Spoken word recognition in a second language: The importance of phonetic details

Spoken word recognition depends on variations in fine-grained phonetics as listeners decode speech. However, many models of second language (L2) speech perception focus on units such as isolated syllables, and not on words. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated how fine-grained phonetic details (i.e. duration of nasalization on contrastive and coarticulatory nasalized vowels in Canadian French) influenced spoken word recognition in an L2, as compared to a group of native (L1) listeners. Results from L2 listeners (English-native speakers) indicated that fine-grained phonetics impacted the recognition of words, i.e. they were able to use nasalization duration variability in a way similar to L1-French listeners, providing evidence that lexical representations can be highly specified in an L2. Specifically, L2 listeners were able to distinguish minimal word pairs (differentiated by the presence of phonological vowel nasalization in French) and were able to use variability in a way approximating L1-French listeners. Furthermore, the robustness of the French “nasal vowel” category in L2 listeners depended on age of exposure. Early bilinguals displayed greater sensitivity to some ambiguity in the stimuli than late bilinguals, suggesting that early bilinguals had greater sensitivity to small variations in the signal and thus better knowledge of the phonetic cue associated with phonological vowel nasalization in French, similarly to L1 listeners.

A Minimal Word-Pair Study of Celestina: More Evidence about the Authorship of Act I

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The essence of ‘word’

This chapter offers general background for the analysis of ‘phonological word’ and ‘grammatical word’ in a cross-linguistic perspective. It outlines the defining characteristics of phonological word (including segmental and suprasegmental features and phonological processes), formulates restrictions on the length of a minimal word, and places ‘word’ within a hierarchy of phonological units. Defining features of grammatical word are outlined next. In most instances phonological words and grammatical words coincide. In some cases a grammatical word can consist of a number of phonological words, and vice versa. Typical instances of mismatches involve reduplication, compounding, and complex predicates, including serial verbs. Clitics—morphological units which form a phonological unit with a word preceding or following them—account for further mismatches. The reality of word and the nature of its orthographic representation are discussed next. The chapter concludes with an overview of the volume, and an appendix containing points to be addressed by fieldworkers.

The acquisition of noun inflection in Northern Pame (Xi'iuy): Comparing whole word and minimal word accounts

The study used naturalistic data on the production of nominal prefixes in the Otopamean language Northern Pame (autonym: Xi'iuy) to test Whole Word (constructivist) and Minimal Word (prosodic) theories for the acquisition of inflection. Whole Word theories assume that children store words in their entirety; Minimal Word theories assume that children produce words as binary feet. Northern Pame uses obligatory portmanteaux prefixes to inflect nouns for class, number, animacy and possessor. Singular nouns constitute 90 percent of the nouns that the children hear and yet all five two-year-old children frequently omitted the singular noun prefixes, but produced the low frequency noun suffixes for dual and animate plural. Neither the children's production of the noun-class prefixes nor their prefix overextensions correlated with the adult type and token frequencies of production. Northern Pame children constructed Minimal Words that contain binary feet and disfavor the production of initial, extrametrical prefixes.

Relation of child to adult templates, II

This chapter draws on informal or slang usage to look for parallels with child template use. Three sets of data are analysed in some detail. Clippings with suffixation are illustrated with both French and Estonian short forms and hypocoristics; similar patterns are cited for Australian English. The short forms in each case adhere to the minimal word constraints of the language in question, with French forms in -o fitting into one or two iambic feet while the Estonian forms, ending in obstruent+s, largely constitute a single heavy (monosyllabic) foot. Rhyming compounds are analysed for English. A strong bias is identified for the second word to begin with a labial, with parallels also cited in Hungarian. All of these adult template patterns are shown to stipulate both prosodic and segmental elements.

The S-SH Confusion Test and the Effects of Frequency Lowering

PurposeFrequency lowering in hearing aids can cause listeners to perceive [s] as [ʃ]. The S-SH Confusion Test, which consists of 66 minimal word pairs spoken by 6 female talkers, was designed to help clinicians and researchers document these negative side effects. This study's purpose was to use this new test to evaluate the hypothesis that these confusions will increase to the extent that low frequencies are altered.MethodTwenty-one listeners with normal hearing were each tested on 7 conditions. Three were control conditions that were low-pass filtered at 3.3, 5.0, and 9.1 kHz. Four conditions were processed with nonlinear frequency compression (NFC): 2 had a 3.3-kHz maximum audible output frequency (MAOF), with a start frequency (SF) of 1.6 or 2.2 kHz; 2 had a 5.0-kHz MAOF, with an SF of 1.6 or 4.0 kHz. Listeners' responses were analyzed using concepts from signal detection theory. Response times were also collected as a measure of cognitive processing.ResultsOverall, [s] for [ʃ] confusions were minimal. As predicted, [ʃ] for [s] confusions increased for NFC conditions with a lower versus higher MAOF and with a lower versus higher SF. Response times for trials with correct [s] responses were shortest for the 9.1-kHz control and increased for the 5.0- and 3.3-kHz controls. NFC response times were also significantly longer as MAOF and SF decreased. The NFC condition with the highest MAOF and SF had statistically shorter response times than its control condition, indicating that, under some circumstances, NFC may ease cognitive processing.ConclusionsLarge differences in the S-SH Confusion Test across frequency-lowering conditions show that it can be used to document a major negative side effect associated with frequency lowering. Smaller but significant differences in response times for correct [s] trials indicate that NFC can help or hinder cognitive processing, depending on its settings.

The diachrony of East Asian prosodic templates

Typical words in some East Asian languages, including Chinese, have reduced historically from disyllabic (CV·CV(C)) to monosyllabic (C(C)V(C)) and then open monosyllables (CV). More recently, in some of those languages, many monosyllabic CV forms again appear as disyllabic (CV·CV). The former developments result from a variety of apparently unconnected segmental changes. In the latter, they often reflect morphological innovations, like compounding and affixation. That is, apparently disparate segmental phonological processes reduced monosyllabic word templates and apparently disparate morphological and phonological processes have created new disyllables, which can all be captured in terms of preferred prosodic templates. We integrate these areal and genetic patterns into a growing literature on prosodic templates in diachrony, expanding the set of languages and patterns. That body of work has focused on sound changes that bring words into alignment with templates while our cases studies also involve clear changes in the templatic structures themselves. Finally, the patterns reviewed here resemble cycles of prosodic change, driven by tensions between reduction and minimal word constraints; we suggest that these phenomena show ‘bare’ prosodic cyclicity without the grammatical or functional ramifications of familiar cycles of change.