Target Syllables Research Articles

Language mode effects on second language categorical perception

This study investigates the perception of the /b/-/p/ voicing contrast in English and Spanish by native English listeners, native Spanish listeners, and highly proficient Spanish-speaking second-language (L2) learners of English with a late onset of acquisition (mean = 10.8) and at least three-year residence in an English-speaking environment. Participants completed a forced-choice identification task where they identified target syllables in a Voice Onset Time (VOT) continuum as "pi" or "bi." They listened to 10 blocks of 19 equidistant steps ranging from + 88 ms-VOT to -89 ms-VOT. Between blocks, subjects read and wrote responses to language background questions, thus actively processing the target language. Monolinguals completed the task in their native language (L1). L2 learners completed the task once in their L1 and once in their L2, thus providing a manipulation of "language mode" (Grosjean, 2001). The results showed that L2 learners’ category boundary in English did not differ from that of monolingual English listeners, but their category boundary in Spanish differed from that of monolingual Spanish listeners and from their own category boundary in English. These results suggest that the language mode manipulation was successful and that L2 learners can develop new phonetic categories, but this may have an impact on their L1 categories.

Phonetic detail in German syllable pronunciation: influences of prosody and grammar.

This study presents two experiments designed to disentangle various influences on syllable pronunciation. Target syllables were embedded in carrier sentences, read aloud by native German participants, and analyzed in terms of syllable and vowel duration, acoustic prominence, and spectral similarity. Both experiments revealed a complex interaction of different factors, as participants attempted to disambiguate semantically and syntactically ambiguous structures while at the same time distinguishing between important and unimportant information. The first experiment examined German verb prefixes that formed prosodic minimal pairs. Carrier sentences were formulated so as to systematically vary word stress, sentence focus, and the type of syntactic boundary following the prefix. We found clear effects of word stress on duration, prominence, and spectral similarity as well as a small influence of sentence focus on prominence levels of lexically stressed prefixes. While sentence boundaries were marked by particularly high prominence and duration values, hardly any effect was shown for word boundaries. The second experiment compared German function words which were segmentally identical but appeared in different grammatical roles. Here, definite articles were found to be shorter than relative pronouns and still shorter than demonstrative pronouns. As definite articles are also much more common than the other two lexical classes, effects of lemma frequency might also have played a role.

Perception of conversational and clear speech syllables by native and non-native English-speaking listeners

In a recent study later, but not earlier, learners of English as a second language produced a smaller clear-speech benefit than native English-speaking talkers for vowels produced in six /bVd/ syllables (Rogers et al., 2010, JASA 123, 410–423). The present study compares perception of the same syllables by native and non-native English-speaking listeners. Conversational and clear-speech productions of the target syllables, “bead, bid, bayed, bed, bad,” and “bod,” were selected from three monolingual English speakers who had produced a significant clear-speech benefit in Rogers et al. (2010). The syllables were then mixed with noise at several signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Perception of these stimuli by three groups of listeners will be examined: (1) monolingual native English speakers, (2) ‘early’ learners of English as a second language, with an age of immersion (AOI) of 12 or earlier, and (3) later learners of English as a second language, with an AOI of 15 or later. Analyses of results of the six-alternative forced-choice task will focus on comparisons across listener groups, for the following measures: (1) estimates of clear-speech benefit at approximately 50% correct; (2) performance at a common SNR; and (3) estimates of the slope of the psychometric function. [Work supported by NIH.]

Chinese Tone and Vowel Processing Exhibits Distinctive Temporal Characteristics: An Electrophysiological Perspective from Classical Chinese Poem Processing

Classical Chinese poems have strict regulations on the acoustic pattern of each syllable and are semantically meaningless. Using such poems, this study characterized the temporal order of tone and vowel processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). The target syllable of the poem was either correct or deviated from the correct syllable at tone, vowel or both levels. Vowel violation elicited a negative effect between 300 and 500 ms regardless of the tone correctness, while tone violation elicited a positive effect between 600 and 1000 ms. The results suggest that the vowel information was available earlier than the tone information. Moreover, there was an interaction between the effect of vowel and tone violations between 600 and 1000 ms, showing that the vowel violation produced a positive effect only when the tone was correct. This indicates that vowel and tone processing interacts in the later processing stage, which involves both error detection and reanalysis of the spoken input. Implications of the present results for models of speech perception are discussed.

Two Distinct Auditory-Motor Circuits for Monitoring Speech Production as Revealed by Content-Specific Suppression of Auditory Cortex

Speech production, both overt and covert, down-regulates the activation of auditory cortex. This is thought to be due to forward prediction of the sensory consequences of speech, contributing to a feedback control mechanism for speech production. Critically, however, these regulatory effects should be specific to speech content to enable accurate speech monitoring. To determine the extent to which such forward prediction is content-specific, we recorded the brain's neuromagnetic responses to heard multisyllabic pseudowords during covert rehearsal in working memory, contrasted with a control task. The cortical auditory processing of target syllables was significantly suppressed during rehearsal compared with control, but only when they matched the rehearsed items. This critical specificity to speech content enables accurate speech monitoring by forward prediction, as proposed by current models of speech production. The one-to-one phonological motor-to-auditory mappings also appear to serve the maintenance of information in phonological working memory. Further findings of right-hemispheric suppression in the case of whole-item matches and left-hemispheric enhancement for last-syllable mismatches suggest that speech production is monitored by 2 auditory-motor circuits operating on different timescales: Finer grain in the left versus coarser grain in the right hemisphere. Taken together, our findings provide hemisphere-specific evidence of the interface between inner and heard speech.

Early syllabic segmentation of fluent speech by infants acquiring French.

Word form segmentation abilities emerge during the first year of life, and it has been proposed that infants initially rely on two types of cues to extract words from fluent speech: Transitional Probabilities (TPs) and rhythmic units. The main goal of the present study was to use the behavioral method of the Headturn Preference Procedure (HPP) to investigate again rhythmic segmentation of syllabic units by French-learning infants at the onset of segmentation abilities (around 8 months) given repeated failure to find syllabic segmentation at such a young age. The second goal was to explore the interaction between the use of TPs and syllabic units for segmentation by French-learning infants. The rationale was that decreasing TP cues around target syllables embedded in bisyllabic words would block bisyllabic word segmentation and facilitate the observation of syllabic segmentation. In Experiments 1 and 2, infants were tested in a condition of moderate TP decrease; no evidence of either syllabic or bisyllabic word segmentation was found. In Experiment 3, infants were tested in a condition of more marked TP decrease, and a novelty syllabic segmentation effect was observed. Therefore, the present study first establishes early syllabic segmentation in French-learning infants, bringing support from a syllable-based language to the proposal that rhythmic units are used at the onset of segmentation abilities. Second, it confirms that French-learning infants are sensitive to TP cues. Third, it demonstrates that they are sensitive to the relative weight of TP and rhythmic cues, explaining why effects of syllabic segmentation are not observed in context of high TPs. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of word segmentation bootstrapping, and the larger debate about statistically- versus prosodically-based accounts of early language acquisition.

Segments and syllables in the treatment of apraxia of speech: An investigation of learning and transfer effects

Background: In the treatment of severe apraxia of speech (AOS), single phonemes are often used as training targets. However, until now it remains unclear if segment production can be learned and if patients show transfer effects when a segment trained in isolation is embedded in syllables and words. Speech motor learning in normal language acquisition is based on syllabic rather than segmental learning mechanisms. The syllable is also assumed to be the basic unit of articulatory programming in normal speech.Aims: In the present study, we investigated the effectiveness of learning single segments as compared to whole syllables in patients with AOS. Besides immediate learning effects, we were particularly interested in transfer effects on trained targets embedded into larger untrained units and in maintenance effects.Methods & Procedures: Four patients with severe AOS participated in this study. Target segments and target syllables were trained in two separate phases. To examine learning effects, we presented trained and untrained items in isolation immediately before and after a learning phase. Transfer effects of the segmental learning were examined by presenting syllables which contained the target and control phonemes. The transfer of syllabic learning was assessed on the basis of two-syllabic words containing the target and control syllables.Main Contributions: In the segmental condition, only one patient showed a significant learning effect. Transfer effects onto untrained syllables containing the trained consonants were missing in all patients. After the syllabic training, three patients produced significantly lower error rates on the trained, but not on the control syllables. In two of them, the improvements were still maintained when the syllables were embedded in two-syllabic words.Conclusions: The lack of segmental learning effects in three patients may be due to the fact that single consonants are artificial speech units we normally do not produce in isolation. The complete absence of transfer effects suggests that intrasyllabic coarticulation is part of the phonetic plan and cannot be mastered by speech apraxic patients without extra exercise. The observed learning effects after the syllabic learning confirm that syllables constitute more natural speech motor units which are easier to re-acquire than single consonants. Furthermore, the embedding of learned monosyllables into unlearned two-syllabic words requires less extra speech motor planning than the embedding of a trained segment into the coarticulated context of a syllable.

뇌성마비 아동의 음성 환경에 따른 치경마찰음 'ㅅ', 'ㅆ'의 음향학적 특성

The purpose of this study is to analyze the acoustic characteristics of Korean alveolar sibilant sounds of children with cerebral palsy by acoustic analysis. Thirteen children with spastic cerebral palsy aging from 6 to 10 years old, were selected by an articulation test, and compared with a control group of thirty children. The meaningless monosyllable CV, disyllable VCV(/asa/) and frame sentence including target syllables CV were measured. C was from the /s, s'/, and V was from the set /a, i, u, <TEX>${\varepsilon}$</TEX>, o, ɯ, ʌ/. Multi-Speech was used for data recording and analysis. As a result, the frication duration of lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant of children with cerebral palsy was significantly shorter than that of the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. The vowel duration in the following lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant of children with cerebral palsy was significantly longer than that of the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. The children with cerebral palsy showed frequency and intensity of friction intervals which were significantly lower than in the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. In the comparison of the lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant by the children with cerebral palsy group's phonation types, the frication duration showed a significant difference between the phonation types in CV, VCV and between the phonetic contexts. The glottalized-sibilant was longer than the lenis-sibilant in all the phonetic contexts. The subsequent vowel duration showed a significant difference between the phonation types in VCV and between the phonetic contexts(p<.05). The vowel duration in the following glottalized-sibilant was longer than the vowel duration in the following lenis-sibilant in all the phonetic contexts. In the frequency there was a significant difference between the phonation types in CV, and in the intensity there was a significant difference between the phonation type in CV and VCV. The children with spastic cerebral palsy had difficulty in articulating the alveolar sibilant due to poor control ability in laryngeal, respiration and articulatory movements which require fine motor coordination. This study quantitatively analyzes the acoustic parameters of the alveolar sibilant in various phonetic contexts. Therefore, the results are expected to help provide fundamental data for an intervention of articulation treatment for children with cerebral palsy.

Effects of perturbation and prosody on the coordination of speech and gesture

The temporal alignment of speech and gesture is widely acknowledged as primary evidence of the integration of spoken language and gesture systems. Yet there is a disconnect between the lack of experimental research on the variables that affect the temporal relationship of speech and gesture and the overwhelming acceptance that speech and gesture are temporally coordinated. Furthermore, the mechanism of the temporal coordination of speech and gesture is poorly represented. Recent experimental research suggests that gestures overlap prosodically prominent points in the speech stream, though the effects of other variables such as perturbation of speech are not yet studied in a controlled paradigm. The purpose of the present investigation was to further investigate the mechanism of this interaction according to a dynamic systems framework. Fifteen typical young adults completed a task that elicited the production of contrastive prosodic stress on different syllable positions with and without delayed auditory feedback while pointing to corresponding pictures. The coordination of deictic gestures and spoken language was examined as a function of perturbation, prosody, and position of the target syllable. Results indicated that the temporal parameters of gesture were affected by all three variables. The findings suggest that speech and gesture may be coordinated due to internal pulse-based temporal entrainment of the two motor systems.

Target context specification can reduce costs in nonfocal prospective memory.

Performing a nonfocal prospective memory (PM) task results in a cost to ongoing task processing, but the precise nature of the monitoring processes involved remains unclear. We investigated whether target context specification (i.e., explicitly associating the PM target with a subset of ongoing stimuli) can trigger trial-by-trial changes in task interference according to stimulus relevance for the nonfocal PM task. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which a PM task (press F6 when a target syllable appeared) was embedded. The target syllable always occurred in word trials, but we manipulated participants' expectations regarding the target context by instructing them that targets would occur in words only (specific condition) or in both words and nonwords (nonspecific condition). A control condition with no PM demands was also included. Although having a PM task led to noticeable slowing on the ongoing task, specifying the PM target context reduced cost to items irrelevant to the intention (nonwords) while leaving PM performance intact. Moreover, higher cost for nonwords in the nonspecific than specific condition was persistent across the ongoing task even though the target syllable was repeatedly presented in words. These results suggest that stimulus processing can be modulated according to participants' expectations about the lexical properties of the target, with trial-by-trial changes in task interference as a function of stimulus relevance to a nonfocal intention observed as a consequence.

Identification of target tones and speech sounds studied with event-related potentials: Language-related changes in aphasia

Background: Although frequently observed in aphasia, the contribution of speech sound processing impairments to auditory comprehension deficits has not been clarified. Event-related brain potentials can be used to investigate the neural processes underlying speech sound processing in aphasia, thereby adding information to investigations exclusively based on behavioural assessments. Aims: Against the background of previous findings of reduced amplitudes in an aphasic group during a syllable identification task, three main research questions are pursued in this study: whether possible ERP alterations in the aphasia group (1) are specific for language processing or can also be observed in non-language processing, (2) are also found in brain-injured persons without aphasia, and (3) correlate with auditory comprehension deficits. Methods & Procedures: Here 10 aphasic participants were compared with 10 non-aphasic participants who had right hemisphere lesions and with 18 healthy controls. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained during two oddball paradigms in which the participants had to identify: (i) target tones differing in pitch and (ii) target syllables differing in the initial consonant. Outcomes & Results: Overall the aphasic participants performed the task successfully, but responded correctly to fewer targets and had prolonged response times. When compared to healthy controls, N1 amplitude was reduced in both brain-damaged groups; in response to syllables, this attenuation was more pronounced in the aphasic participants. The aphasia group demonstrated significantly reduced N1 amplitude in response to standard and target tones and target syllables, while the right hemisphere group had significantly reduced N1 amplitudes in response to tones only (both standard and target). In both brain-injured groups, N1 amplitudes were larger over the contralesional hemisphere. This hemisphere difference was significantly larger for syllables than tones in the aphasic participants. Furthermore this group had delayed N2 and P3 latencies, whereas N2 amplitude reduction was found in the right hemisphere group. Conclusions: The present results indicate reduced early attentional processing and delayed subsequent processing in aphasia. In addition to disturbed non-linguistic auditory processing, the present results suggest impairments in speech sound related processing in aphasia occurring as early as at 100 ms post-stimulus. Topographical distribution patterns in the aphasia group suggest a larger right hemisphere involvement in the processing of syllables than for tones.

Similar response patterns do not imply identical origins: An energetic masking account of nonspeech effects in compensation for coarticulation.

Nonspeech materials are widely used to identify basic mechanisms underlying speech perception. For instance, they have been used to examine the origin of compensation for coarticulation, the observation that listeners' categorization of phonetic segments depends on neighboring segments (Mann, 1980). Specifically, nonspeech precursors matched to critical formant frequencies of speech precursors have been shown to produce similar categorization shifts as speech contexts. This observation has been interpreted to mean that spectrally contrastive frequency relations between neighboring segments underlie the categorization shifts observed after speech, as well as nonspeech precursors (Lotto & Kluender, 1998). From the gestural perspective, however, categorization shifts in speech contexts occur because of listeners' sensitivity to acoustic information for coarticulatory gestural overlap in production; in nonspeech contexts, this occurs because of energetic masking of acoustic information for gestures. In 2 experiments, we distinguish the energetic masking and spectral contrast accounts. In Experiment 1, we investigated the effects of varying precursor tone frequency on speech categorization. Consistent only with the masking account, tonal effects were greater for frequencies close enough to those in the target syllables for masking to occur. In Experiment 2, we filtered the target stimuli to simulate effects of masking and obtained behavioral outcomes that closely resemble those with nonspeech tones. We conclude that masking provides the more plausible account of nonspeech context effects. More generally, we suggest that similar results from the use of speech and nonspeech materials do not automatically imply identical origins and that the use of nonspeech in speech studies entails careful examination of the nature of information in the nonspeech materials.

A moving target? Comparing within-talker variability in vowel production between native and non-native English speakers across two speech styles

Non-native English speakers may show greater variability in speech production than native talkers due to differences in their developing representations of second-language speech targets. Few studies have compared within-talker variability in speech production between native and non-native speakers. In the present study, vowels produced by four monolingual English speakers and four later learners of English as a second language (Spanish L1) were compared. Five repetitions of six target syllables (“bead, bid, bayed, bed, bad” and “bod”), produced in conversational and clear speech styles, were analyzed acoustically. Fundamental and formant frequencies were measured at 20, 50 and 80% of vowel duration. Standard deviations computed across the five repetitions of each vowel were compared across speaking styles and talker groups. Preliminary data analyses indicate greater within-talker variability for non-native than native talkers. Non-native talkers’ within-talker variability also increased from conversational to clear speech for most measures. For some native talkers, within-talker variability was smaller for vowels with near neighbors in the vowel space than for vowels with more spectrally distant neighbors. This correlation was stronger in clear speech for talkers who showed a significant clear-speech intelligibility benefit in production in a related study. Implications for theories of vowel production will be discussed.

The effect of segmental makeup on Mandarin tone coarticulation

The effect of segmental make-ups on tonal coarticulation was investigated in Mandarin. Target syllables differ in coda (no coda, alveolar nasal or velar nasal) and initial sonorancy (obstruent or sonorant) were embedded in trisyllabic non-words templates, in the form of trisyllabic names. Twenty native speakers were recorded and the F0 contours of all syllables were measured at a 10-ms time step. The coarticulation effect of four Mandarin tones are examined in three different positions with 4 (initial position), 16 (medial position), and 4 (final position) tonal contexts. Moreover, the phonetic variations of each tone in different prosodic positions were examined. The preliminary results indicate that the coarticulation effect is less prominent when intervened by obstruents whereas nasal codas amplify the effect. The realization of this modulating effect on the directionality of tonal coarticulation (carryover and anticipatory) will be discussed. The magnitude of coarticulation in compatible (adjacent tones have similar registers) and conflicting (adjacent tones with large register difference) environments will also be compared.

Attention-related modulation of auditory-cortex responses to speech sounds during dichotic listening

Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) in fifteen healthy right-handed participants listening to sequences of consonant–vowel syllable pairs delivered dichotically (one syllable presented to the left ear and another syllable simultaneously to the right ear). The participants were instructed to press a response button to occurrences of a particular target syllable. In a condition with no other instruction (the non-forced condition, NF), they showed the well-known right-ear advantage (REA), that is, the participants responded more often to target syllables delivered to the right ear than to targets delivered to the left ear. The same was true in the forced-right (FR) condition, where the participants were instructed to attend selectively to the right-ear syllables and respond only to targets among them. In the forced-left (FL) condition, where they were instructed to respond only to left-ear targets, they responded more often to targets in this ear than to targets in the right ear. At 300–500ms from syllable pair onset, a sustained field (SF) in ERFs to the syllable pairs was stronger in the left auditory cortex than in the right auditory cortex in the NF and FR conditions, while the opposite was true in the FL condition. Thus selective attention during dichotic listening leads to stronger processing of speech sounds in the auditory cortex contralateral to the attended direction. Our results also suggest that the REA observed for dichotic speech may involve a bias of attention to the right side even when there is no instruction to do so. This supports Kinsbourne's (1970) model of attention bias as a general principle of laterality.

Cognitive mechanism of writing to dictation of logographic characters

ABSTRACTThe cognitive mechanisms for writing to dictation of Chinese syllables by healthy adults were investigated using large-sample multiple regression analyses. In the experiment, subjects wrote down a corresponding character upon hearing a syllable. We mainly examined the effects of three types of attributes (i.e., lexical, semantic, and phonology to orthography conversion [POC] ones) in predicting the production probability of specific characters out of the homophone families for target syllables. We observed significant effects for all three types of attributes, as well as interactions between POC and the lexical attributes, and between POC and the semantic attributes. We further found that the semantic effects vanished for the writing stimuli without homophones. A feedback procedure (i.e., phonetic radical transparency) was also observed to influence Chinese writing performances. Our results support the hypothesis that the extent of semantic involvement in writing (spelling) to dictation is influenced by the effectiveness of POC procedure in a certain language and/or word set. The existence of an interaction between the lexical semantic route and the POC route in writing is further consolidated.

Acoustic markers of syllabic stress in Spanish excellent oesophageal speakers

The purpose of this investigation is to explore the use by Spanish excellent oesophageal speakers of acoustic cues to mark syllabic stress. The speech material has consisted of five pairs of disyllabic words which only differed in stress position. Total 44 oesophageal and 9 laryngeal speakers were recorded and a computerised designed ad hoc perceptual test was run in order to assess the accurate realisation of stress. The items produced by eight excellent oesophageal speakers with highest accuracy levels in the perception experiment were analysed acoustically with Praat, to be compared with the laryngeal control group. Measures of duration, fundamental frequency, spectral balance and overall intensity were taken for each target vowel and syllable. Results revealed that Spanish excellent oesophageal speakers were able to retain appropriate acoustic relations between stressed and unstressed syllables. Although spectral balance revealed as a strong cue for syllabic stress in the two voicing modes, a different hierarchy of acoustic cues in each voicing mode was found.

Retroflex versus Bunched [r] in Compensation for Coarticulation

UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2011) Retroflex versus bunched [r] in compensation for coarticulation Keith Johnson UC Berkeley This paper presents data from two experiments that are problematic for the auditory spectral contrast theory of compensation for coarticulation, but are perfectly compatible with the gesture recovery theory. The experiments compare compensation for coarticulation effects in the perception of a [dɑ]-[ɡɑ] continuum produced by retroflex [r] context, versus the lack of an effect for a bunched [r] context. The key acoustic feature referenced by the spectral contrast theory (the lowered F3) is present in both bunched and retroflex [r]. In experiment 2, the F4 trajectory (a key acoustic correlate of retroflexion) is seen to modulate compensation for coarticulation. INTRODUCTION “Compensation for coarticulation” is the name of a phenomenon that has two explanations. In one theory (Holt, 1999; Lotto & Kluender, 1998), the effect is due to auditory spectral contrast as a context syllable interacts with a following target syllable in the auditory system. The main competing theory gave the phenomenon its name (Mann, 1980; Fowler, 2006). In this theory, the listener perceptually compensates for the coarticulation that typically occurs between the context syllable and the target syllable. Thus, the interaction between context and target reflects a perceptual gesture recovery process. The particular instance of compensation for coarticulation that is studied in this paper is the one reported by Mann (1980). The perceptual boundary on a stop place of articulation continuum from [dɑ] to [ɡɑ] is shifted by a preceding [ɑl] or [ɑr] context syllable. If the context syllable ends in [l] the boundary is shifted toward [d] - more of the tokens are perceived as [ɡɑ]. And, if the context syllable ends in [r], the boundary is shifted toward [ɡ] - more of the tokens are perceived as [dɑ]. The effect can be quite striking and makes an effective classroom demonstration of context effects in perception. Mann (1980) called this phenomenon “compensation for coarticulation” on the hypothesis that listeners “parse” the effects of coarticulation as they perceptually recover the intended gestures of the speaker. The idea is that because tongue position in [l] is more forward than it is in [r], a following ambiguous syllable on a [dɑ]-[ɡɑ] continuum will sound more like [dɑ] in the [ɑr] context because listeners can attribute some of the “retraction” of the ambiguous syllable to coarticulation with [r]. On the other hand, when the context syllable ends in [l] there is no such coarticulatory cause of the “retraction” of the ambiguous syllable, so it is heard as intentionally back and more like [ɡɑ]. Evidence for the gesture recovery interpretation (e.g. Fowler, Best, McRoberts, 1990; Fowler, Brown & Mann, 2000; Fowler, 2006) has been unconvincing. By this I mean that scholars who are not predisposed by training to see perceptual phenomena in terms of gesture recovery have remained

&lt;i&gt;Phonetics and phonology: Interactions and interrelations&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: Phonetics and phonology: Interactions and interrelations Zahir Mumin Marina Vigário, Sónia Frota, and Maria Jão Freitas, eds. 2009. Phonetics and phonology: Interactions and interrelations. In the series Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 306. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. vi + 290. US $158.00 (hardcover). This book consists of a collection of 13 papers presented at the Third Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia Conference in 2007 at the University of Minho in Portugal. The book is divided into three parts, which represent the overall major issues examined in the fields of phonetics and phonology: "Between phonetics and phonology" (Part I), "Segmental and prosodic interactions" (Part II), and "Interactions between segments and features" (Part III). The primary purpose of this book is to examine the speech of children and adults who speak different world languages, such as English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, and Romanian, in order to determine the extent to which linguistic theories such as Articulatory Phonology, Optimality Theory, and the Parallel Structures Model are applicable to the results of the descriptive data analyzed in each study. The secondary purpose is to show that there is still an ongoing debate on the possibility of combining the fields of phonetics and phonology into one field because of their inevitable interrelatedness which often constitutes the examination of segments, prosody, features, and speech patterns. The first paper, by Riera et al., examines the speech of two native US English speakers to determine if there is production of a schwa-like element in vowel V + /r/ sequences, and compare this element with the canonical schwa. This study uses a one-way and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to examine the formant and duration differences between this schwa-like element and the canonical schwa. The results show that this schwa-like element is highly variable (unlike the canonical schwa) and is dynamically conditioned by the phonetic context and speaking rate. The study argues overall that epenthetic schwa and centering diphthongs are inaccurate terms used to describe this schwa-like element because this element constantly undergoes the process of coarticulation. The results of the study do not support Baker and Goldstein's (1990) argument that there is an epenthetic schwa (without a clear process of coarticulation) that is similar to a canonical schwa.1 The results of Riera et al.'s study also contradict Roach et al.'s (2006) argument in favour of centering diphthongs, which are formed according to the respective V + /r/ phonetic context. The second paper, by Ortega-Llebaria and Prieto, analyses native Spanish-speakers' perception of stress contrast in unaccented contexts. The study uses duration, spectral tilt, and intensity as independent variables to determine the extent to which 20 research participants [End Page 133] perceive the aforementioned contrast in the Spanish vowels [a] and [i], using the paroxytone words mimi and mama, and oxytone words mimí and mamá. The results of Ortega-Llebaria and Prieto's study show that Spanish speakers rely on duration and intensity as cues to stress in unaccented contexts and that spectral tilt is not a significant factor. These results supplement the findings of Sluijter et al. (1997), which show that English speakers use vowel reduction patterns to perceive stress in unaccented contexts, whereas Dutch speakers employ duration, spectral tilt, and intensity. The third paper, also by Prieto and Ortega-Llebaria, examines the complexity of the nuclear pitch accent in broad focus and narrow contrastive focus to find out if the durational properties of the penultimate stress syllables and word-final stress syllables in Catalan and Spanish show a lengthening effect on the target syllables. Although Grabe (1998) argues that, cross-linguistically, speakers (depending on their dialect) use truncation and compression of rising and falling accents to condition the durational properties of stress, Prieto and Ortega-Llebaria argue that this is not dialectal but a phonetic realisation strategy. The target word pairs used for their study were mama/mamá and mimi/mimí in sentence-final position and the results show that, in Catalan and Spanish, duration increases in narrow-focus words in penultimate-and final-syllable position and when there is a complex pitch gesture. The fourth paper, by Manolescu et al...

Effects of linguistic experience and speaking style on pitch alignment in focus syllables.

The location and realization of any pitch accents associated with utterance focus can vary across languages. The present study compared the relative locations of fundamental frequency (F0) maxima and minima in monosyllables produced by native English speakers and non‐native English speakers with Spanish as their first language. Ten monolingual English speakers, 15 early learners of English (age of immersion 12 years or earlier), and 10 later learners of English (age of immersion 15 years or later) produced target monosyllables in the carrier phrase “Say ______ again” in conversational and clear speech styles. The relative locations of F0 maxima and minima were computed for each target syllable. Results for the conversational speech tokens showed significant differences in peak (F0 maximum) alignment for the monolingual and early learner groups compared to the later learners and significant differences in alignment of F0 minima among all three talker groups. Early learner average values fell between those for the monolinguals and later learners in both cases. Ongoing analysis suggests a switch to more native‐like patterns for the early but not the later learners in the clear speech style, suggesting a nuanced awareness and control of second‐language prosodic features by the early learners. [NIH‐NIDCD #1R03DC005561‐01A1]