Control of rate and movement duration in speech

Abstract

This paper provides evidence on the control of rate and movement duration in speech. A computerized pulsed‐ultrasound system was used to monitor separately tongue dorsum movements and laryngeal gestures during the production of CV and CVCVC sequences. The kinematics of tongue and laryngeal movements were analysed by partitioning the lowering gesture of the tongue and both the abduction and addution gestures of the vocal folds to give estimates of displacement, duration, and maximum velocity. For both articulators the ratio of the maximum velocity to the extent of the gesture was found to vary inversely with the duration of the movement. The finding suggests that a single function might account for a wide range of changes in the duration of individual gestures. The control of movement rate and duration through the regulation of biomechanical characteristics of speech articulators is discussed.