Contrastive perception of duration and F0 cues for stop categorization.

Sang-Im Lee-Kim

doi:10.1121/10.0003426

Abstract

This study examined the role of linguistic experience in the contrastive perception of suprasegmental cues for stop categorization. Korean-speaking learners of Mandarin and naive listeners labeled word-medial unaspirated stops (e.g., ma.pa) as either fortis [long closure-high F0] or lenis [short closure-low F0]. The results revealed comparable effects of relative duration for both groups: shorter neighboring vowels elicited more fortis responses, arising from longer perceived stop closure. However, F0 contours were processed contrastively only for the learners: stops were perceived as fortis before vowels with lower offset F0, which may have contributed to a higher perceived onset F0.

Highlights

The perception of speech sounds arises from the integration of the intrinsic properties of target sounds and the extrinsic properties of neighboring sounds
That is, when the neighboring vowels are long, the stop is perceived as having shorter closure, which is a characteristic of lenis stops
The present study examined whether the phonetic cues to the lenis-fortis distinction in Korean are processed relative to the phonetic attributes of the surrounding vowels

Summary

Introduction

The perception of speech sounds arises from the integration of the intrinsic properties of target sounds and the extrinsic properties of neighboring sounds. The effect of extrinsic context is said to be “contrastive.” For example, the processing of lexical tone is context-dependent for speakers of tone languages. The duration of stop closure is assessed in relation to the duration of a neighboring vowel. For instance, perceive a stop segment as “voiceless,” which is characterized by a long stop closure, when the preceding vowel has been shortened [e.g., Kluender et al (1988) and Raphael (1972)]. Japanese listeners are biased toward perceiving “geminates,” or long consonants, when the preceding mora has been shortened (e.g., Idemaru and Guion-Anderson, 2010)

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Conclusion