Response to Fred Cummins: Looking for Rhythm in Speech

Abstract

This commentary briefly reviews three aspects of rhythm in speech. The first concerns the issues of what to measure and how measurements should relate to rhythm's communicative functions. The second relates to how tonal and durational features of speech contribute to the percept of rhythm, noting evidence that indicates such features can be tightly language-specific. The third aspect addressed is how bodily gestures integrate with and enhance the communicative functions of speech rhythm.