Recent studies on perceptual learning have indicated that listeners use some form of pre-lexical abstraction (an intermediate unit) between the acoustic input and lexical representations of words. Patterns of generalization of learning that can be observed with the perceptual learning paradigm have also been effectively examined for exploring the nature of these intermediate pre-lexical units. We here test whether perceptual learning generalizes to other sounds that share an underlying or a phonetic representation with the sounds based on which learning has taken place. This was achieved by exposing listeners to phonologically altered (tensified) plain (lax) stops in Korean (i.e., underlyingly plain stops are produced as tense due to a phonological process in Korean) with which listeners learned to recalibrate place of articulation in tensified plain stops. After the recalibration with tensified plain stops, Korean listeners generalized perceptual learning (1) to phonetically similar but underlyingly (phonemically) different stops (i.e., from tensified plain stops to underlyingly tense stops) and (2) to phonetically dissimilar but underlyingly (phonemically) same stops (i.e., from tensified plain stops to non-tensified ones) while generalization failed to phonetically dissimilar and underlyingly different consonants (aspirated stops and nasals) even though they share the same [place] feature. The results imply that pre-lexical units can be better understood in terms of phonetically-definable segments of granular size rather than phonological features, although perceptual learning appears to make some reference to the underlying (phonemic) representation of speech sounds based on which learning takes place.
Listeners often make use of suprasegmental features to compute a prosodic structure and thereby infer an information structure. In this study, we ask whether listeners also use segmental details as a cue to the prosodic structure (and thus also the information structure) of an utterance. To this end, we examined the effects of segmental variation of German auxiliary haben (‘to have’)—i.e., hyperarticulated [habən], moderately reduced [habm], and strongly reduced [ham]. Three remotely accessed online mouse-tracking experiments were carried out by adapting the lab-based experimental paradigms used in Roettger and Franke (2019). They showed effects of pitch accent on the auxiliary haben, leading to the interpretation of an affirmative answer to a preceding question, thus anticipating an upcoming referent noun to be the same as the one given in the question (i.e., the verum focus effect). Experiment 1 adapted the design Roettger and Franke (2019) to an online setting. In Experiment 2, listeners were indeed found to make use of the segmental detail of the auxiliary haben, even in the absence of f0 (pitch accent) information—i.e., the hyperarticulated (full) form showed an effect similar to the pitch accented form, albeit smaller. In Experiment 3, we confirmed that the observed segmental effects were not simply due to learning that might have taken place during the experiment. Our results thus imply that the analysis of prosodic structure, which is often assumed to occur in parallel with the segmental analysis, must integrate segmental details that help to signal the prosodic structure.
In present-day Seoul Korean, the primary phonetic feature for the lenis–aspirated stop distinction is shifting from VOT to F0. Some previous studies have considered this sound change to be a tonogenesis, whereby the low-level F0 perturbation has developed into tonal features (L for the lenis and H for the aspirated) in the segmental phonology. They, however, have examined the stop distinction only at a phrase- or utterance-initial position. We newly explore the sound change in relation to various prosodic structural factors (position and prominence). Apparent-time production data were recorded from four speaker groups: young female, young male, old female, old male. The way the speakers use VOT versus F0 indeed varies as a function of position and prominence. Crucially, in all groups, VOT is still used for the lenis–aspirated distinction phrase-medially due to the lenis stop voicing. This role of VOT, however, is found only in the non-prominent (unfocused) condition, in which the F0 difference is reduced to a low-level perturbation effect. In the prominent (focused) context in which tones come into play, the role of VOT diminishes, led by young female speakers. These can be interpreted as a prosodically-conditioned, complementary use of the features to maintain sufficient contrast. Importantly, however, the tonal difference under focus is not bidirectionally polarized, so that F0 is not lowered for the lenis stop. A lack of direct enhancement of the distinctive L tone weakens a possibility that F0 is transphonologized to the phonemic feature system of the language. As an alternative to the view that tonal features are newly introduced in the segmental phonology, we propose a prosodic account: the sound change is best characterized as a prosodically-conditioned change in the use of the segmental voicing feature (implemented by VOT) versus already available post-lexical tones in the intonational phonology of Korean.
This study investigates how the three-way contrastive bilabial stops (/p⁎,ph,p/, called fortis, aspirated and lenis, respectively) in word-medial position in Korean are distinct kinematically at the supralaryngeal articulatory level. Results of a magnetometer experiment with seven speakers of Seoul Korean showed that the three-way contrastive stops in VCV sequences (V=/i/ or /a/) are indeed manifested at the supralaryngeal level—not only in consonantal articulation, but also in vocalic articulation of their adjacent vowels. Several specific points have emerged. First, stops were three-way distinct in constriction degree and constriction duration (/p*/>/ph/>/p/). Second, their contrast was also evident in temporal dimensions of the vocalic tongue movement with a three-way distinct pattern (/p*/>/ph/>/p/), and of the lip opening movement with a two-way distinction (/p*,ph/>/p/). Third, consonantal strength was further reflected in V-to-V coarticulation, such that longer constriction triggered more reduction of V-to-V coarticulation. However, there was a case (for /i/ in carryover direction) in which coarticulatory reduction was still observed even when the duration was factored in, showing duration-independent V-to-V coarticulatory resistance associated with the fortis and aspirated stops. Fourth, stable coordination was observed between the lip constriction and the vocalic tongue movement which is in line with previous findings in Japanese and English, suggesting cross-linguistic similarities in consonant–vowel gestural coordination regardless of the rhythmic structure of a given language.
No abstract is provided for this article.
This paper discusses some current issues regarding how prosodic structure is manifested in fine-grained phonetic details, how prosodically-conditioned articulatory variation is explained in terms of speech dynamics, and how such phonetic manifestation of prosodic structure may be exploited in spoken word recognition. Prosodic structure is phonetically manifested in prosodically important landmark locations such as prosodic domain-final position, domain-initial position and stressed/accented syllables. It will be discussed how each of the prosodic landmarks engenders particular phonetic patterns, how articulatory variation in such locations are dynamically accounted for, and how prosodically-driven fine-grained phonetic detail is exploited by listeners in speech comprehension.
No abstract is provided for this article.
No abstract is provided for this article.
o/√ merger; and (4) at least for the urban Cheju speakers, the merger is best accounted for by the merger-by-transfer model, a unidirectional change in which one phonemic category becomes another (cf. Labov, 1994). Further, when our data are compared with other acoustic data available (including studies of the standard Korean in the 1960s and 1990s), it suggests that the directionality of the diachronic sound change is guided by both auditorily and articulatorily based principles such as contrast maximization and effort minimization principles.
Speech perception relies on multiple acoustic cues whose relative weighting varies across languages. The present study examines how long-term language experience shapes cue weighting in second-language (L2) speech perception, refining an attentional-learning account of cross-linguistic transfer. Native speakers of English, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin completed a cue-weighting task targeting English lexical stress, in which vowel quality, pitch, and duration were orthogonally manipulated. Results revealed robust, dimension-specific differences across first-language (L1) groups that could not be explained solely by the presence or absence of lexical stress or lexical tone in the L1. Instead, cue weighting reflected how acoustic dimensions function within the L1 cue ecology, including their relative contribution to lexical distinctions and the stability and interpretability of these mappings across contexts. Cue redundancy constrained relative cue strength without eliminating attentional sensitivity to secondary dimensions. Machine-learning classification further showed that L1-linked attentional profiles were sufficiently structured to support prediction, even among L2 listeners with substantial English proficiency, demonstrating the persistence of L1-shaped attentional tuning. These findings support a view of cue weighting as reflecting durable, multidimensional attentional priors shaped by long-term experience and highlight the importance of L1 cue ecologies in understanding cross-linguistic transfer in speech perception.
This study examines how young speakers of Seoul Korean produce tri-consonantal clusters /lkt/ and /lpt/ as in palk-ta (‘'to be bright’') and palp-ta (‘'to step on’'). Production data were collected from 20 speakers of Seoul Korean. The results of narrow transcription of the data showed that simplification is not obligatory as some speakers often preserve all three consonants. When simplified, there was a clear asymmetry between /lkt/ and /lpt/. Speakers showed no clear preference for either C1 preservation (C1=/l/) or C2 preservation (C2=/k/ in /lkt/ and /p/ in /lpt/) in production of /lkt/, but in production of /lpt/, strong preference was found for C1-preserved to C2-preserved variant. When compared with production data in Cho (1999), simplification patterns appear to have changed over the past 10 years, in a direction to preserve the first member of the cluster (/l/) more often, especially with /lkt/. There was no substantial between-item variation, indicating that simplification patterns are not lexically specified. Finally, the results suggest that the process of tri-consonantal simplification has not been fully phonologized in the grammar of the language as evident in substantial inter-and intra-speaker variation.
The current study investigates how prosodic strengthening induced by boundary and accent influences the articulation of English low front vowel /ae/ in add, had, and pad. Using Electromagnetic Articulograph (EMA), lip and jaw opening maxima, and tongue dorsum maxima in the horizontal (x) and vertical (y) dimensions were measured during the vocalic production. Boundary-induced strengthening was found in the tongue height (TD-y) dimension in all three words: /ae/ was lower domain-initially than -medially. In other measures, the boundary effect was conditioned by accent and the location of /ae/ within words. Domaininitial strengthening was found with the jaw opening maxima, with larger opening in a higher prosodic position, but it was only when the target words were unaccented. Also, the vowel in add tended to get fronted in a domain-initial position, but the same tendency was not observed in had and pad, suggesting the possibility that initial strengthening effect is conditioned by ‘phonological’ distance from the boundary edge. (had is phonologically similar to pad in that /h/ and /p/ occupy a phonological onset position.) Accent-induced strengthening was robust in all four articulatory measures. Results show that an accent-independent boundary effect is observed on vowels even in a language with lexical stress, and that the articulatory planning for the boundary-induced strengthening on vowels interacts with accent-induced strengthening.
