EFFECTS OF LEXICAL MEANING AND PRACTICED PRODUCTION ON COARTICULATIONIN CHILDRENS AND ADULTS SPEECH

This investigation examined the effect of familiarity with a speech ta rget on the magnitude of the coarticulation observed in children (aged 3, 5, and 7 years) and adults. For the purposes of this investigation , coarticulation was defined as the effect that a following vowel, \i\ or \u\, had on the frequency value of the second formant (F2) in the preceding fricative, \s\ or \f\. Familiarity with the spoken targets w as examined through the manipulation of two factors: (a) the presence or absence of lexical meaning and (b) the extent to which speakers wer e allowed to practice an item prior to recording. Results of acoustic measurements confirm that the children exhibited a greater effect of a following vowel on the preceding fricative when compared to adults. N onmeaningful production items appeared to exhibit a greater effect of the vowel on the preceding fricative than meaningful production items, regardless of age of the individual. Limited motor practice did not h ave an effect on degree of fricative-vowel coarticulation in productio n items for any of the age groups. For the productions in this investi gation, the primary coarticulatory effect was intrasyllabic.