Space and time in models of speech rhythm

How do rhythmic patterns in speech arise? Many representations and models incorporate a mechanism whose purpose is to generate a rhythmic pattern.

Here an alternative is explored: rhythmic patterns arise indirectly, from spatial mechanisms which govern the organization of articulatory gestures.

In pursuing this alternative, the roles of time and space in symbolic phonological representations are analyzed in detail, and conventional understandings of stress and accent are called into question.

One aspect of rhythmic patterns in particular—the directionality of stress assignment—is examined closely. A novel dynamical model is developed, which proposes a reinterpretation of directionality and various other temporal phenomena