Chelsea Sanker

The main goal of my research is to understand how phonetic details fit into phonological representations, and how data from perception and production can help pin down this aspect of our phonological models. Within this, I have two interconnected lines of research: Experimental work testing what details are present in the representation and how they can shift, and reconstructions of how reanalysis or shifts in which details are part of the representation can lead to diachronic change.

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My current projects are aimed at developing a connectionist phonological model which accounts for effects of phonetic details in perception and various dimensions of information that structure those details, from shared phonological features to part of speech.  One of these projects looks at how phonetic details are represented at the featural level based on patterns of generalization in phonetic convergence.  The other project looks at how vowel duration affects perceived part of speech for both real words and nonce words.

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