Individual differences in the production and perception of the voicing contrast by native and non-native speakers of English

Abstract

Investigations of acoustic characteristics of speech production and their perceptual correlates often determine that various common patterns are observed among groups of talkers/listeners. It is also sometimes reported that a certain amount of noise occurred in the data, i.e., that not all subjects fit general patterns that were observed. While individuals who do not demonstrate typical patterns are often viewed as outliers, subjects who represent exceptions also provide important information. The present study reports findings obtained from 15 native speakers of English and 15 non-native (native Mandarin) speakers of English who were recorded producing several final-position voiced/voiceless CVC word pairs and who also made voicing judgments about voiced/voiceless cognates produced by other native English and native Mandarin speakers. All native subjects in the present study produced multiple acoustic cues in making voicing distinctions (e.g., vowel duration, final stop closure duration, voicing during final stop occlusion, release burst); however, not all subjects used all these acoustic cues or the same combinations of cues in their voicing contrasts. Only about half the native Mandarin speakers used multiple acoustic cues in attempting to produce a voicing contrast. Various group trends, as well as subgroup variations, in production and perception will be discussed.