Laboratory phonology

Laboratory phonology is an approach to

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

that emphasizes the synergy between phonological theory and scientific experiments, including laboratory studies of

human speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

and experiments on the acquisition and productivity of phonological patterns. The central goal of laboratory phonology is "gaining an understanding of the relationship between the cognitive and physical aspects of

"Cohn, Abigail
''Phonology: An Appraisal of the Field in 2007''
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. January 5, 2007. Anaheim, CA. through the use of an interdisciplinary approach that promotes scholarly exchange across disciplines, bridging

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

with

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, and other fields.Beckman, M. and J. Kingston ''Introduction.'' In J. Kingston and M. Beckman (eds.) ''Papers in Laboratory Phonology I: Between the Grammar and the Physics of Speech''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1–16.Pierrehumbert, J.B. and C. Cloppe
''What is Labphon? And where is it going?''
''Papers in Laboratory Phonology 10'' 113-132. Although spoken speech has represented the major area of research, the investigation of

sign languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

and manual signs as encoding elements is also included in laboratory phonology. Important antecedents of the field include work by

Kenneth N. Stevens Kenneth Noble Stevens (March 24, 1924 – August 19, 2013) was the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT. Ste ...

and

Gunnar Fant Carl Gunnar Michael Fant (October 8, 1919 – June 6, 2009) was a leading researcher in speech science in general and speech synthesis in particular who spent most of his career as a professor at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in ...

on the acoustic theory of speech production, Ilse Lehiste's work on prosody and intonation, and

Peter Ladefoged Peter Nielsen Ladefoged ( , ; 17 September 1925 – 24 January 2006) was a British linguist and phonetician. He was Professor of Phonetics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he taught from 1962 to 1991. His book '' A Cours ...

's work on typological variation and methods for data capture. Current research in laboratory phonology draws heavily on the theories of metrical phonology and

autosegmental phonology Autosegmental phonology is a framework of phonological analysis proposed by John Goldsmith (linguist), John Goldsmith in his PhD thesis in 1976 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As a theory of phonological representation, autos ...

which are sought to be tested with help of experimental procedures, in laboratory settings, or through linguistic data collection at field sites, and though evaluation with statistical methods, such as

exploratory data analysis In statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA) is an approach of analyzing data sets to summarize their main characteristics, often using statistical graphics and other data visualization methods. A statistical model can be used or not, but pr ...

. Laboratory phonology is particularly connected with the

Association for Laboratory Phonology The Association for Laboratory Phonology is a non-profit professional society for researchers interested in the sound structure of language. It was founded to promote the scientific study of all aspects of phonetics and phonology of oral and sign l ...

, which was founded to promote the approach. In 2010, ''Laboratory Phonology - Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology'' was established as the journal of the association. Since 2016, it appears online in an open-access format. Among the researchers associated with laboratory phonology are

Janet Pierrehumbert Janet Pierrehumbert (b. 1954) is Professor of Language Modelling in the Oxford e-Research Centre at the University of Oxford and a senior research fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. She developed an intonational model which includes a grammar ...

Mary Beckman Mary Esther Beckman (born September 1953) is a Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. Career Beckman received her PhD from Cornell University in 1984. She was a Postdoctoral member of the technical staff in "Linguistics a ...

Patricia Keating Patricia Ann Keating (born July 20, 1952) is an American linguist and noted phonetician. She is distinguished research professor emeritus at UCLAbr> Life She received her PhD in Linguistics at Brown University in 1980. In 1980 she joined the facu ...

and D. Robert Ladd, who co-authored a paper discussing the approach. Pierrehumbert, J., M. Beckman, and D.R. Ladd (2000
''Conceptual Foundations of Phonology as a Laboratory Science.''
In N. Burton-Roberts, P. Carr and G.J. Docherty (eds.) ''Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 273-303. Other prominent laboratory phonologists include

Catherine Browman Catherine Phebe Browman ( �kæθrɪn ˈfibi ˈbraʊ̯mən 1945–18 July 2008) was an American Linguistics, linguist and speech scientist. She received her Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Los Angele ...

, Jennifer S. Cole,

Louis Goldstein Louis Goldstein may refer to: * Louis L. Goldstein, politician * Louis M. Goldstein, linguist {{hndis, Goldstein, Louis