Argyro Katsika, Ph.D.

Argyro Katsika's picture
Assistant Professor
College of Letters and Science UC Santa Barbara

akatsika@linguistics.ucsb.edu
Assistant Professor

Office Location
South Hall 3513

Specialization

Phonetics; speech production; laboratory phonology; articulatory phonology; prosodic structure, discourse structure and articulatory coordination; prosody-phonetics interface; articulatory settings; stuttering; coarticulation; speech errors; feedback in L2 learning

Education

2013, Ph.D., Yale University

2005, M.Phil., University of Cambridge 

Bio

I am fascinated by speech; it is so natural that it feels simple, yet it involves a complex system of body organ movement and coordination, which is, in turn, shaped by a complex, multi-level linguistic structure/grammar. I am intrigued by how this shaping works. The main focus of my research is on the interaction between prosodic structure and the kinematic profile of speech. Prosodic structure is the component of the grammar that organizes speech into cognitive units (e.g., syllables into words and words into phrases), and marks prominent elements in these units (e.g., stressed syllables in words and accented words in phrases). What is the nature and architecture of prosodic structure? What aspects of prosodic structure remain constant across languages from different groups of the prosodic typology? How is prosodic structure related to discourse and talker-to-talker (verbal and no verbal) interactions? How is prosodic structure expressed in speech disorders that are attributed to difficulties in articulatory coordination? My research addresses these (and other) questions, by the means of experimental studies that examine the movement and coordination of the speech-related body organs and their acoustic and visual products across languages and populations. I believe that, in this way, a direct window could be opened onto speech production, language processing, cognition and social interaction.  

Research

Research interests:

Phonetics; speech production; laboratory phonology; articulatory phonology; prosodic structure, discourse structure and articulatory coordination; prosody-phonetics interface; intonation; prosodic lengthening; pauses; speech errors and planning; prosody and stuttering; coarticulation and planning; secondary constrictions in consonants; acoustic and articulatory feedback in L2 learning; compensatory lengthening 

Projects

Current projects:

o   Prosodic hierarchy and a model of prosodic interactions

o   Kinematic profile of stress and pitch accent

o   Intonation: phonetic form and information structure

o   Speech errors and prosodic structure

o   Coarticulation and speech planning

Acoustic and articulatory feedback in L2 learning 

Publications

Selected publications:

Katsika, A. (2016), The role of prominence in determining the scope of boundary lengthening in Greek, Journal of Phonetics 55, 149-181.

Katsika, A. & Kavitskaya, D. (2015), The phonetics of r-deletion in Samothraki Greek, Journal of Greek Linguistics 15, 34-65.

Katsika, A., Whalen, D.H., Tiede, M. & King, H. (2015), Articulatory measures of planned and unplanned coarticulation, Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glaskow, UK.

Katsika, A., Krivokapić, J., Mooshammer, C., Tiede, M. & Goldstein, L. (2014), The coordination of boundary tones and their interaction with prominence, Journal of Phonetics 44, 62-82. 

Katsika, A., Shattuck-Hufnagel, S., Mooshammer, C., Tiede, M. & Goldstein, L. (2014), Compatible vs. competing rhythmic grouping and errors, Language and Speech 57, 544-562.

Katsika, A., Deo, A., Braze, D. & Piñango, M.M. (2012), Complement coercion: Distinguishing between type-shifting and pragmatic inferencing, The Mental Lexicon 7, 58-76. 

Katsika, A. (2007), Duration and pitch anchoring as cues to word boundaries in Greek, Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp. 929-932, Saarbrücken, Germany. 

Courses

Ling 106: Introduction to Phonetics

Ling 213: Instrumental Phonetics