Haskins Publications

Number	259
Year	1978
Drawer	5
Entry Date	06/03/1999
Authors	Harris, K. S.
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Publication	Language and Speech, 21, 354-361.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0259.pdf
Abstract	Two explanations have been proposed for the relationship between vowel-target formant f & articulatory stress. The "extra-energy" hypothesis suggests that stressing is accompanied by larger signals to the articulators, so that stressed syllables are longer & have more extreme formant values. The "undershoot" hypothesis suggests that signals sent to the articulators are of constant magnitude, but that changes in timing result in differences in formant f. The latter model leads to the prediction that the relationship between target formant f & duration is fixed, whatever the cause of the duration variation. To test this prediction, acoustic & electromyographic measures were made of productions of nonsense syllables with varying stress & speaking rate by three adult native speakers of Eng. Results from analysis of these measures failed to support the undershoot hypothesis, since syllable duration & vowel target f were found to be independent. Although the three speakers accomplished speaking rate variations in different ways, the data seem to support the "extra-energy" model.
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