It's all about, like, acoustics

The present study explores the possibility of systematic acoustic differences that could be used to differentiate ‘homophones’. This study investigates productions of like in western Canadian English, focussing specifically on acoustic characteristics and whether they differ across multiple distinct lexical and grammatical functions. Segment duration, word duration, and degree of diphthongization are explored for variation as a function of semantic category. We demonstrate that some variation is predictable given the form of like a speaker produces.