Extrapolating from spoken to signed prosody via laboratory phonology

Laboratory phonology tests the predictions of phonological analyses through experimental investigations of phonetic behavior. This paper describes how a laboratory phonologist might investigate three issues in the analysis of the prosody of signed languages: the internal structure, if any, of the si gned syllable, the realization of lexical and phrasal prominence, and the m arking of edges. The paper proposes to investigate the internal structure o f the syllable by adapting a variety of psycholinguistic techniques that ha ve been extensively used to study the phonetic packaging of phonological ma terial in spoken languages. Phonological and phonetic arguments are present ed in support of the hypothesis that signed languages will increase movemen t kinematics to convey phrasal and perhaps lexical prominence, and an exper iment is sketched that would test this hypothesis. Finally, the paper sugge sts that the experimental study of the edges of sign articulations might al low a clearer choice between competing phonetic and phonological accounts o f external sandhi in language in general.