Published: 07/12/24

It has been over 30 years since the first Laboratory Phonology conference was launched in 1987
in the vanguard of exploring the linguistically meaningful relationship between the grammar and
physics of speech. Since then we have witnessed the gradual erosion of the severance between
phonetics and phonology, accompanied by an increased awareness of the importance of scalar and
gradient aspects of speech in understanding the linguistic sound system. We have also seen a
wealth of investigation into the linguistic roles of fine phonetic detail, which provides insights into
the phonetic underpinnings of other speech variation phenomena. It has now become the norm in
the laboratory phonology tradition to view the phonetic encoding-decoding process as intricately
intertwined not only with phonology but also with various other components (e.g., morphology,
syntax and semantics) in the architecture of the grammar. Moreover, in parallel with the
exploration of these relationships, laboratory studies of speech variation have also shown that
phonetic and phonological forms can be shaped further by both information structure and
pragmatic and social contexts.
The fundamental assumption that underlies the proposed theme is that in order for the language
user to deliver a message successfully, the user must encode the message in phonetic forms that
reflect other linguistic and extra-linguistic structures. The message receiver must then in turn
exploit the resulting fine phonetic detail in decoding the intended message in reference to the
higher-order structural information that underlies the signal. Thus the laboratory phonology
community is now challenged with a fundamental question of how the fine phonetic detail and its
systematic interaction with higher-order structures that may go even beyond the traditional realm
of linguistics should be reflected in the architecture of the grammars of spoken languages.
At the LabPhon 19 conference, we aimed to create an international scholarly venue at which to
tackle these issues by narrowing them down to specific topics in five thematic sessions, as
outlined below. This proposed special issue will primarily be based on these themes and the
contributions will be solicited primarily by invitation to the authors of thematic papers presented
at the conference. However, we will consider a few additional papers from outside the
conference if they align well with one of these conference themes:
○ LabPhon for words, exploring the role of phonetic detail in lexical processing and its
implications for the relationship between LabPhon and the lexicon
○ LabPhon for sentences, exploring the role of phonetic detail in sentence processing
and its implications for the relationship between LabPhon and syntax

○ LabPhon for pragmatics and discourse, exploring the role of phonetic detail in
conveying pragmatic meanings in discourse and its implications for the relationship
between LabPhon and information/discourse structure
○ LabPhon for social contexts, exploring the role of phonetic detail in carrying social
information and its implications for the relationship between LabPhon and
sociophonetics
○ LabPhon for non-articulatory gestures in spoken language, exploring the role of
non-articulatory (facial and manual) gestures in spoken language in relation to
LabPhon

Published: 13/12/23

Research in laboratory phonology has evolved rapidly over the past few years to include novel and innovative ways to gather data while operating within the constraints of imposed distance. This includes changes in ways we approach field work, making use of technological advances to facilitate gathering data and working with participants without requiring the researcher to be physically present.  At the same time, novel advances in online experimental methodology have likewise allowed for the collection and presentation of speech data in virtual environments, as an alternative to traditional laboratory-based experimentation.  

As these innovations become a part of the ‘new normal’ in research, this special collection assembles articles that document and discuss recent research making use of these methods for the benefit of the wider community. These papers address the opportunities afforded and challenges presented by conducting linguistic fieldwork and experiments that utilize remote collection, whether due to the pandemic, participant availability, or other issues such as political or climate-related factors, which make remote data collection beneficial.

Published: 22/03/22

The special collection brings together papers on the production, perception, and representation of phonological categories, both at the segmental and at the prosodic level. A wide perspective on the issue is given by contributions ranging from acoustic and articulatory investigations to neurophysiological and gestural studies, focusing on a variety of typologically different oral languages and on sign languages.

Published: 29/10/20

This special collection brings together research which advances our understanding of the role of prosody in speech processing, concentrating on research which widens the range of languages and language varieties which contribute to this understanding.

Published: 17/02/20

The special collection gathers papers on techniques and methods for the collection, analysis, and modelling of articulatory data. The focus is on the progress that these techniques and methods can make in laboratory phonology.

Published: 26/07/18

This series explores how continuous signal dynamics in speech production and perception can give rise to the formation, stability, and change of phonological categories in human speech processing.

Published: 04/04/17

This series explores the pervasive variability in speech prosody and its role in linguistic representation and linguistic processing.

Published: 13/03/17

In this special collection, we take stock of the latest theoretical developments in multidimensional prosody research.

Published: 30/06/16

This series aims to stimulate debate on the theory and practice of prosodic transcription, and its role in prosodic typology, phonological theory, second language teaching, as well as in speech synthesis and recognition applications.