Research
Overview:
My broad interest lies in the intersection of linguistic phonetics and cognitive science. On the one hand, I study the physical and physiological aspects of speech: acoustics and articulation of speech sounds. On the other hand, I study the mental construct for which speech is generated and processed: perception and the relationship between perception and production.
Most of my work has been focused on the production and perception of linguistic voice quality: how the timbre of people's voices manifests linguistic contrasts (e.g., lexical tones), besides its use in talker characteristics and paralinguistic information. Currently I explore how people learn to use voice quality in daily life and language. I use various research methods such as electroglottography (EGG), speech synthesis, psycholinguistic experiments, and computational modeling.
Current Projects:
Understanding period doubling in natural speech
The role of acoustic attributes of creaky voice in Mandarin tonal perception
Voice quality in coarticulated Mandarin tones
Documenting Hengyang variety of Xiang Chinese, an under-studied dialect in China
Creaky voice subtypes in Vietnamese glottalized tones
Perceptual learning of phonation contrasts