Articulatory effects of frequency modulated by semantics

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of three studies addressing the role of frequency in speech production. While frequency has often been observed to be correlated with phonetic reduction, as evidenced by shorter durations and more vowel centralization for higher frequency words, some studies have reported phenomena for which a higher frequency appears to give rise to phonetic enhancement. These opposite effects of frequency have thus far resisted a consistent, theoretically well-motivated, explanation. The first case study replicates the effect of phonetic enhancement, previously observed with electromagnetic articulography (EMA), using ultrasound recordings. The second case study looks into the possibility that morphological complexity codetermines phonetic enhancement, using EMA. The third case study provides evidence that words’ meanings, gauged with distributional semantics, play an important role in shaping phonetic enhancement and reduction.