in the speech of adults and children (ages 3, 5, and 8 years). Although children show greater variability in their articulatory patterns than adults, the data do not support claims that young children produce a greater degree of intrasyllabic coarticulation than older children or adults. Rather, the acoustic and video data suggest that young children and adults produce similar patterns of anticipatory coarticulation, and the perceptual data indicate that coarticulatory cues in the speech of 3-year-old children are less perceptible than those of the other age groups.

An ultrasound study of lingual coarticulation in /sV/ syllables produced by adults and typically developing children

“…Our findings can be compared with the results of these acoustic analyses, because it has been claimed that F2 anticipation represents lingual coarticulatory effects, as opposed to lip rounding ( [6], p. 122). Two studies, [9] and [3], found no significant differences in coarticulation between children and adults; [6] showed greater coarticulation in children. Slight methodological differences between these works could have contributed to the conflicting results.…”

“…Three studies ( [9,6,3]) analysed coarticulatory effects produced by the vowels /i/ and /u/ on coronal consonants, by measuring the concentration of energy during the consonant in anticipation of the vowel F2. Our findings can be compared with the results of these acoustic analyses, because it has been claimed that F2 anticipation represents lingual coarticulatory effects, as opposed to lip rounding ( [6], p. 122).…”

Temporal and Aerodynamic Aspects of Velopharyngeal Coarticulation: Effects of Age, Gender and Vowel Height

“…Many studies have investigated age-related differences in the extent and degree of coarticulation (e.g., Repp, 1986;Hodge, 1989;Nittrouer, Studdert-Kennedy & McGowan, 1989;Katz, Kripke, & Tallal, 1991). These studies have demonstrated mixed results concerning whether children show greater, less or equal gestural overlap than adults.…”

“…Several studies reported that children exhibit a greater degree of anticipatory coarticulation than adults (Repp, 1986;Nittrouer & Whalen, 1989;Ha & Kuehn, 2006), while other studies indicate that children have less coarticulation than adult speakers (Thompson & Hixon, 1979;Hodge, 1989). A third set studies reported that adults and children exhibit approximately the same amount of coarticulation, yet children exhibited increased variability in their coarticulation (Turnbaugh, Hoffman, & Daniloff, 1985;Sereno, Baum, Marean, & Lieberman, 1987;Katz, Kripke, & Tallal, 1991;Goodell & Studdert-Kennedy, 1993;Katz & Bharadwja, 2001). Regardless of whether children show equal, greater or less gestural overlap compared to adults' speech, the differences between adults and children may provide valuable information about child's articulatory timing control.…”

“…For example, in the word 'boots', lip protrusion associated with the vowel /u/ is retained in the following segments /t/ and /s/ (Kent & Minifie, 1977). Carryover coarticulation is widely believed to be inevitable and caused by mechano-inertial forces acting upon the articulators in motion (Turnbaugh, Hoffman, & Daniloff, 1985;Sereno, Baum, Marean, & Lieberman, 1987;Katz, Kripke, & Tallal, 1991).…”