The effect of sentence timing on the perception of word-initial stop consonants

Abstract

The influence of temporal context on the perception of voice onset time (VOT) as information for the identity of a word-initial stop consonant was examined in three experiments. Different versions of a ten-word precursor phrase were constructed by recording the phrase at a fast and a slow rate and then combining words from the two original phrases to produce composite phrases with various patterns of rate changes. A final (target) syllable from a seven member /gi/-/ki/ VOT continuum constructed from natural speech was added to the end of the phrase after a variable pause duration. Subjects listened to each phrase version and judged the identity of the target syllable. In general, the VOT boundary was found to shift to shorter values with precursors that contained more fast words and shorter pause durations. Furthermore, while the rate of the words immediately preceding the target appeared to have the greatest effect, there were also significant rate effects due to the rate of stressed words early in the precursor and the pattern of rate changes throughout the precursor. [Work supported by NIMH.]