Oscillators and Syllables: A Cautionary Note

Fred Cummins

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00364

Abstract

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Psychol., 05 October 2012Sec. Language Sciences https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00364

Highlights

There is a belief, widespread in some quarters, that the syllable is usefully thought of as a cyclic or oscillatory system
An oscillatory system allows the definition of phase and this in turn allows speculative accounts of entrainment between the bio-mechanical speech production of the speaker and the neurodynamics of the listener
A very explicit account of this nature is provided by Peelle and Davis (2012), and it in turn relies heavily upon a body of work by Poeppel and others, e.g., Luo and Poeppel (2007). These two articles may be taken as representative of a larger literature that shares a common approach to the syllable considered as an oscillatory system

Summary

Introduction

There is a belief, widespread in some quarters, that the syllable is usefully thought of as a cyclic or oscillatory system. An oscillatory system allows the definition of phase (or “time” from the point of view of the system) and this in turn allows speculative accounts of entrainment between the bio-mechanical speech production of the speaker and the neurodynamics of the listener.

Results

Conclusion