The National Science Foundation Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences awarded the University of California, Los Angeles $149,625 on October 1, 2025, under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075) to investigate the causal structure of intervocalic lenition in human language production.
The project analyzes and compares acoustic properties of consonants in different positions across two languages to determine whether the articulatory effort speakers invest in consonant production is represented abstractly in the mind or explained by consonant position in words and sentences. The research tests which consonants are affected by fortition (increased articulatory effort) and lenition (reduced effort), how these processes are conditioned by consonant position, and whether common sound patterns involving these processes are predictable from sound duration. A cross-linguistic comparison provides a foundation for understanding whether linguistic sound patterns depend on abstract mental processes or concrete physical ones. The award supports student training and participation in language research.
Performance occurs in Los Angeles, California through January 31, 2027.