Argyro Katsika

Associate Professor
Director of UCSB SPArK
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Office Location

South Hall 3513

Specialization

Phonetics; speech production; laboratory phonology; articulatory phonology; prosody

Education

2012, 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 using 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

Some of the research topics, I am currently interested in are:

Prosodic boundaries; prosodic prominence; pauses; intonation; prosodic typology; syllabic structure; segmental structure, articulatory coordination; speech errors; coarticulation; speech planning; L2 speech; talker-to-talker interaction

Projects

Projects that my lab is currently engaged in actively include:

  • The typology of prosodic boundaries
  • The hierarchical structure of prominence
  • A dynamical model of prosodic structure
  • The production and perception of gestural overlap in Georgian consonant clusters and a dynamical definition of the syllable
  • The typology of linguistic rhythm
  • The unusual use of time in Estonian
  • The phonetics and phonology of intonation
  • Lexicon-prosody interface
  • Word identification cues
  • Speech errors and optimization in speech planning

Publications

Please find below a list of respective publications. Don't hesitate to contact me here if you would like to discuss any of these further.

Lester N. & Katsika, A. (to appear), The syntactic past of nouns shape their prosodic future: Lexico-syntactic effects on position and duration. Language and Speech.

Katsika, A., Jang, J., Krivokapić, J., Goldstein, L. & Saltzman, E. (to appear), A hierarchy of prominence: The production and perception of focus in American English. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.

Jang J. & Katsika, A. (to appear), Articulatory manifestation of focus-induced prominence in Korean. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2023, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Crouch, C., Chitoran, I., Goldstein, L. & Katsika, A. (to appear), Intrusive vocoids and syllable structure in Georgian. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2023, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Gordon, M., Katsika, A., Chien, S., Jang, J. & Lai, R. (to appear), Speech rhythm metrics: A typological survey. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.

Chien, S., Tsai, K., Katsika, A. (to appear), The domain of boundary-related lengthening in Tokyo Japanese, a mora-timed language. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2023, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Crouch, C., Chitoran, I. & Katsika, A. (2023), Sonority sequencing and its relationship to articulatory timing in Georgian. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, First View, 1-24.

Crouch, C., Katsika, A., Chitoran, I. (2022), Georgian syllables, uncentered?. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2022, Lisbon, Portugal.

Jang, J. & Katsika A. (2022), The coordination of boundary tones with constriction gestures in Seoul Korean, an edge-prominence language. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2022, Lisbon, Portugal.

Katsika, A. & Tsai, K. (2021), The supralaryngeal articulation of stress and accent in Greek. Journal of Phonetics 88, 101085.

Katsika, A., Jang, J., Krivokapić, J., Goldstein, L. & Saltzman, E. (2020), The role of focus in accentual lengthening in American English: Kinematic analyses, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, Tokyo, Japan.

Crouch, C., Katsika, A., Chitoran, I. 2020. The role of sonority profile and order of place of articulation on gestural overlap in Georgian. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, Tokyo, Japan.

Jang, J. & Katsika, A. (2020), The amount and scope of phrase-final lengthening in Korean, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, Tokyo, Japan.

Tsai, K. & Katsika, A. (2020), Pitch accent and phrase boundaries: Kinematic evidence from Japanese, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, Tokyo, Japan.

Lohfink, G., Katsika, A. & Arvaniti, A. (2019), Variability and category overlap in the realization of intonation, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2019, Melbourne, Australia, 701-705.

Katsika, A. (2018), The kinematic profile of prominence in Greek. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018, Poznań, Poland, 764-768.

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.

 

 

Courses

Undergraduate courses:

Ling 106: Introduction to Phonetics

Ling 112: Speech by humans and machines

Ling 145: Articulatory Phonetics

Ling 146: Auditory Phonetics

INT 136: Phonetics and Aesthetics 

Graduate courses:

Ling 203: Phonetic Methodology

Ling 213: Advanced Phonetics

Ling 220: Prosody

Ling 251: Seminar in Phonetics and Phonology

Ling 295: Lab in Phonetics