publications

2020

1. LabPhon

   Predictability modulates pronunciation variants through production planning effects: a case study on coronal stop realizations

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, Clayards, Meghan, and Wagner, Michael

   Laboratory Phonology 2020

   Abs HTML

   Predictability has been shown to be associated with many dimensions of variation in speech, including durational variation and variable omission of segments. However, the mechanism or mechanisms that underlie these effects are still unclear. This paper presents data on a new aspect of predictability in speech, namely how it affects allophonic variation. We examine two coronal stop allophones in English, flap and glottal stop, and find that their relationship with predictability is quite different from what is expected under current theories of probabilistic reduction in speech. Flapping is more likely when the word that follows is more predictable, but is not influenced by the frequency of the word itself, while glottal stops are more likely in words that are less predictable. We propose that the crucial distinction between these two allophones is how they are conditioned by phonological context. This, we argue, interacts with online speech planning processes and gives rise to variability for context-dependent allophones. This hypothesis offers a specific, testable mechanism for certain predictability effects, and has the potential to extend to other factors that contribute to variability in speech.

2. The dynamics of word production

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, and Goldrick, Matthew

   In Oxford Handbook of the Mental Lexicon (2020, In press)

   Abs

   The common sense notion of lexicon as a dictionary implies a static, fixed repository of information about the properties of individual words. This chapter discusses evidence from speech production suggesting that the lexicon in production is best characterized as a process: lexical access. This process involves the dynamic interaction of information from multiple lexical representations, resulting in the production of variable word forms. The corresponding theoretical framework is outlined within the context of single word production. This chapter then discusses a relatively less-well explored area: how lexical access changes when speakers plan and produce multiple words in connected speech. The conclusion points to open theoretical issues raised by new findings in connected speech.

3. Lang Cog Neuro

   Using automated acoustic analysis to explore the link between planning and articulation in second language speech production

   Goldrick, Matthew, Shrem, Yosi, Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, Baus, Cristina, and Keshet, Joseph

   Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 2020

   Abs HTML

   Speakers learning a second language show systematic differences from native speakers in the retrieval, planning, and articulation of speech. A key challenge in examining the interrelationship between these differences at various stages of production is the need for manual annotation of fine-grained properties of speech. We introduce a new method for automatically analysing voice onset time (VOT), a key phonetic feature indexing differences in sound systems cross-linguistically. In contrast to previous approaches, our method allows reliable measurement of prevoicing, a dimension of VOT variation used by many languages. Analysis of VOTs, word durations, and reaction times from German-speaking learners of Spanish (Baus et al., 2013) suggest that while there are links between the factors impacting planning and articulation, these two processes also exhibit some degree of independence. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of speech production and future research in bilingual language processing.

4. Variable pronunciation reveals dynamic intra-speaker variation in phonological planning

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, and Goldrick, Matthew

   Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (2020, Under review)

   Code

2018

1. NLLT

   Boundary phenomena and variability in Japanese high vowel devoicing

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, and Sonderegger, Morgan

   Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 2018

   Abs HTML

   Devoicing of high vowels (HVD) in Tokyo Japanese applies in two environments—between voiceless consonants, and between a voiceless consonant and a “pause”—and applies variably as a function of a number of factors. The role and definition of “pause” in this process, in terms of a physical pause or prosodic position (word or phrase boundary), remains unclear, as does what is expected when these environments overlap, and why HVD appears to be categorical in some environments and variable in others. This paper addresses three outstanding issues about HVD—the role of “boundary phenomena” (prosodic position and physical pauses), the relationship between the two environments, and the sources of variability in HVD—by examining vowel devoicing in a large corpus of spontaneous Japanese. We use mixed-effects logistic regression to model how boundary phenomena affect the likelihood of devoicing and modulate the effects of other variables, controlling for other major factors, including a measure of gestural overlap. The results suggest that all boundary phenomena jointly affect devoicing rate, and that prosodic phrase boundaries play a key role: variability in HVD looks qualitatively different for phrase-internal and phrase-final vowels, which are affected differently by word frequency, speech rate, and pause duration. We argue the results support an account of HVD as the result of two overlapping vowel devoicing processes, each widely-attested cross-linguistically: devoicing between voiceless consonants, and devoicing before prosodic phrase boundaries. Variability in the application of these two processes can then be partially explained in terms of aspects of phonetic implementation and processing: gestural overlap (Beckman 1996), which often plays a role in reduction processes, and the locality of production planning (Wagner 2012), a recent explanation for variability in the application of external sandhi processes.

2017

1. Thesis

   Speech production planning affects variation in external sandhi

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana

   PhD thesis, McGill University 2017

   HTML
2. Speech production planning affects phonological variability: a case study in French liaison

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana

   In Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Meeting on Phonology 2017

   HTML
3. J. Semantics

   Embedded exhaustification: evidence from almost

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana

   Journal of Semantics 2017

   Abs HTML

   Recent work in the domain of scalar implicatures argues for the existence of a grammatical device of covert exhaustification exh (Krifka 1995; Chierchia 2006; Fox 2007; Fox and Spector 2009; Chierchia et al. 2011; Sauerland 2012). This covert operator strengthens sentence meanings in a way similar to neo-Gricean quantity inferences, but is crucially different in that it can strengthen embedded propositions. Embedded exhaustification can interact with higher operators, and many arguments for exh rest on these effects. This article presents another argument for the presence of a covert exhaustification operator in the grammar from its interaction with the approximative modifier almost. Intuitively, almost α might be paraphrased as ‘close to but not quite α’. I motivate, and take as a starting point, a denotation for almost which derives both its proximal (‘close to’) inference and its negative (‘not quite’) inference as entailments (Horn 2002, 2005, 2011; Penka 2006). I present a new instance of a puzzle noted in Nouwen (2006) that poses a challenge to such an analysis: in certain environments, almost α can have an interpretation in which it seems that the negative inference has disappeared, and instead a monotonic inference arises (i.e. α is inferred rather than negated). I revisit and spell out the previously suggested solution (Horn 2005; Penka 2006; Spector 2015) that almost may take logical scope higher than other operators which c-command its surface position. The analysis of the novel case that I present assumes this scopal mobility, but crucially also relies on covert exhaustification. Under this proposal, the negative inference does not actually disappear, but is interpreted in a position where its contribution is obscured.

2016

1. The effect of production planning locality on external sandhi: a study in /t/

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, Wagner, Michael, and Clayards, Meghan

   In The proceedings of the 52nd Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society 2016
2. Phase domains at PF: Root suppletion and its implications

   Kilbourn-Ceron, Oriana, Newell, Heather, Noonan, Maire, and Travis, Lisa

   2016

   Abs HTML

   This chapter investigates some implications of Spell-Out in a phase-based, realizational derivational system. It is argued that all operations on the PF branch within a phase, specifically Vocabulary Insertion and phonological rule application are predicted to have isomorphic domains of application. This has implications for the proposals on how to extend suppletion domains found in Embick (2010) and Bobaljik & Wurmbrand (2013). Ap- parent mismatches in suppletive vs. phonological domains are examined in a number of languages, including English, Yiddish, Turkish, Ojibwe, Malagasy, and German. The data are argued to support modifications to both (i) certain theoretical proposals held in the literature, and (ii) the syntactic location of triggers for suppletion generally assumed.