{"title":"The Impact of Respectfulness on Causal Inference During Discourse Processing.","authors":"Wenjing Yu, Yuhan Xie, Qian Zhang, Xiaohong Yang","doi":"10.1177/00238309261416503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309261416503","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigated how social-pragmatic cues modulate causal inference during Chinese discourse comprehension, bridging social cognition and language processing. Two self-paced reading experiments manipulated causal strength (Strong vs. Weak) and respect consistency (Respect \"nin\" vs. Disrespect \"ni\") across coherent five-sentence discourses. Experiment 1, using an explicit causal judgment task, found that weak causality elicited longer reading times than strong causality. Notably, this causal strength effect was amplified under respectful address but reduced under disrespectful address. We interpret this finding as suggesting that the cognitive cost of processing a sociopragmatic violation-driven by mechanisms such as attentional diversion, emotional arousal, or pragmatic reanalysis-interferes with causal inference. Experiment 2, using an implicit reading paradigm, showed a persistent causal strength effect without modulation by respectfulness, and no spillover to subsequent sentences. This pattern indicates that sociopragmatic influences on inference may depend on task context and processing goals. Overall, the results suggest that while causal inference can occur automatically, its interaction with social cues appears constrained by cognitive resources and task demands. These findings offer new insights for how social-pragmatic norms interact with cognitive mechanisms in language comprehension, with implications for cross-cultural pragmatics and models of discourse coherence.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309261416503"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146094881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Manfred Pützer, Jean Richard Moringlane, Wolfgang Reith, Christoph M Krick
{"title":"A Contribution to the Role of the Putamen-Claustrum-Insular Region in Speech Motor Control Processes.","authors":"Manfred Pützer, Jean Richard Moringlane, Wolfgang Reith, Christoph M Krick","doi":"10.1177/00238309251383523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251383523","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of the putamen-claustrum-insular region (region of interest, ROI) in speech motor control processes, considering functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and acoustic analysis. Forty-three neurotypical participants performed visually presented motor planning and execution tasks (two highly frequent non-word CV-syllable sequences), which differ in gestural complexity. First, it can be shown that the ROI generally plays a role during motor planning and motor execution. Second, comparing blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses across the complexity conditions revealed that syllables with greater gestural complexity elicited increased activation in the bilateral ROI. This region may help to coordinate articulatory movements in articulatory subsystems. The intricacy of these glottal and supraglottal articulatory movements defines the gestural complexity of the respective speech sound. Finally, our results suggest that these differences in BOLD response in the ROI reflect the differential contribution of articulatory mechanisms that are required to produce phonologically distinct speech sounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251383523"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146087917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cumulative Enhancement in Naïve L3 Tone Perception: The Perception of Pitch and Phonation Type.","authors":"Yufei Niu, Peggy Pik Ki Mok","doi":"10.1177/00238309251410913","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251410913","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has shown that tonal second language (L2) experience can enhance the third language (L3) tone perception of native speakers of non-tone languages. However, tone is a multidimensional concept, and phonation type also serves as an important cue in the tone perception of some tone languages. In this study, 38 native English speakers of different Mandarin proficiency levels, 15 native English and 15 native Mandarin speakers, all of whom were naïve to the Wenzhou Wu dialect, participated in an AX discrimination task. The Wenzhou dialect was used for the naïve L3 stimuli because of its breathy voice feature in the low-register tones. Mandarin Tone 3 (T3) is often realized with creaky voice, while in English, creaky voice is a prosodic and sociophonetic marker. We asked whether the exposure to one phonation type (creaky voice) at a different linguistic level (indexical in English, allophonic in Mandarin) could lead to better performance on another phonation type (breathy voice). Our results showed that in addition to its effect on pitch perception, Mandarin-learning experience was associated with higher accuracy in phonation perception for native English speakers, and high-level L2 learners could even outperform native Mandarin speakers. Longer length of Mandarin-learning and Mandarin-immersion experience had a facilitative effect on naïve L3 tone perception, resulting in higher accuracy in the perception of both pitch and phonation to varying degrees. Moreover, the study demonstrated that acoustic similarity significantly affects pitch perception in the initial stages of L3 processing, with acoustically similar tone pairs posing greater perceptual difficulty than dissimilar pairs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251410913"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146068702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relationship Between Semantic Memory Network and Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: Evidence From a Large-Scale Diffusion MRI Dataset.","authors":"Ziyi He, Xiaoyan Gong, Cheng Wang","doi":"10.1177/00238309251411303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251411303","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon is traditionally considered a retrieval failure; however, it may also reflect cognitive advantages in semantic memory. Semantic memory refers to the repository of general world knowledge, including word meanings, objects, people, and their relationships, and is underpinned by a network of multiple brain regions. Prior studies on the relationship between semantic memory and TOT occurrences have yielded inconsistent results, warranting further investigation. Here, we examined this relationship by applying graph theory to analyze the topological properties of the semantic memory network, using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) data from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) repository (<i>N</i> = 576; age: 18-87). Our results demonstrated that global metrics of the semantic memory structural network-global efficiency, local efficiency, mean degree centrality, and mean clustering coefficient-positively predicted TOT rates. At the nodal level, increased metrics in the right posterior lateral temporal cortex (pLTC) and left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) were associated with higher TOT rates. These findings suggest that a more extensive semantic memory, characterized by a richer network of general knowledge, may hinder word retrieval.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251411303"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146012504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revisiting the Benefits of Hand Gestures in L2 Pronunciation: Generalization Effects in Multi-Session Multimodal Phonetic Training.","authors":"Sichang Gao, Xiaotong Xi, Peng Li","doi":"10.1177/00238309251399140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251399140","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Multimodal phonetic training with hand gestures can support L2 speech learning, but few studies have examined its generalization effects. In this between-subjects study with a pretest/post-test paradigm, 39 Japanese learners of Mandarin practiced Mandarin aspirated stops, high back rounded vowel /u/, and T3 Sandhi over four training sessions. The gesture (G) group (<i>n</i> = 20) received training with hand gestures illustrating the phonetic and articulatory features of the target sounds, while the no gesture (NG) group (<i>n</i> = 19) received the same training without gestures. Participants read trained words during the pre- and post-tests and untrained words in a generalization test. Results showed that the G group outperformed the NG group in improving the pronunciation accuracy of aspirated stops and vowels, but not T3 Sandhi. Importantly, the G group showed better generalization to untrained items across all targets. These findings highlight the robust effects of hand gestures in multimodal phonetic training and the role of embodied cognition in L2 speech acquisition.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251399140"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145967744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is \"Intrinsic Vowel Duration\" Bio-Mechanical or More? Preliminary Results from Northwestern Italian.","authors":"Stefano Coretta","doi":"10.1177/00238309251399657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251399657","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A well-known property of vowel duration is that it tends to be mediated by vowel height: higher vowels are usually shorter than lower vowels (aka \"intrinsic vowel duration\"). Results from previous work on a limited number of languages suggest two possible scenarios: (A) vowel duration is entirely driven by the duration of the gesture necessary to reach the tongue height target of the specific vowel, (B) vowel duration targets are part of the cognitive representation of the vowel. However, a third scenario has been put forward theoretically: (C) the duration of the vocalic gesture partially determines vowel duration, but a vowel duration target for each vowel category is also necessary. This study set out to investigate vowel duration data from Northern Italian to assess which of the three scenarios finds support. The first formant frequency (F1) of vowels was used as a proxy for tongue height position, and directed acyclic graph theory was employed to determine the causal relationship between vowel duration, vowel category, and F1. Bayesian modeling results suggest a robust non-linear effect of F1 on vowel duration, together with a direct effect of vowel category, which matches scenario (C).</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251399657"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145890522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Perceptual Learning Extends Across Vowels.","authors":"Chelsea Sanker","doi":"10.1177/00238309251395663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251395663","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Speakers' perception of phonemes can be shifted based on hearing tokens of them with altered acoustic characteristics, and those shifts are extended to phonemes not heard during exposure. The patterns of extension from one vowel to others can help clarify the phonological representation of vowels and the processes that underlie extension of acoustic shifts. Three perceptual learning tasks tested how exposure to shifted F1 or F2 in a single vowel quality in American English influences other vowels with a range of characteristics, and how differences between dialects interact with those patterns of extension. In Experiment 1, shifted F1 in /ɪ/ exposure items produced perceptual shifts in the boundary between several high and mid vowels, as well as the /ε-æ/ boundary. In Experiment 2, shifted F2 in /u/ exposure items produced perceptual shifts in the boundary between front and back vowels. In Experiment 3, shifted F2 in /ε/ or /ei/ produced different patterns; shifted /ei/ only impacted the /ou-ei/ boundary, while shifted /ε/ impacted /ʌ-ε/ and /ʊ-ɪ/. The results can be explained by shifts in perception extending to vowels that share phonological features which are linked to the manipulated acoustic characteristic. However, the results are also largely consistent with extension based on acoustic similarity. There was little evidence for the listener's dialect affecting patterns of extension.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251395663"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145890583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Multi-CEFR-Level Learner Corpus Study to Quantify Fluency and Accuracy in Speech.","authors":"Lan-Fen Huang, Tomáš Gráf","doi":"10.1177/00238309251393170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251393170","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study strengthens the validation of learner speech assessment in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) by analyzing the quantitative variables related to fluency and accuracy across four CEFR levels (A2, B1, B2, and C1). Drawing on a learner corpus approach, we examine 500,000 tokens from the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI) and its extensions, supplemented by post hoc rater evaluations. Three task types-a semi-monologic topic discussion, a dialogic interaction, and a monologic picture description-are used to elicit variation in speech production. The analysis focuses on speech rates, the frequency of filled and unfilled pauses, and error rates to unveil developmental trends in learner speech. The results reveal strong correlations between these fluency and accuracy metrics and CEFR levels, with speech rate emerging as the most reliable indicator of proficiency. The frequency of unfilled pauses decreases as proficiency increases, while filled pauses, although less critical to fluency assessment, offer insights into speech planning mechanisms. Error rates similarly decline with higher proficiency, reflecting greater accuracy in speech production. Exemplary instances for each CEFR level are presented, offering practical metrics for teaching, assessment, and rater training. While the study's limitations include an overrepresentation of Mandarin Chinese learners and the exclusion of pronunciation errors, these gaps highlight avenues for future research. This study provides empirical, task-sensitive evidence to enrich CEFR can-do descriptors, enhance rater training, and refine speaking assessments, contributing to more effective language teaching, learning, and assessment practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251393170"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145835380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Minjeong Kim, Jaehan Park, Minhong Jeong, Jieun Song
{"title":"What Determines Personality Impressions of Synthetic and Natural Voices? The Effects of Voice Quality and Intonation.","authors":"Minjeong Kim, Jaehan Park, Minhong Jeong, Jieun Song","doi":"10.1177/00238309251389567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251389567","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The present study investigated how acoustic and phonetic characteristics of synthetic and natural voices affect personality impressions of the voices. To this end, we conducted a personality rating experiment in which 30 native Korean speakers judged the perceived personality of natural Korean utterances and their synthetic counterparts (voice clones) using the Big-Five personality model. Various acoustic parameters, including measures of voice quality, F0, and articulation rate, were then extracted from the speech, and Intonational Phrase boundary tones were annotated. The ratings of the Big-Five personality traits were reduced to two dimensions (P1: agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability; P2: extraversion and openness) using a principal component analysis. The results suggest that the acoustic differences between state-of-the-art synthetic speech and its original counterpart can produce varying effects on personality perception. For example, speech produced with a narrower F0 range received lower scores on P1 and P2, but for male speakers, this effect was only observed in synthetic voices, likely due to the less-natural intonational patterns used. The intonation analysis further demonstrates that across speech type, using context-appropriate tones or those conveying positive attitudes improves the overall impression of the voice (both P1 and P2). The results also suggest that a less-modal voice enhances the personality scores overall, but specific voice qualities (i.e., breathiness and creakiness) and voice pitch seem to affect P1 and P2 differently. The present study demonstrates a range of acoustic and phonetic characteristics that should be considered when designing personas for AI voices or developing more likable synthetic voices.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251389567"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145835357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jiyoung Jang, Jungah Lee, Jiyoung Lee, Sahyang Kim, Taehong Cho
{"title":"Unveiling Denasalization as an Ongoing Sound Change: The Role of Prosody and Gender in Seoul Korean.","authors":"Jiyoung Jang, Jungah Lee, Jiyoung Lee, Sahyang Kim, Taehong Cho","doi":"10.1177/00238309251390431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251390431","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examines variation in coarticulatory vowel nasalization in Seoul Korean as a function of prosodic boundaries and gender, exploring its role in an emerging denasalization sound change. Coarticulatory vowel nasality, measured by A1-P0, was analyzed in the word-initial vowels of /ma.mi/ across three prosodic boundary conditions (IP-initial, AP-initial, and Wd-initial) in 35 speakers in their 20s. Results show that phrase-initial vowels exhibit reduced nasality as part of domain-initial articulatory strengthening, suggesting that denasalization of word-initial nasal consonants extends to the following vowel, reducing its coarticulatory nasalization and thus signaling the progression of a position-driven sound change. Significant gender differences were found: male speakers consistently adhere to this change throughout the vowel, exhibiting greater reductions in coarticulatory vowel nasalization in phrase-initial contexts. In contrast, female speakers retain higher nasality levels in both phrase-initial and phrase-medial positions by regulating the coarticulatory process. These gender-related differences may reflect socially grounded perceptions of nasality and/or female speakers' tendency to preserve phonological features, influencing speech production choices. These findings highlight the interplay between prosodically driven phonetic variation and gender: speakers actively control the degree of vowel nasalization, and this phonetic variation, in turn, is further shaped by gender, potentially evolving into a systematic sound change.</p>","PeriodicalId":51255,"journal":{"name":"Language and Speech","volume":" ","pages":"238309251390431"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145769981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}