[Page 470]When listening to naturally occurring speech, it becomes quickly apparent that the vast majority of words are produced in a connected fashion. That is, there is not usually an audible pause between each word akin to the physical spaces we see between written or typed words. What’s more, words are often produced in such a way that they can be heard to be phonetically joined; they seem to flow into one another. The study of such phenomena is the study of connected speech.

The phonetic characteristics of words produced in isolation and in connected speech are quite distinct. The traditional approach to the study of connected speech is one grounded in processes—that is, to view the coming together of words as having the potential to ...