Chelsea Sanker

The main goal of my research is to understand how phonetic details fit into phonological representations, and how data from perception and production can help pin down this aspect of our phonological models. Within this, I have two interconnected lines of research: Experimental work testing what details are present in the representation and how they can shift, and reconstructions of how reanalysis or shifts in which details are part of the representation can lead to diachronic change.

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My current projects are looking at how phonetic details are represented at the featural level based on patterns of generalization in convergence and perceptual learning, and how some apparent word-specific acoustic patterns can be better explained by factors like emotional valence and lexical frequency.

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