1980 Preface * 1999 Preface * 1999 Acknowledgements * Introduction * 1 Circular Logic * 2 Phase Singularities (Screwy Results of Circular Logic) * 3 The Rules of the Ring * 4 Ring Populations * 5 Getting Off the Ring * 6 Attracting Cycles and Isochrons * 7 Measuring the Trajectories of a Circadian Clock * 8 Populations of Attractor Cycle Oscillators * 9 Excitable Kinetics and Excitable Media * 10 The Varieties of Phaseless Experience: In Which the Geometrical Orderliness of Rhythmic Organization Breaks Down in Diverse Ways * 11 The Firefly Machine 12 Energy Metabolism in Cells * 13 The Malonic Acid Reagent ('Sodium Geometrate') * 14 Electrical Rhythmicity and Excitability in Cell Membranes * 15 The Aggregation of Slime Mold Amoebae * 16 Numerical Organizing Centers * 17 Electrical Singular Filaments in the Heart Wall * 18 Pattern Formation in the Fungi * 19 Circadian Rhythms in General * 20 The Circadian Clocks of Insect Eclosion * 21 The Flower of Kalanchoe * 22 The Cell Mitotic Cycle * 23 The Female Cycle * References * Index of Names * Index of Subjects

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/596B270197FE27DE5FABB598B6210622/S0025557200150892a.pdf/div-class-title-span-class-italic-the-geometry-of-biological-time-span-by-a-t-winfree-pp-544-dm68-corrected-second-printing-1990-isbn-3-540-52528-9-springer-div.pdf

The geometry of biological time , by A. T. Winfree. Pp 544. DM68. Corrected Second Printing 1990. ISBN 3-540-52528-9 (Springer)

The generation of words in speech involves a number of processing stages. There is, first, a stage of conceptual preparation; this is followed by stages of lexical selection, phonological encoding, phonetic encoding and articulation. In addition, the speaker monitors the output and, if necessary, self-corrects. Major parts of the theory have been computer modelled. The paper concentrates on experimental reaction time evidence in support of the theory.

/pdf/a-theory-of-lexical-access-in-speech-production-56yj14t9eb.pdf

A theory of lexical access in speech production

An overview of the basic ideas of articulatory phonology is presented, along with selected examples of phonological patterning for which the approach seems to provide a particularly insightful account. In articulatory phonology, the basic units of phonological contrast are gestures, which are also abstract characterizations of articulatory events, each with an intrinsic time or duration. Utterances are modeled as organized patterns (constellations) of gestures, in which gestural units may overlap in time. The phonological structures defined in this way provide a set of articulatorily based natural classes. Moreover, the patterns of overlapping organization can be used to specify important aspects of the phonological structure of particular languages, and to account, in a coherent and general way, for a variety of different types of phonological variation. Such variation includes allophonic variation and fluent speech alternations, as well as ‘coarticulation’ and speech errors. Finally, it is suggested that the gestural approach clarifies our understanding of phonological development, by positing that prelinguistic units of action are harnessed into (gestural) phonological structures through differentiation and coordination.

https://www.haskins.yale.edu/sr/SR111/SR111_03.pdf

Articulatory phonology: an overview.

In this article, we attempt to reconcile the linguistic hypothesis that speech involves an underlying sequencing of abstract, discrete, context-independent units, with the empirical observation of continuous, context-dependent interleaving of articulatory movements. To this end, we first review a previously proposed task-dynamic model for the coordination and control of the speech articulators. We then describe an extension of this model in which invariant speech units (gestural primitives) are identified with context-independent sets of parameters in a dynamical system having two functionally distinct but interacting levels. The intergestural level is defined according to a set of activation coordinates; the interarticulator level is defined according to both model articulator and tractvariable coordinates. In the framework of this extended model, coproduction effects in speech are described in terms of the blending dynamics defined among a set of temporally overlapping active units; the relative timing ...

https://www.haskins.yale.edu/sr/SR099/SR099_03.pdf

A Dynamical Approach to Gestural Patterning in Speech Production

We propose an approach to phonological representation based on describing an utterance as an organised pattern of overlapping articulatory gestures. Because movement is inherent in our definition of gestures, these gestural ‘constellations’ can account for both spatial and temporal properties of speech in a relatively simple way. At the same time, taken as phonological representations, such gestural analyses offer many of the same advantages provided by recent nonlinear phonological theories, and we give examples of how gestural analyses simplify the description of such ‘complex segments’ as /s/–stop clusters and prenasalised stops. Thus, gestural structures can be seen as providing a principled link between phonological and physical description.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0952675700000658

Towards an articulatory phonology

Initiation and maintenance of vibrations of the vocal folds require suitable conditions of adduction, longitudinal tension, and transglottal airflow. Thus manipulation of adduction/abduction, stiffening/slackening, or degree of transglottal flow may, in principle, be used to determine the voicing status of a speech segment. This study explores the control of voicing and voicelessness in speech with particular reference to the role of changes in the longitudinal tension of the vocal folds, as indicated by cricothyroid (CT) muscle activity. Electromyographic recordings were made from the CT muscle in two speakers of American English and one speaker of Dutch. The linguistic material consisted of reiterant speech made up of CV syllables where the consonants were voiced and voiceless stops, fricatives, and affricates. Comparison of CT activity associated with the voiced and voiceless consonants indicated a higher level for the voiceless consonants than for their voiced cognates. Measurements of the fundamental frequency (F0) at the beginning of a vowel following the consonant show the common pattern of higher F0 after voiceless consonants. For one subject, there was no difference in cricothyroid activity for voiced and voiceless affricates; in this case, the consonant‐induced variations in the F0 of the following vowel were also less robust. Consideration of timing relationships between the EMG curves for voiced and voiceless consonants suggests that the differences most likely reflect control of vocal‐fold tension for maintenance or suppression of phonatory vibrations. The same mechanism also seems to contribute to the well‐known difference in F0 at the beginning of vowels following voiced and voiceless consonants.

https://www.haskins.yale.edu/sr/SR097/SR097_02.pdf

The cricothyroid muscle in voicing control.

This study was designed to compare information on laryngeal vibrations obtained by high‐speed filming, photoglottography (PGG), and electroglottography (EGG). Simultaneous glottographic signals and high‐speed films were obtained from two subjects producing steady phonation. Measurements of glottal width were made at three points along the glottis in the anterior–posterior dimension and aligned with the other records. Results indicate that PGG and film measurements give essentially the same information for peak glottal opening and glottal closure. The EGG signal appears to reliably indicate vocal‐fold contact. Together, PGG and EGG may provide much of the information obtained from high‐speed filming as well as potentially detect horizontal phase differences during opening and closing.

Laryngeal vibrations: a comparison between high-speed filming and glottographic techniques.

Speech can be described as audible movements. By varying the positions and trajectories of the lips, the jaw, the tongue, the velum, and the glottis, a speaker creates variations in air pressure and airflow in the vocal tract. These variations in pressure and flow produce the acoustic signal that we hear when listening to speech. For this acoustic signal to be not only audible, but also structured in such a way that it can transmit linguistic information, the articulators have to be controlled and coordinated so that the acoustic variations in the produced signal conform to the phonetics and phonology of the language being spoken. This paper examines several aspects of the control and coordination of articulatory gestures during speech, with particular emphasis on gestural patterning, gestural coherence, and gestural aggregation

Speech as Audible Gestures

Speaker's Comfort in Teaching Environments: Voice Problems in Swedish Teaching Staff.

Background: Working memory is considered to influence a range of linguistic skills, i.e. vocabulary acquisition, sentence comprehension and reading. Several studies have pointed to limitations of working memory in children with specific language impairment. Few studies, however, have explored the role of working memory for language deficits in children with hearing impairment. Aims: The first aim was to compare children with mild-to-moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment, children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment and children with normal language development, aged 9-12 years, for language and working memory. The special focus was on the role of working memory in learning new words for primary school age children. Methods & Procedures: The assessment of working memory included tests of phonological short-term memory and complex working memory. Novel word learning was assessed according to the methods of Gilbertson and Kamhi ( 1995). In addition, a range of language tests was used to assess language comprehension, output phonology and reading. Outcomes & Results: Children with hearing impairment performed significantly better than children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment on tasks assessing novel word learning, complex working memory, sentence comprehension and reading accuracy. No significant correlation was found between phonological short-term memory and novel word learning in any group. The best predictor of novel word learning in children with specific language impairment and in children with hearing impairment was complex working memory. Furthermore, there was a close relationship between complex working memory and language in children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment but not in children with hearing impairment. Conclusions: Complex working memory seems to play a significant role in vocabulary acquisition in primary school age children. The interpretation is that the results support theories suggesting a weakened influence of phonological short-term memory on novel word learning in school age children.

Anders Löfqvist

Papers

The cricothyroid muscle in voicing control.

Laryngeal vibrations: a comparison between high-speed filming and glottographic techniques.

Speech as Audible Gestures

Speaker's Comfort in Teaching Environments: Voice Problems in Swedish Teaching Staff.

Working memory and novel word learning in children with hearing impairment and children with specific language impairment