Rose Stamp , Svetlana Dachkovsky , Hagit Hel-Or , David Cohn , Wendy Sandler
{"title":"A kinematic study of phonetic reduction in a young sign language","authors":"Rose Stamp , Svetlana Dachkovsky , Hagit Hel-Or , David Cohn , Wendy Sandler","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Phonetic reduction arises in the course of typical language production, when language users produce a less clearly articulated form of a word. An important factor that affects phonetic reduction is the predictability of the information conveyed: predictable information is reduced. This can be observed in everyday use of reference in spoken language. Specifically, first mention of a referent is more carefully articulated than subsequent mentions of the same referents, which are often phonetically reduced. Here we ask whether phonetic reduction for predictable information exists in a young sign language, and, in particular, how phonetic reduction is realized in visual languages that exploit various articulators of the body: the hands, the head, and the torso. The only natural languages that we can observe as they emerge in real time are young sign languages, and we focus on one of these in the current study: Israeli Sign Language (ISL). We use 3D motion-capture technology to measure phonetic reduction in signers of ISL by comparing the production of referring expressions synchronically, at different points during a narrative (e.g., Introduction, Reintroduction, Maintenance). Our findings show: (a) that phonetic reduction is present in a young sign language; and specifically (b) that the actions of different articulators involved in discourse are reduced, based on predictability. We consider the importance of these findings in understanding predictability in language more generally.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140138929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeremy Steffman , Jennifer Cole , Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
{"title":"Intonational categories and continua in American English rising nuclear tunes","authors":"Jeremy Steffman , Jennifer Cole , Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study tests a prediction from the prevalent Autosegmental-Metrical (AM) model of American English intonation: the existence of distinct phonological contrasts among nuclear tunes composed of a pitch accent (here H*, L+H*, L*+H), phrase accent (H-, L-) and boundary tone (H%, L%), which in combination yield an inventory of 12 tonally distinct nuclear tunes. Using an imitative speech production paradigm and AX discrimination task with L1 speakers of Mainstream American English (MAE) we test the extent to which each of 12 predicted tunes is distinct from the others in the production and perception of intonation. We tackle this question with a series of analytical methods. We use GAMM modeling of time-series F0 trajectories to test for differences among all of the twelve nuclear tunes, and compare these results to a method that does not rely on pre-defined tune categories, k-means clustering for time-series data, to discover emergent classes of tunes in a “bottom-up” fashion. We complement these time-series analyses with an analysis of the temporal tonal center of gravity (TCoG) over the F0 trajectories of nuclear tunes to assess tonal timing distinctions and their relation to top-down tune classes (defined by the AM model) and bottom-up classes (emergent from clustering). Production results are further compared to perceptual discrimination responses, which together point to a hierarchy of distinctions among nuclear tunes: a set of primary tune distinctions are emergent in clustering and always distinct in perception. Other tune distinctions, although evident in top-down analyses of (labeled) F0 trajectories, are lost in emergent clusters, limited in magnitude and scope, and often confused in perception. Results are discussed in terms of implications for a theory of intonational phonology.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447024000160/pdfft?md5=49424f67a5652d404f595fdd53d64c3b&pid=1-s2.0-S0095447024000160-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140113874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Use of segmental detail as a cue to prosodic structure in reference to information structure in German","authors":"Holger Mitterer , Sahyang Kim , Taehong Cho","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101297","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Listeners often make use of suprasegmental features to compute a prosodic structure and thereby infer an information structure. In this study, we ask whether listeners also use segmental details as a cue to the prosodic structure (and thus also the information structure) of an utterance. To this end, we examined the effects of segmental variation of German auxiliary haben (‘to have’)—i.e., hyperarticulated [habən], moderately reduced [habm], and strongly reduced [ham]. Three remotely accessed online mouse-tracking experiments were carried out by adapting the lab-based experimental paradigms used in Roettger and Franke (2019). They showed effects of pitch accent on the auxiliary haben, leading to the interpretation of an affirmative answer to a preceding question, thus anticipating an upcoming referent noun to be the same as the one given in the question (i.e., the verum focus effect). Experiment 1 adapted the design Roettger and Franke (2019) to an online setting. In Experiment 2, listeners were indeed found to make use of the segmental detail of the auxiliary haben, even in the absence of f0 (pitch accent) information—i.e., the hyperarticulated (full) form showed an effect similar to the pitch accented form, albeit smaller. In Experiment 3, we confirmed that the observed segmental effects were not simply due to learning that might have taken place during the experiment. Our results thus imply that the analysis of prosodic structure, which is often assumed to occur in parallel with the segmental analysis, must integrate segmental details that help to signal the prosodic structure.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139942643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unmerging the sibilant merger via phonetic imitation: Phonetic, phonological, and social factors","authors":"Sang-Im Lee-Kim , Yun-Chieh Chou","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study explores the ways in which marginal contrasts are clearly realized by merged speakers as a result of exposure to a distinct speaker. The alveolar-retroflex sibilants in Taiwan Mandarin (TM) were chosen as a test case as the distinction is variably implemented, ranging from a complete merger to clear contrasts. In a spontaneous phonetic imitation task, merged and distinct TM speakers imitated the speech of a distinct model talker of Mainland Mandarin. The results show that merged speakers substantially increased the spectral distance between the two sibilants during imitation, essentially reversing the merger. Specific patterns of the merger reversal were further enriched by phonetic and social factors. The categories were unmerged by making reference to each individual's phonetic space; speakers with higher baseline spectral frequencies restored the underlying retroflex category, and those with lower baselines retrieved the alveolars through dentalization. Furthermore, the merger reversal showed preferential convergence conditioned by gender—female speakers were less willing to accommodate socially undesirable strong retroflexion. Taken together, phonetic imitation reflected speakers’ abstract phonological knowledge, but specific patterns were also shaped by a careful calibration of phonetic space and the desired phonetic norms of the speech community.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139743241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Achieving perceptual constancy with context cues in second language speech perception","authors":"Kaile Zhang , Defeng Li , Gang Peng","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101299","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101299","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Context cues are useful for listeners to normalize speech variability and achieve perceptual constancy. It remains unknown whether this normalization strategy is language-independent and can be generalized directly from the perception of first language (L1) to second language (L2). To answer this question, Experiment 1 in the present study asked Mandarin learners of Cantonese to perceive ambiguous Cantonese tones with context cues. The results revealed a significant Cantonese-tone normalization process in Mandarin learners, but the effect size was smaller than native speakers, suggesting that speech normalization required language-specific knowledge and thus it was refined gradually during L2 acquisition. The results also showed that even with effective context cues, Mandarin learners tended to give more high level tone responses, a tone also in Mandarin, implying that L1 phonological system interacts with immediate L2 context during L2 speech normalization. Experiment 2 revealed that L2 immersion but not overall L2 proficiency or L2 phonological proficiency facilitated L2 normalization process, indicating that L2 speech normalization improved with perceptual practice and needed more high-level L2 knowledge than L2 phonology.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139719172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Phonetics–phonology mapping in the generalization of perceptual learning","authors":"Wei Lai , Meredith Tamminga","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101295","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Previous studies on whether perceptual learning generalizes across multiple speakers have produced inconsistent results between generalization and speaker-specificity. A prior proposal is that the critical phonemes produced by two different speakers need to be phonetically similar for perceptual learning to generalize. To test this account, we investigated the perceptual generalization of sibilants across two pairs of speakers. In both cases, sibilants of the same male speaker were manipulated to induce either an /s/-favoring perceptual bias or an /ʃ/-favoring one in a training phase. We then examined whether the perceptual biases would generalize in a test phase to the /s/-/ʃ/ continua of two different female speakers, one resembling the training speaker and the other differing from the training speaker in the spectral frequency distributions of their sibilants. We found that generalization of perceptual learning occurred in both /s/-favoring and /ʃ/-favoring conditions between the speaker pair with similar sibilant productions. For the speaker pair with different sibilants, we found perceptual generalization in the /s/-favoring training condition but not in the /ʃ/-favoring condition, which is not predicted by the phonetic similarity account. To explain these unexpected results, we offer a novel phonetics–phonology mismatch account as a refinement of our understanding of when and why perceptual generalization might be blocked. The results shed light on the constant influence of the mapping between phonetics and phonology during the learning and generalization of phonetic variability.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139674479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Giulio G.A. Severijnen , Hans Rutger Bosker , James M. McQueen
{"title":"Your “VOORnaam” is not my “VOORnaam”: An acoustic analysis of individual talker differences in word stress in Dutch","authors":"Giulio G.A. Severijnen , Hans Rutger Bosker , James M. McQueen","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Different talkers speak differently, even within the same homogeneous group. These differences lead to acoustic variability in speech, causing challenges for correct perception of the intended message. Because previous descriptions of this acoustic variability have focused mostly on segments, talker variability in prosodic structures is not yet well documented. The present study therefore examined acoustic between-talker variability in word stress in Dutch. We recorded 40 native Dutch talkers from a participant sample with minimal dialectal variation and balanced gender, producing segmentally overlapping words (e.g., <em>VOORnaam</em> vs. <em>voorNAAM</em>; ‘first name’ vs. ‘respectable’, capitalization indicates lexical stress), and measured different acoustic cues to stress. Each individual participant’s acoustic measurements were analyzed using Linear Discriminant Analyses, which provided coefficients for each cue, reflecting the strength of each cue in a talker’s productions. On average, talkers primarily used mean F0, intensity, and duration. Moreover, each participant also employed a unique combination of cues, illustrating large prosodic variability between talkers. In fact, classes of cue-weighting tendencies emerged, differing in which cue was used as the main cue. These results offer the most comprehensive acoustic description, to date, of word stress in Dutch, and illustrate that large prosodic variability is present between individual talkers.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447024000020/pdfft?md5=be3def2fa087e1f1b8ff873023fb0c30&pid=1-s2.0-S0095447024000020-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139675600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The boundary-induced modulation of obstruents and tones in Thai","authors":"Alif Silpachai","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101291","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Limited studies have suggested that tones can be strengthened in domain-initial positions, suggesting that domain-initial strengthening (DIS) effects in a tone language extend beyond the first segment of a prosodic domain. However, these studies have yielded unclear results. This study investigated whether DIS causes boundary-induced changes in tones. This study analyzed the maximum fundamental frequency (<em>f</em><sub>0</sub>) of the falling, mid, and low tones in Thai along with acoustic measures of consonants, including the Voice Onset Times (VOTs) of /b/, /p/, and /pʰ/, frication duration of /f/, and consonant-induced <em>f</em><sub>0</sub> perturbation effects associated with these four consonants in domain-initial and domain-medial positions. Some evidence of DIS effects on tones was found, suggesting that DIS effects in a tone language can extend to tone production realized with the vowel that is beyond the first segment. Additionally, the VOTs of /b/, /p/, and /pʰ/ were more negative, unchanged, and longer, respectively, the frication of /f/ was longer, and <em>f</em><sub>0</sub> following /pʰ/ was raised in a domain-initial position compared to a domain-medial position. The findings contribute to the current understanding of the prosody-phonetics interface, particularly with respect to the relationship between DIS and the realization of tones.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447023000803/pdfft?md5=2621d1556ea73e80c38435e48e4309f2&pid=1-s2.0-S0095447023000803-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139433932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inaccurate but predictable: Vocal-tract length estimation and gender stereotypes in height perception","authors":"Santiago Barreda , Kristin Predeck","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Research suggests human listeners are not very accurate in assessing the size of adults from their speech, though they appear to be consistent in their judgments across listeners. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the importance of the higher formants for providing consistent height judgments, how consistent these height judgments are across replications, and the role of f0 and social knowledge in maintaining the stability of apparent speaker height judgments. Listeners were presented with syllables produced by 30 adult male and female speakers, and were asked to identify the word, the gender of the speaker, and the height of the speaker. In a second experiment, listeners were presented with voiced and (synthetic) whispered speech and asked to provide the same responses. Results indicate that speakers use acoustic cues in largely predictable ways, leading to consistent apparent height judgments when averaged across listeners. However, the behavior of individual listeners is unpredictable, and the accuracy of apparent height judgments with respect to veridical heights is low. Finally, results suggest that non-acoustic social knowledge regarding the expected sizes of adult males and females play an important role in the determination of apparent height from speech.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447023000797/pdfft?md5=127a3026eee187d0fb757dd008b10186&pid=1-s2.0-S0095447023000797-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139078542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Doris Mücke , Simon Roessig , Tabea Thies , Anne Hermes , Antje Mefferd
{"title":"Challenges with the kinematic analysis of neurotypical and impaired speech: Measures and models","authors":"Doris Mücke , Simon Roessig , Tabea Thies , Anne Hermes , Antje Mefferd","doi":"10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A common goal of kinematic studies on disordered speech is the identification of speech motor impairments that negatively impact speech function. Although it is well-known that<!--> <!-->the kinematic contours of speakers with speech disorders often deviate considerably from those of neurotypical speakers, systematic quantitative assessments of these impairment-related movement disturbances remain challenging. Kinematic measurement approaches are commonly grounded in models and theories that have emerged exclusively from observations of healthy speakers. However, often these models cannot accommodate the deviant articulatory behaviors of speakers with speech motor impairment. In the present paper, we address this problem. By considering noise as a factor in Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics (AP/TD), we can account for articulatory behaviors that are known to occur in healthy speakers (e.g., during slow speech) as well as in speakers with motor speech impairments. In a proof of concept,<!--> <!-->we descriptively compare modeled articulatory behaviors that include noise at various levels with empirical data. We view such an extension of the AP/TD as a first step towards a more comprehensive speech production model that can serve as a theoretical framework to study the speech production mechanism in healthy speakers and speakers with motor speech impairments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51397,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Phonetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447023000815/pdfft?md5=60e753de76a2ffbb58405d4d53a6b935&pid=1-s2.0-S0095447023000815-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139504065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}