Abstract
We asked to what extent phonetic convergence across speakers may facilitate later word recognition. Northern-French participants showed both a clear phonetic convergence effect toward Southern French in a word repetition task, and a bias toward the phonemic system of their own variety in the recognition of single words. Perceptual adaptation to a non-native accent may be difficult when the native accent has a phonemic contrast that is associated with a single phonemic category in the non-native accent. Convergence toward a speaker of a non-native accent in production may not prevent each speaker’s native variety to prevail in word identification. Imitation has been found in previous studies to contribute to predicting upcoming words in sentences in adverse listening conditions, but may play a more limited role in the recognition of single words.
Highlights
In current research on spoken communication, a major challenge is to better understand how spoken language is produced and perceived by humans in the context of what is regarded as its primary site of occurrence, i.e., social interaction
The word type × task interaction shows that the Northern-French participants produced CL-words with a more open vowel [by subject: F (1, 13) = 8.97, p < 0.05; by item: F (1, 26) = 58.002, p < 0.001], in the repetition task compared with the reading task, whereas OP-words were produced with a vowel that was open to the same degree [by subject: F (1, 13) = 2.549, NS; by item: F (1, 26) = 3.911, NS] in both the reading task and the repetition task
Our acoustic data revealed that Northern-French participants clearly tended to converge toward the Southern-French speaker in the realization of the /o/-/ / contrast, in the repetition task compared with the reading task
Summary
In current research on spoken communication, a major challenge is to better understand how spoken language is produced and perceived by humans in the context of what is regarded as its primary site of occurrence, i.e., social interaction. Seminal work, Pardo (2006) has shown that perceived similarity in pronunciation between talkers increases over the course of the interaction and persists beyond its conclusion These phenomena may facilitate conversational exchange by contributing to setting a common ground between speakers (Giles et al, 1991). They may have the same effect as so-called alignment mechanisms, assumed to apply to linguistic representations at different levels between partners, in order for these partners to have a better joint understanding of what they are talking about (Garrod and Pickering, 2004)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
