What does anticipatory coarticulation involve?

Anticipatory coarticulation refers to the phenomenon where the articulatory gestures for a sound are influenced by subsequent sounds that come after it in speech. This concept involves a spreading effect that flows from right to left, meaning that the characteristics of later sounds begin to influence the production of earlier sounds. For instance, when producing a word that contains both a vowel and a consonant, the configuration needed for the vowel may adapt in anticipation of the consonant that follows, thus illustrating how the upcoming phonetic environment shapes the articulation of the preceding sounds.

This understanding is crucial in speech science as it explains how phonetic contexts can change the way sounds are articulated in connected speech, ultimately enhancing the fluidity and naturalness of spoken language. The other options, while related to speech production, do not capture the essence of the anticipatory nature of coarticulation as accurately as the notion of spreading from right to left.