The Effect of Phonological Encoding on Word Duration: Selection Takes Time

In this chapter, we investigate whether the process of phonological encoding plays a role in determining the duration of a word. We explore whether points of complexity in word production as predicted by a simple recurrent network also predict points within a word at which speakers slow down. Simple recurrent networks were trained to produce two different words under two conditions: In the first condition, the two words in the sequence overlapped in their initial morphemes (e.g., layover layout) and in the second condition, the words overlapped in their final morpheme (e.g., overlay outlay). The network experienced the most error for words that overlapped initially and at points of word non-overlap. Participants who produced these same sequences in a repetition task exhibited lengthening at points of complexity predicted by the network. We propose that lengthening may be partly a result of the phonological encoding system needing processing time.