Matthew Gordon

Professor
mgordon@linguistics.ucsb.edu

Office Hours: 

Tuesday 11-12, Thursday 12-1 and by appointment

Office Location: 

South Hall 3522

Specialization: 

Phonetics; phonology; prosody; typology

Education: 

1999 Ph.D, University of California, Los Angeles

Bio: 

My interest in linguistics began as an interest in studying languages. I remember in high school learning Finnish on my own and being fascinated by its linguistic structures, which were so different from those found in any of the languages I had studied in school. My experience with Finnish opened me up to the great diversity of languages and the enormous potential in studying linguistics. The focus of my research is on phonetics, the study of speech sounds, and phonology, the study of the organization of sound in linguistic systems. I enjoy examining the acoustic properties of speech and how these properties are perceived by the auditory system. I am interested in exploring the idea that articulatory and auditory factors play an important role in shaping phonological systems. Much of my work involves the study of prosodic features of language, such as stress and intonation. I feel it is important to base linguistic generalizations on as broad a sample of languages as possible, including those which are not well documented from a linguistic standpoint. For this reason, much of my investigation of phonetics and phonology centers around languages which are relatively underdocumented, including Balto-Finnic languages like Estonian, Northwest Caucasian languages like Kabardian, and American Indian languages like Chickasaw and Koasati. One of my most rewarding experiences as a linguist is working firsthand on a language and discovering new sounds and sound patterns.

Projects: 

  • typological aspects of speech rhythm
  • prosody in languages with complex morphology
  • Croatian pitch accent
  • Estonian quantity, stress, and prosodic structure

Publications: 

Books

Gordon, M. 2016. Phonological Typology. Oxford University Press.

Gordon, M. 2006. Syllable Weight: Phonetics, Phonology, Typology. Routledge.

Lee, C, Gordon, M., & D. Büring (eds.). 2006. Topic and Focus:  Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Meaning and Intonation [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 82], Springer.

Other Publications

Katsika, A., Asu, E.L., Gordon, M., Lippus, P., & Malmi, A. 2024. The kinematic profile of the Estonian ternary quantity distinction. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024, pp. 592-596, doi: 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2024-120

Gordon, M. K. & M. Fiddler. 2024. Vowel harmony: Statistical perspectives on typological distribution. In H. van der Hulst & N. A. Ritter (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Vowel Harmony. Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198826804.013.46

Tabain, M., Garellek, M. & M. Gordon. 2024. A consideration of the consonant chart in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Proceedings of the 19th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, pp. 1-6.

Gordon, M. K. 2024. Prosody in clause chaining constructions. In H. S. Sarvasy, and A. Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Clause Chaining in the Languages of the World. Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198870319.003.0002.

Gordon, M., A. Katsika, S. Chien, J. Jang, & R. Ka Yau Lai. 2023. Speech rhythm metrics: a typological survey. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetics Sciences.

Fitzgerald, C. M. & M. K. Gordon. 2023. Segmental phonology. In C. Dagostino, M. Mithun, & K. Rice (eds.), The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide, Vol. 1. De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 89-108. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110600926-004

Gordon, M. K. 2023. Word prosody. In C. Dagostino, M. Mithun, & K. Rice (eds.), The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide, Vol. 1. De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 135-154. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110600926-006

Gordon, M. 2023. Word stress and intonational prominence in languages with highly synthetic morphology. In K. Bogomolets & H. van der Hulst (eds.), Word Prominence in Languages with Complex Morphologies, Oxford University Press, pp. 66-96. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198840589.003.0003

Gordon, M. & A. Applebaum. 2023. Prominence in Circassian languages. In K. Bogomolets & H. van der Hulst (eds.), Word Prominence in Languages with Complex Morphologies, Oxford University Press, pp. 470-492. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198840589.003.0015

Gordon, M. & J. Martin. 2023. Prominence in Muskogean languages. In K. Bogomolets & H. van der Hulst (eds.), Word Prominence in Languages with Complex Morphologies, Oxford University Press, pp. 274-310. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198840589.003.0009

Kaland, C., Gordon, M., Jang, J., & A. Katsika. 2023. No effects of f0 manipulation and phrase position in Korean word recognition. The 2nd International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI 2023), pp. 64–68. doi: 10.21437/TAI.2023-14.

Tabain, M., Kapović M., & M. Gordon. 2023. The influence of syllable structure on lexical tones in Croatian: no effect? Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetics Sciences.

Gordon, M. 2023. The phonetic basis for tone-stress interactions: A cross-linguistic study. In J. van de Weijer (ed.), Part II Syllable, Stress, and Sign, pp. 171-190. De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730081-009.

Kaland, C. & M. Gordon. 2022. The role of f0 shape and phrasal position in Papuan Malay and American English word identification. Phonetica 79(3), 219-245. https://doi.org/10.1515/phon-2022-2022

Tabain, M., Kapović, M., Gordon, M., Gregory, A., & R. Beare. 2022. A Preliminary Study of Lexical Pitch Accents in the Split Dialect of Croatian. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, pp. 206-210.

Kaland, C. and M. Gordon. 2021. How f0 and phrase position affect word identification in Papuan Malay. Proceedings of Interspeech 2021, pp. 2606-2610.

Gordon, M. & H. van der Hulst. 2021. Word stress systems. In C. Gussenhoven & A. Chen (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Language Prosody, pp. 66-77. Oxford University Press.

Caballero, G. & M. Gordon. 2021. North America. In C. Gussenhoven & A. Chen (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Language Prosody, pp. 396-407. Oxford University Press.

Garellek, M., Gordon, M., Kirby, J., Lee, W-S., Michaud, A., Mooshammer, C., Niebuhr, O., Recasens, D., Roettger, T. B., Simpson, A., & Yu, K. M. 2020. Letter to the Editor: toward open data policies in phonetics: what we can gain and how we can avoid pitfalls. Journal of Speech Sciences 9, 3-16.

Gordon, M. & F. Rose. 2019. Acoustic correlates of metrical prominence in Mojeño Trinitario. In S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain & P. Warren (eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019,. Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.

Adamou, E., Gordon, M., & S. T. Gries. 2018. Prosodic and morphological focus marking in Ixcatec (Otomanguean). In E. Adamou, K. Haude & M. Vanhove (eds.), Information Structure in Lesser-Described Languages: Studies in Prosody and Syntax, pp. 51-83. John Benjamins.

Gordon, M. K. 2017. Review of Tone and Accent in Oklahoma Cherokee, by Hiroto Uchihara. Anthropological Linguistics 59(3), 343-345.

Gordon, M. & T. Roettger. 2017. Acoustic correlates of word stress: A cross-linguistic survey. Linguistics Vanguard 3.1. doi: 10.1515/lingvan-2017-0007.

Roettger, T. and M. Gordon. 2017. Methodological issues in the study of word stress correlates. Linguistics Vanguard 3.1. doi: 10.1515/lingvan-2017-0006.

Gordon, M. 2017. Syllable weight: a typological and theoretical overview. In Newman, P. (ed.), Syllable Weight in African Languages, pp. 27-48. John Benjamins.

Gordon, M. 2017. Phonetic and phonological research on Native American languages: past, present, and future. International Journal of American Linguistics 83, 79-110.

Toutios A., Lingala, S. G., Vaz, C., Kim, J., Esling, J., Keating, P., Gordon, M., Byrd, D., Goldstein, L., Nayak, K. S., & Narayanan, S. S. 2016. Illustrating the production of the International Phonetic Alphabet sounds using fast real-time magnetic resonance imaging. Proceedings of Interspeech, pp. 2428–2432.

Gordon, M. 2016. Metrical incoherence: diachronic sources and synchronic analysis. In J. Heinz, R. Goedemans, and H. van der Hulst (eds.), Dimensions of Linguistic Stress. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. 2016. Consonant-tone interactions: a phonetic study of four indigenous languages of the Americas. In H. Avelino, M. Coler & W. L. Wetzels (eds.), The Phonetics and Phonology of Laryngeal Features in Native American Languages (Brill’s Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas), pp. 129-156.  Brill.

Gordon, M. 2015. Metrical structure and stress. In M. Aronoff (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.115

Gordon, M., J. Martin, & L. Langley. 2015. Prosodic structure and intonation in Koasati. In Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.

Gordon, M., J. Martin, & L. Langley. 2015. Some phonetic structures of Koasati. International Journal of American Linguistics 81, 83-118.

Gordon, M. 2014. Phonetics: physical dimensions of speech sounds. In Genetti, C. (ed.), How Languages Work, pp. 25-48. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. 2014. Phonology: organization of speech sounds. In Genetti, C. (ed.), How Languages Work, pp. 49-70. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. & A. Applebaum. 2014. Kabardian. In Genetti, C. (ed.), How Languages Work, pp. 375-390. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M.. 2014. Disentangling stress and pitch accent: a typology of prominence at different prosodic levels. In H. van der Hulst (ed.), Word stress: Theoretical and Typological Issues, pp. 83-118. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. 2013. Review of Harry van der Hulst, Rob Goedemans and Ellen van Zanten, A Survey of Word Accentual Patterns in the Languages of the World, in Phonology 30, 347-351.

Applebaum, A. & M. Gordon. 2013. A comparative phonetic study of the Circassian languages. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on Languages of the Caucasus (2011), 3-17.

Gordon, M., Ghushchyan, E., McDonnell, B., Rosenblum, D., & Shaw, P. 2012. Sonority and central vowels: A cross-linguistic phonetic study. In S. Parker (ed.), The Sonority Controversy, pp. 219-256. Mouton de Gruyter.

Gordon, M. & L. Nafi. 2012. The acoustic correlates of stress and pitch accent in Tashlhiyt Berber. Journal of Phonetics 40, 706-724.

Gordon, M. 2011. Review of Eric Raimy and Charles E. Cairns (eds.), Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology, in Journal of Linguistics 47.3, 22-28.

Gordon, M. 2011. Stress systems. In J. Goldsmith, J. Riggle, & A. Yu (eds.), The New Handbook of Phonology, pp. 141-163. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.

Gordon, M. 2011. Stress: phonotactic and phonetic evidence. In M. van Oostendorp, C. Ewen, E. Hume, and K. Rice (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, pp. 924-948. Wiley-Blackwell.

Gordon, M. 2010. Intonation. In P. Hogan (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Linguistic Sciences, pp. 406-7. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. & A. Applebaum. 2010. Prosodic fusion and minimality in Kabardian. Phonology 27, 45-76.

Gordon, M., Jany, C., Nash, C., & Takara, N. 2010. Syllable structure and extrametricality: a typological and phonetic study. Studies in Language 34, 131–166.

Gordon, M. & A. Applebaum. 2010. Acoustic correlates of stress in Turkish Kabardian. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40, 35-58.

Gordon, M. 2010. Review of San Duanmu, Syllable Structure: The Limits of Variation, in Lingua 120, 183-185.

Gordon, M. 2009. Prominence and gemination in Ingrian. Linguistica Uralica 45, 81-100.

Gordon, M., Jany, C., Nash, C., & Takara, N.. 2008. Vowel and consonant sonority and coda weight: a cross-linguistic study. West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 26, 208-216.

Gordon, M. 2008. Pitch accent timing and scaling in Chickasaw. Journal of Phonetics 36, 521-535.

Gordon, M., Jany, C., Nash, C., & Takara, N. 2007. How universal is the sonority hierarchy?: A cross-linguistic acoustic study. Proceedings of ICPhS XVI, 1401-1404.

Applebaum, A. & M. Gordon. 2007. Intonation in Turkish Kabardian. Proceedings of ICPhS XVI, 1045-1048.

Gordon, M. & Pamela Munro. 2007. A phonetic study of final vowel lengthening in Chickasaw, International Journal of American Linguistics 73, 293-330.

Gordon, M. 2007. Typology in Optimality Theory. Language and Linguistics Compass 1, 750-769.

Gordon, M. 2007. The intonational realization of contrastive focus in Chickasaw. In C. Lee, M. Gordon, & D. Büring (eds.), Topic and Focus:  Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Meaning and Intonation, pp. 69-82. Springer.

Gordon, M. 2007. Functionalism. in De Lacy, Paul (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology, pp. 61-78. Cambridge.

Gordon, M. & F. Rose. 2006. Émérillon stress: a phonetic and phonological study, Anthropological Linguistics 48, 132-168.

Gordon, M. 2006. Review of Joyce McDonough, The Navajo Sound System, in Anthropological Linguistics 48, 403-405.

Gordon, M. & A. Applebaum. 2006. Phonetic structures of Turkish Kabardian, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36(2), 159-186.

Gordon, M. 2006. Review of Sharon Hargus and Keren Rice (eds.), Athabaskan Prosody, in Phonology 23, 114-118.

Gordon, M.. 2006. Phonology/phonetics interface. In K. Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, Elsevier.

Gordon, M. 2006. The phonetics of harmony systems. In K. Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, Elsevier.

Gordon, M.. 2005. An autosegmental/metrical model of Chickasaw intonation. In S-A. Jun (ed.), Prosodic Typology: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing, pp. 301-330. Oxford University Press.

Gordon, M. 2005. A perceptually-driven account of onset-sensitive stress, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 23, 595-653.

Gordon, M. & E. Luna. 2004. An intergenerational investigation of Hupa stress, Berkeley Linguistics Society 30.

Gordon, M. & I. Maddieson. 2004. The phonetics of Paici vowels, Oceanic Linguistics 43, 296-310.

Gordon, M. 2004. Positional weight constraints in Optimality Theory, Linguistic Inquiry 35, 692-703.

Gordon, M. 2004. Syllable weight. In B. Hayes, R. Kirchner, & D. Steriade (eds.), Phonetically Based Phonology, pp. 277-312. Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, M. 2004. A phonetic and phonological study of word-level stress in Chickasaw, International Journal of American Linguistics 70, 1-32.

Gordon, M. 2003. The phonology of pitch accent placement in Chickasaw, Phonology 20, 173-218.

Gordon, M. 2003. Collecting phonetic data on endangered languages, I5th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 207-210.

Gordon, M. 2003. The puzzle of onset-sensitive stress: a perceptually-driven approach, West Coast Conference on Formal on Formal Linguistics 22, 217-30.

Gordon, M., Barthmaier, P., & K. Sands. 2002. A cross-linguistic acoustic study of fricatives, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32, 141-174.

Gordon, M. 2002. Review of Jürgen Handke, The Mouton Interactive Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology 19, 121-124.

Gordon, M. 2002. A factorial typology of quantity insensitive stress, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20, 491-552.

Gordon, M. 2002. Weight-by-position adjunction and syllable structure, Lingua 112, 901-931.

Gordon, M. 2002. A phonetically-driven account of syllable weight, Language 78, 51-80.

Gordon, M., Munro, P., & P. Ladefoged. 2002. Chickasaw, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31, 287-290.

Gordon, M., Potter, B., Dawson, J., de Reuse, W., & P. Ladefoged 2001. Phonetic structures of Western Apache, International Journal of American Linguistics 67, 415-448.

Gordon, M. 2001. A typology of contour tone restrictions, Studies in Language 25, 405-444.

Gordon, M. & Peter Ladefoged. 2001. Phonation types:  a cross-linguistic overview, Journal of Phonetics 29, 383-406.

Gordon, M. 2001. Syncope induced metrical opacity as a weight effect, West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 20, 206-19.

Gordon, M. 2001. Laryngeal timing and correspondence in Hupa, UCLA Working Papers in Phonology 5, 1-70.

Gordon, M. 2001. Linguistic aspects of voice quality with special reference to Athabaskan, Proceedings of the 2001 Athabaskan Languages Conference, 163-178.

Gordon, M. 2000. The tonal basis of final weight criteria, Chicago Linguistics Society 36, 141-156.

Gordon, M., Munro, P., & P. Ladefoged. 2000. Some phonetic structures of Chickasaw, Anthropological Linguistics 42, 366-400.

Gordon, M. 2000. Re-examining default-to-opposite stress, Berkeley Linguistics Society 26, 101-112.

Gordon, M. 1999. The intonational structure of Chickasaw, Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp. 1993-1996.

Gordon, M. and I. Maddieson. 1999. The phonetics of Ndumbea, Oceanic Linguistics 38, 66-90.

Gordon, M. 1999. The “neutral” vowels of Finnish: How neutral are they?, Linguistica Uralica 35, 17-21.

Gordon, M. (editor). 1999. UCLA Working Papers in Phonology 2.

Gordon, M. (editor). 1999. UCLA Working Papers in Phonology 3.

Gordon, M. 1998. The process specific nature of weight: the case of contour tone restrictions, West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 17, 235-49.

Gordon, M. 1998. The phonetics and phonology of non-modal vowels: a cross-linguistic perspective, Berkeley Linguistics Society 24, 93-105.

Gordon, M. 1998. A fortition-based approach to Balto-Fennic-Sámi consonant gradation, Folia Linguistica Historica 18, 49-79.

Gordon, M. 1997. Syllable weight and the phonetics/phonology interface, Berkeley Linguistics Society 23, 111-122.

Gordon, M. 1997. Phonetic correlates of stress and the prosodic hierarchy in Estonian. In J. Ross & I. Lehiste (eds.), Estonian Prosody: Papers from a Symposium, pp. 100-24. Tallinn:  Institute of Estonian Language.

Gordon, M. 1996. The phonetic structures of Hupa, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 93, 164-187.

Maddieson, I. & M. Gordon. 1996. Notes on the phonetics of Sele, with particular attention to vowels, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 93, 149-163.

Gordon, M. 1996. The effect of stress and prosodic phrasing on duration, acoustic amplitude and airflow of nasals in Estonian, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 92, 151-159.

Courses: 

  • Linguistics 20: Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics 106/206: Introduction to Phonetics
  • Linguistics 111/211: Introduction to Phonology
  • Linguistics 115/215: Introduction to Historical-Comparative Linguistics
  • Linguistics 213: Experimental Phonetics
  • Linguistics 220: Prosody
  • Linguistics 221A: Field Methods
  • Linguistics 222: Typology and Universals
  • Linguistics 235: Advanced Phonology
  • Linguistics 251: Seminar in Phonetics/Phonology