Word-Unit Temporal Organization

Abstract

It has been observed that the word spoken in isolation can be defined in terms of its internal cohesion, that is, in terms of temporal compensation among its parts [I. Lehiste, J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 48, 110(A) (1970)]. We conducted a similar experiment using a word with a different syllabic structure. The results agreed with those of the previous experiment. However, when the same word which we used in isolation was included in a sentence, a different temporal organization was manifested. We conclude that the word is temporally organized in terms of the size of the utterance in which it participates. It appears that the larger the utterance, the higher the linguistic level at which temporal compensation takes place.