(Limits of) variability in speech planning (B05)

• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317633480

An important challenge for contemporary psycholinguistic research is to understand the processes by which speakers combine words with one another to produce utterances. A central issue in this endeavour concerns the scope of advanced planning, that is, how many words of an utterance speakers prepare before initiating the articulation of that utterance. Several authors suggest that the scope of advanced planning is variable – or flexible. The aim of this project is to determine the functions and extent of this variability and the constraints that operate to limit this variability. We hypothesize (1) that available cognitive resources play a major role in determining the scope of advanced planning for a given utterance, (2) that older speakers experience more difficulty under limited resources, and (3) that speakers can adjust the execution of articulatory gestures to maintain fluency under different planning scopes.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1287: Limits of Variability in Language: Cognitive, Grammatical, and Social Aspects
• Applicant Institution: Universität Potsdam
• Project Head: Professorin Audrey Bürki, Ph.D.