Vowel perception in varied symmetric CVC contexts

Abstract

In the three-decade-long debate over static versus dynamic specification of vowels, perceptual studies in which subjects are tasked with identifying naturally spoken vowels under various ablation conditions have been a mainstay. While not directly producing an understanding of how humans go about recognizing this major subclass of phones, this type of study [e.g., Strange, Jenkins, and Johnson, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 695–705 (1983)] has provided compelling results which must be accounted for in any successful theory of vowel perception. This paper presents results from yet another perceptual study of human vowel identification under ablation conditions. This study uses CVC syllables spoken rapidly by three male speakers in a carrier sentence. Syllables consist of ten American English vowels in each of four consonantal contexts (b—b, d—d, g—g, and h—d). The conditions studied are silent centers (SC), centers only (CO), and the control condition (full). A very robust hierarchy of full>CO>SC is found. Consonantal contexts also have a clear ordering (h—d>b—b>d—d>g—g) with respect to the ease with which they are perceived. Interesting interactions between vowels and their contexts are also evident.