Subphonemic planning across syllable and word boundaries.

Abstract

Previous research demonstrated that there are no fixed motor programs or tasks in speech, and there is evidence for subphonemic planning in speech within a word across up to two phoneme boundaries [Derrick and Gick (Submitted)]. Because this evidence is word-internal, it could be suggested that speakers simply memorize many motor programs for each word and draw on them as needed. We demonstrate that speech planning extends across three phonemes, two syllables and a morpheme boundary. Participants produce more up-flaps the first flap of words such as “editor” and “auditor”, which often end with the tongue tip up, versus alveolar taps in “edify” and “audify,” which end with the tongue tip down. We also demonstrate planning across word boundaries. Participants also produce more up-flaps in “edit” and “audit” if these words are followed by “a,” which has a double flap sequence, than if the words are followed by “the,” which does not. Planning across morpheme and word boundaries would ultimately require memorization of an infinite number of motor programs or tasks.