Quantifying target—realization differences. Part I: Segments

Abstract

The realizations of linguistic units that appear in disordered speech are frequently different from the corresponding ‘target’ forms which occur in normal speech. Moreover, the degree of difference between realization and target is a matter of some significance in relation to the success or failure of communication. The present paper is therefore devoted to a survey of the various methods of quantifying target-realization differences, and an explanation of how some of these methods may be used in the measurement of differences between pairs of individual speech sounds or segments. The treatment encompasses both articulatory and perceptual differences between targets and their realizations.