Miran Oh

I'm a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Linguistics at University of Southern California. My research interests are speech production and articulatory phonetics/phonology. My research examines gestural organization and timing under prosodic modulations in speech articulation. I am an active member of the USC Phonetics and Phonology Group and the Speech Production and Articulation kNowledge group (SPAN), working on projects such as tracking vocal tract movements in real-time MR images.

Learn about my research

Research Projects

My research goal is to enrich our understanding of articulatory representation for complex segments with multigestural structures, utilizing syllable structure and prosodic manipulation. I am especially interested in how intergestural timing plays a role in segmental gestural molecules and implications to phonological representations.

Automatic Centroid Tracking (ACT)

Automatic Centroid Tracking (ACT) tool is a MATLAB-based software used to obtain spatial and temporal information of articulatory movements for dynamic speech imaging analyses. ACT is currently used in tracking vertical larynx movement and velum movement. (Oh & Lee JASA-EL 2018, Oh et al. ASA 2017)

Non-pulmonic consonants

This study examines vertical larynx actions and the timing between oral and vertical larynx gestures in ejectives and implosives, which involve larynx raising or lowering to change oral air pressure. Findings show that non-pulmonic consonants are characterized by stable anti-phase timing relations of the two gestures, whereas pulmonic consonants exhibit in-phase relations. (Oh, Byrd, Goldstein, & Narayanan PaPE 2019, Oh et al. ASA 2018)

Articulation of nasal consonants

Although prosody is subject to introduce variability, certain gestural structures are resistant to prosodic modulations. This is true in Korean nasals, where gestural duration and magnitude undergo prosodic lengthening/strengthening effect but velum-oral timing remains stable across varying phrase boundaries. In addition, I address timing structures in various nasal segments. (Oh LabPhon 2020, Oh & Byrd ASA 2019)

Segmental corrective focus

This study investigates prominence modulation at sub-syllable level using a corrective focus task. Findings in acoustic duration and pitch measurements suggest that the scope of the focus is not smaller than a syllable unit, although the upper limit of the scope of focus still needs exploration. Moreover, focus mudulation may interact with other prosodic gestures that are co-active in its domain. (Oh & Byrd JPhon 2019)

Stability analysis with an attractor-based model

Attractor-based models demonstrate how variability in phonetic measurements and stability in phonological contrasts are explained in a unified system. This model can be used to examine what the attractors (i.e., stable states) are, how malleable the attractor landscape is under perturbation, and its statistical distribution, for a given phonological unit. Gestural timing patterns found in empirical articulatory data can be described with this dynamical systems approach.

Computational modeling of gestural timing

Stability in intergestural timing can be illustrated with coupling terms of the multiple gestures. Gestures with tight coordination are predicted to show stable timing patterns (i.e., fast stabilization time), being resistant to temporal perturbations. Therefore, modeling gestural coupling structures is important to understand the representation of gestural organizations, the dependency between coupled gestures, and the consequences of these articulatory structures. Furthermore, the phase coupling analysis can serve as evidence for certain phonological units such as multigestural segments.

Curriculum Vitae

The pdf CV can be downloaded here: Download Full CV

Publications

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
  1. Miran Oh, and Dani Byrd. (2019). Syllable-internal corrective focus in Korean. Journal of Phonetics, 77, 100933. [link]
  2. Miran Oh, and Yoonjeong Lee. (2018). ACT: An Automatic Centroid Tracking tool for analyzing vocal tract actions in real-time magnetic resonance imaging speech production data, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America – Express Letter, 144(4), EL290-EL296. [pdf]
  3. Miran Oh. (2015). Lonely negative words in English and Korean, English Language and Linguistics, Journal of the ELSOK (English Linguistics Society of Korea), 21(2), 83-100. [pdf]
  4. Miran Oh. (2014). A corpus study of overpassivization in Korean EFL learners’ writings, Korean Journal of Applied Linguistics, 30(3), 179-196. [pdf]
  5. Miran Oh. (2014). Adaptation of English liquid loans in Korean: An OT analysis on the distinct patterns of /r/ and /l/, Language Research, 50(2), 387-410. [pdf]
Conference Proceedings
  1. Miran Oh. (2016). The influence of power relations on English L1 and L2 speakers’ oral requests. In Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2016, Boston, MA (pp. 965-969). [pdf]
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
  1. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd, Louis Goldstein, Shrikanth S. Narayanan. (2020). Velum-oral timing and its variability in Korean nasal consonants [abstract][blitz video] [poster][poster tour]
    The 12th International Seminar on Speech Production. [Received Oustanding Student Presentation Award]
  2. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd. (2020). Internal gestural coordination for derived long nasals [abstract][iposter]
    179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Acoustics Virtually Everywhere (AVE)
  3. Miran Oh, Yoonjeong Lee. (2020). Focusing on vertical larynx action dynamics [abstract][iposter]
    179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Acoustics Virtually Everywhere (AVE)
  4. Miran Oh. (2020). Prosodic modulation and the role of the segmental gestural molecule [abstract][slides]
    Laboratory Phonology 17, Vancouver, Canada. (virtual conference)
  5. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd. (2019). Oral-velum actions in the articulation of nasal juncture geminates and singletons [abstract][poster]
    178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), San Diego, CA.
  6. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd. (2019). Focus-induced articulatory prominence on velum actions in nasal geminates [abstract][poster]
    Workshop on Prominence between Cognitive Functions and Linguistic Structures (COFLIS), satellite workshop at Phonetics and Phonology in Europe (PaPE), Bari, Italy.
  7. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd, Louis Goldstein, Shrikanth S. Narayanan. (2019). Vertical larynx actions and larynx-oral timing in ejectives and implosives [abstract][slides]
    3rd Phonetics and Phonology in Europe (PaPE), Lecce, Italy.
  8. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd. (2019). The prosody of corrective focus and its domain in Korean [abstract][poster]
    177th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Louisville, KY.
  9. Miran Oh, Dani Byrd, Louis Goldstein, Shrikanth S. Narayanan. (2018). Enriching the understanding of glottalic consonant production: Vertical larynx movement in Hausa ejectives and implosives [abstract][poster]
    176th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Victoria, Canada.
  10. Miran Oh, Asterios Toutios, Dani Byrd, Louis Goldstein, Shrikanth S. Narayanan. (2017). Tracking larynx movement in real-time MRI data [abstract][poster]
    174th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), New Orleans, LA.
  11. Miran Oh. (2017). Onset effects on a tautosyllabic vowel: Implications for weight. [poster]
    The 25th Manchester Phonology Meeting (25mfm), Manchester, UK.
  12. Miran Oh. (2016). The influence of power relations on English L1 and L2 speakers' oral requests. [poster]
    Speech Prosody 2016, Boston, MA.
  13. Miran Oh. (2014). Effects of onset on pitch and vowel duration.
    The 9th Graduate Seminar of English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK), Seoul, South Korea.
  14. Miran Oh. (2014). Sociophonetic variations of English "request" by Korean EFL learners.
    The 9th International Conference of English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK), Seoul, South Korea.
  15. Miran Oh. (2014). Perception of English liquid loans in Korean: An OT analysis on the distinct patterns of /r/ & /l/.
    The 9th International Workshop of Theoretical East Asian Linguistics, Nantes, France (did not attend).

Research Experience

  1. Research assistant for Shrikanth S. Narayanan, Mign Hsieh Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, USC (2019)
    2. - Worked on image/video analysis with MRI videos
  2. Research assistant for Dani Byrd, Department of Linguistics, USC (2019)
    3. - Analyzed gestural timing data and developed tracking tool for speech articulation
  3. Research assistant for Shrikanth S. Narayanan, Mign Hsieh Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, USC (2018)
    4. - Designed experiments and collected real-time MRI video data to understand complex linguistic configurations
  4. Research assistant for Dani Byrd, Department of Linguistics, USC (2018)
    5. - Analyzed speech data addressing the effect of prosodic modulation on internal linguistic organizations
    - Designed and conducted experiments investigating dynamics and coordination of speech materials
  5. Research assistant for Shrikanth S. Narayanan, Mign Hsieh Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, USC (2017)
    6. - Developed an object tracking tool for analyzing human vocal tract MRI videos (w/ MATLAB)
    - Collected real-time MRI data for Speech Production and Articulation kNowledge (SPAN) group projects
  6. Research assistant for Eunjin Oh, Department of English Language and Literature, Ewha Womans University (2014-2015)
    7. - Data collection and data analysis for socio-phonetic experiments on interactive speech communication

Teaching Experience

Guest Lecture/Tutorial
  1. Tutorial: Presenting and Participating at an Online Conference [resource], PhonLunch at USC (2020)
  2. Guest Lecture: The Process of Change in Science: Human Speech (Thematic Option Honors GE course), USC (Spring 2020)
  3. Guest Lecture: Phonology, Stony Brook University (Spring 2016)
Teaching Assistantships
  1. The Process of Change in Science: Human Speech (CORE 103) in the Thematic Option Honors Program, Univeristy of Southern California (Fall 2019 & Spring 2020)
  2. Human Language and Technology (LING 115), Univeristy of Southern California (Spring 2018)
  3. Language and Society (LING 285), Univeristy of Southern California (Fall 2017 & Spring 2019)
  4. Phonology (LIN 301), Stony Brook University (Spring 2016)
  5. Phonetics (LIN 201), Stony Brook University (Fall 2015)
Teaching Training
  1. Future Faculty Teaching Institute, Center for Excellence in Teaching, USC (2018-2019)
  2. Teaching practicum, USC Linguistics (2017)
  3. Student assistant, English Lounge (tutoring center), Ewha Womans University (2014)

Honors and Awards

  1. 2nd prize Outstanding Student Presentation Award, International Seminar on Speech Production (2020)
  2. Raymond H. Stetson Scholarship in Phonetics and Speech Science - Honorable Mention, Acoustical Society of America (2020)
  3. Ph.D. Fellowship in the Social Sciences, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC (2016)
  4. Graduate School Award for Dissertation with Highest Honors, Ewha Womans University (2015)
  5. Honors Scholarship, Ewha Womans University (2012)

Service

  1. ASA Student Representative (Speech Communication Technical Committee), Acoustical Society of America (2018-2020)
  2. President, Korean Graduate Student Association, University of Southern California (2019-2020)
  3. Colloquium Organizer, Graduate Students in Linguistics, University of Southern California (2019-2020)
  4. Student Affiliate, Korean Studies Institute Graduate Student Affiliate, University of Southern California (2017-2020)
  5. Treasurer, Korean Graduate Student Association, University of Southern California (2018-2019)
  6. Event Coordinator, Graduate Students in Linguistics, University of Southern California (2017-2018)
  7. Student Volunteer, 2016 Annual Meeting on Phonology, University of Southern California (Oct 2016)
  8. Student Volunteer, Speech Prosody 2016, Boston University (May 2016)
  9. Student Volunteer, The 46th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL) and the 30th Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (ASAL), Stony Brook University (Mar-Apr 2016)
Get in touch with me

Contact me

Miran Oh | miranoh at usc dot edu


Department of Linguistics

University of Southern California

3601 Watt Way

Grace Ford Salvatori 301

Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693

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