Anticipatory labial coarficulation: Extent and influencing variables

This research is designed to investigate the temporal extent of anticipatory (right-to-left) co articulation as well as the variables which may influence it. Previous research in this and in other laboratories has suggested that anticipatory coarticulation in lip rounding extends for as much as six consonants or 600 ms prior to a rounded vowel. Some recent work, however, has suggested a more limited extent of such coarticulation. The present work is an attempt to resolve this issue and thus shed some light on cognitive representation and input units for the motor control processes of speech generation. Additionally a number of variables have been proposed to influence the precise location of the anticipatory boundary of labial coarticulation; for example front versus back tongue position for the rounded vowel, stress of the rounded vowel preceding the consonant string. In the present experiment these and other variables are controlled and their effect on the onset of coarticulation is described.