scholarly journals Crosslinguistic perceptions of /s/ among English, French, and German listeners

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Zac Boyd ◽  
Josef Fruehwald ◽  
Lauren Hall-Lew
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
English Listener ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Native Speech

Abstract This study reports the results of a crosslinguistic matched guise test examining /s/ and pitch variation in judgments of sexual orientation and nonnormative masculinity among English, French, and German listeners. Listeners responded to /s/ and pitch manipulations in native and other language stimuli (English, French, German, and Estonian). All listener groups rate higher pitch guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than lower pitch guises. However, only English listeners hear [s+] guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than [s] or [s−] guises for all stimuli languages. French and German listeners do not hear [s+] guises as more gay- or effeminate-sounding in any stimulus language, despite this feature's presence in native speech production. English listener results show evidence of indexical transfer, when indexical knowledge is applied to the perception of unknown languages. French and German listener results show how the enregistered status of /s/ variation affects perception, despite crosslinguistic similarities in production.

He who Hesitates: Hesitation Phenomena as Quality Control in Speech Production, Obstacles in Non-Native Speech Perception

2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marnie Reed
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Control Devices ◽  
Content Processing ◽  
Hesitation Phenomena

This study was designed to determine the nature and occurrence of hesitation phenomena in spontaneous speech of native and non-native speakers, and to determine whether and to what extent the hesitation phenomena normal in spontaneous speech pose perception problems for non-native speakers. A quantitative analysis reveals that hesitation phenomena are ubiquitous in both native and non-native speech production. A qualitative analysis based on a content-processing classification framework reveals the function of hesitations. Hesitations act as overt traces of prospective and retrospective speech-processing tasks which function to forestall errors, and to permit detection and repair of errors once they are committed. Hesitations are quality control devices; native and non-native speakers are highly successful utilizing them to forestall errors. However, hesitation phenomena clearly pose perception problems for non-native speakers who show little evidence of recognizing them as such. Like native speakers, non-native speakers produce hesitation phenomena. Unlike native speakers, who edit and filter out the hesitations they hear, non-native speakers attempt to assign meaning to speakers' faulty output or to parenthetical remarks. Hesitations are unpredictable in their frequency or occurrence; failure to provide training in these oral discourse features of connected speech may result in non-native speakers whose speech production vastly outstrips their perception.

scholarly journals Children's Acoustic and Linguistic Adaptations to Peers With Hearing Impairment

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1055-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Granlund ◽  
Valerie Hazan ◽  
Merle Mahon
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Problem Solving Task ◽  
Do So

Purpose This study aims to examine the clear speaking strategies used by older children when interacting with a peer with hearing loss, focusing on both acoustic and linguistic adaptations in speech. Method The Grid task, a problem-solving task developed to elicit spontaneous interactive speech, was used to obtain a range of global acoustic and linguistic measures. Eighteen 9- to 14-year-old children with normal hearing (NH) performed the task in pairs, once with a friend with NH and once with a friend with a hearing impairment (HI). Results In HI-directed speech, children increased their fundamental frequency range and midfrequency intensity, decreased the number of words per phrase, and expanded their vowel space area by increasing F1 and F2 range, relative to NH-directed speech. However, participants did not appear to make changes to their articulation rate, the lexical frequency of content words, or lexical diversity when talking to their friend with HI compared with their friend with NH. Conclusions Older children show evidence of listener-oriented adaptations to their speech production; although their speech production systems are still developing, they are able to make speech adaptations to benefit the needs of a peer with HI, even without being given a specific instruction to do so. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6118817

scholarly journals Digit length may reveal unusual breeding behaviour in a seabird

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 461-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meritxell Genovart ◽  
Maite Louzao ◽  
José M Igual ◽  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Prenatal Development ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Vertebrate Species ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Breeding Behaviour ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Digit Length

The hormonal environment experienced during prenatal development may affect adult phenotype and behaviour. Digit lengths may provide an estimate of steroid levels encountered during embryonic development in humans and other vertebrates. Finger patterns in humans have been shown to reveal sexual orientation or cooperative behaviour. We explored individual breeding behaviour in a monogamous seabird, the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus and unexpectedly detected some cooperative breeders. Furthermore, we show evidence of correlation between digit lengths and cooperative breeding in this species. Additionally, we suggest that the first digit could be a possible indicator of prenatal steroid levels. These results are the starting point for further tests of the hypothesis that first digit length is an indicator of prenatal hormone levels in other vertebrate species. Moreover, these results may offer practical use in wild populations to study the implications of the changes in prenatal environment for adult social behaviour.

scholarly journals Individual phonological attrition in Albanian–English late bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
ESTHER DE LEEUW ◽  
AURELA TUSHA ◽  
MONIKA S. SCHMID
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
British English ◽  
Speech Learning Model ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
Speech Learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate phonological attrition in 10 native Albanian speakers who acquired Standard Southern British English (SSBE) as a second language (L2) in London, United Kingdom. A contrast was examined which is phonemic in Albanian but allophonic in SSBE, namely the production of light and dark lateral approximants. Impressionistic and acoustic analyses revealed that one late bilingual completely neutralized the phonemic contrast in her native Albanian speech. Furthermore, two other bilinguals neutralized the phonemic contrast between light /l/ and dark /ɫ/ in coda position, and overall there appeared to be a stronger trend for light /l/ to become dark in coda position than for dark /ɫ/ to become light in onset position. The findings are discussed in relation to the Speech Learning Model (Flege, 1995) and indicate that phonological attrition in native speech production is possible in late L2 acquisition, although not inevitable.

scholarly journals Perception of voicing and place of articulation in labial and alveolar English stop consonants

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah H. Silbert
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Theory Model ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Noise Characteristics ◽  
Feature Structure ◽  
General Recognition Theory ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
Native Speech

AbstractDistinctive features define a multidimensional structure that must be implemented in speech production and perception. A multilevel Gaussian General Recognition Theory model is presented as a model of multidimensional feature perception. The model is fit to data from three experiments probing identification of noise-masked, naturally-produced labial and alveolar English stop consonants [p], [b], [t], and [d] in onset (syllable-initial) and coda (syllable-final) position. The results indicate systematic perceptual deviations from simple place and voicing structure in individual subjects and at the group level. Comparing onset and coda positions shows that syllable position modulates the deviation patterns, and comparing speech-shaped noise and multi-talker babble indicates that deviations from simple feature structure are reasonably robust to variation in noise characteristics. Possible causes of the observed perceptual confusion patterns are discussed, and extensions of this work to studies of feature structure in speech production and investigation of non-native speech perception are briefly outlined.

Non‐native speech production (II): phonemic errors by position‐in‐word and intelligibility

2001 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 2684-2684
Author(s):  
Tessa Bent ◽  
Bruce L. Smith ◽  
Danielle Lodewyck ◽  
Ann R. Bradlow
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Native Speech
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document