bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Predicting the Structure of Phonological Systems
Authors: Beddor Patrice Speeter 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Do the phonological predictions derived from phonetic models impose restrictions on the definition of’possible phonological system’? This question is addressed by examining the spectral integration model of vowel perception. The output of the model is investigated under a series of phonetic manipulations and translated into a set of phonological predictions, which are then compared against cross-linguistic patterns in vowel processes and inventories. It is argued that, despite the serious constraints on predictive power imposed by language-specific aspects of phonetic and phonological structure, phonetic models such as the spectral integration model enable us to define the set of phonetically motivated phonological phenomena.
The Role of Phonetics within the Study of Language
Authors: Diehl Randy L. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Phonologists have often held that phonetic ‘substance’ is more or less unrelated to phonological ‘form’. This view rests on assumptions about the phonetic domain that are highly questionable on empirical grounds. Evidence is reviewed suggesting that very few phonetic properties of vowels fail to serve the linguistic function of preserving and enhancing distinctiveness. Accordingly, much of what has been considered to be purely phonetic is also phonological in character; that is to say, the domains of phonetics and phonology overlap significantly. Finally, several well-known criticisms of the program of phonetic explanation in phonology are discussed and rejected.
Information for Mandarin Tones in the Amplitude Contour and in Brief Segments
Authors: Whalen D.H. , Xu Yi 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
While the tones of Mandarin are conveyed mainly by the F₀ contour, they also differ consistently in duration and in amplitude contour. The contribution of these factors was examined by using signal-correlated noise stimuli, in which natural speech is manipulated so that it has no F₀ or formant structure but retains its original amplitude contour and duration. Tones 2, 3 and 4 were perceptible from just the amplitude contour, even when duration was not also a cue. In two further experiments, the location of the critical information for the tones during the course of the syllable was examined by extracting small segments from each part of the original syllable. Tones 2 and 3 were often confused with each other, and segments which did not have much F₀ change were most often heard as Tonel. There were, though, also cases in which a low, unchanging pitch was heard as Tone 3, indicating a partial effect of register even in Mandarin. F₀ was positively correlated with amplitude, even when both were computed on a pitch period basis. Taken together, the results show that Mandarin tones are realized in more than just the F₀ pattern, that amplitude contours can be used by listeners as cues for tone identification, and that not every portion of the F₀ pattern unambiguously indicates the original tone.
Declination of Supralaryngeal Gestures in Spoken Italian
Authors: Vayra Mario , Fowler Carol A. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Two experiments investigate a weakening of supralaryngeal gestures in an utterance, analogous in some ways to declination of fundamental frequency and amplitude. In one experiment, acoustic measures revealed progressive centralization of stressed /i/, /a/ and /u/ left to right in trisyllabic utterances read by Tuscan subjects. A second experiment, using speakers of a different (Northern) variety of Standard Italian, found reduction in jaw opening for stressed /a/ left to right, but generally failed to replicate a centralization of /i/. This experiment further suggested that the progressive weakening of supralaryngeal gestures is largely a phrase level rather than a word level phenomenon. Both experiments found a different, V-shaped, pattern of opening to be generally characteristic of unstressed syllables.
Articulatory Phonology: An Overview
Authors: Browman Catherine P. , Goldstein Louis 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
An overview of the basic ideas of articulatory phonology is presented, along with selected examples of phonological patterning for which the approach seems to provide a particularly insightful account. In articulatory phonology, the basic units of phonological contrast are gestures, which are also abstract characterizations of articulatory events, each with an intrinsic time or duration. Utterances are modeled as organized patterns (constellations) of gestures, in which gestural units may overlap in time. The phonological structures defined in this way provide a set of articulatorily based natural classes. Moreover, the patterns of overlapping organization can be used to specify important aspects of the phonological structure of particular languages, and to account, in a coherent and general way, for a variety of different types of phonological variation. Such variation includes allophonic variation and fluent speech alternations, as well as ‘coarticulation’ and speech errors. Finally, it is suggested that the gestural approach clarifies our understanding of phonological development, by positing that prelinguistic units of action are harnessed into (gestural) phonological structures through differentiation and coordination.
Perception of the Stop/Glide Contrast in Infancy
Authors: Oller Kimbrough , Eilers Rebecca E. , Burns Rebecca , Urbano Richard 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Much of the published research in infant speech perception has emphasized how well infants have done with a number of speech contrasts, and have noted similarities in pattern of discrimination of adults and infants. Often it has been suggested that infants begin life with the ability to perceive any speech contrast, and that the process of acquiring a language involves inhibition of the ability to perceive contrasts not present in the target language. Indeed some studies have shown infants able to discriminate contrasts on which adults fail if the contrasts are not drawn from the native language of the adults. Other studies, however, have suggested that infants may not always be so perceptually capable. The present work focusses on the stop-glide contrast. The results are inconsistent with the prevalent view and with previously reported studies on the perception of the stop-glide contrast by infants. The results indicate that in a vigilance paradigm adapted for both infant and adult testing, infants perform poorly on the contrasts when compared with adults. Furthermore the pattern of relative perception observed in the adults on stimuli with long or short vowels is quite unlike that of the infants. It is concluded that much work remains in order to evaluate the relative performance of infants and adults in speech perception, since it appears that changes in experimental paradigm or particular stimulus parameters may affect outcomes in fundamental ways.
Fronted Velars, Palatalized Velars, and Palatals
Authors: Keating Patricia , Lahiri Aditi 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Articulatory and acoustic characteristics of various stop consonants in Czech, Hungarian, English, and Russian are compared: velars before back and before front vowels, palatalized velars, and palatals. The articulatory data consist of X-ray tracings and palatograms taken from the literature. The acoustic data consist of LPC spectra of brief intervals at stop release and at vowel onset. These data indicate that all of these consonant types are distinct. Contextual fronting of velars is a gradient effect, less extreme than phonemic palatalization of velars. True palatals are even further forward on the palate and contrast with contextually fronted velars before front vowels. Thus these consonant types should not be collapsed by feature systems.
Beyond Sentence Prosody: Paragraph Intonation in Dutch
Authors: Sluijter A.M.C. , Terken J.M.B. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
The present research aims at a partial model for synthesized text intonation, restricted to utterances consisting of a single intonation phrase. Intonational characteristics of short utterances in different positions within a paragraph are investigated. The effects of position in the paragraph on sentence prosody are mainly located in the beginning of the utterance. A model is formulated to capture the main findings. The model is then perceptually evaluated. The results indicate that the model can be used to improve the naturalness of rule-based intonation in a system for automatic text-to-speech conversion.
The Prosody of Information Units in Spontaneous Monologue
Authors: Swerts Marc , Geluykens Ronald 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
This article describes a perceptual evaluation of the prosodic structure of a spontaneously produced monologue. It was found that the speaker studied demarcates larger-scale topical units in spoken discourse by means of intonation (use of melodic boundary markers, scaling of maxima in pitchmovements, general decline in average pitch) and by the use of pauses with variable durations. In a perception test, it was examined to what extent these prosodic devices may be important to listeners. Subjects were confronted with three unintelligible (band-pass-filtered) versions of a fragment of the elicited monologue: (1) with the original prosody unchanged; (2) with constant pause duration and the original speech melody; (3) with monotonous pitch and the original pause structure. They were instructed to indicate the boundaries of the larger-scale topical units in the three versions. Subjects were able to detect correctly the major discourse boundaries in all three filtered versions in a significant number of cases. They performed best when confronted with version 1. Versions 1 and 2, in their turn, did better than version 3, which suggests that, in the performance of this speaker, intonation is a perceptually more important factor than pause for the clarification of the topical make-up of a text, though the latter dimension is certainly not negligible.
A Study on Prosody and Discourse Structure in Cooperative Dialogues
Authors: Nakajima Shin’ya , Allen James F. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
This article describes how well prosodic information correlates with the topic structure of discourse. To investigate this correlation systematically, we first introduce the notion of utterance
unit, which can be viewed as the basic unit in conversations. We then define four topic boundary classes: topic
shift, topic
continuation, elaboration, and speech-act
continuation. The prosodic parameters – onset fundamental frequency (F0), final F0, and peak F0 ratio – are measured at these topic boundaries to show how these prosodic parameters change with the topic structure. Finally, we discuss discourse structure identification via the prosodic parameters.
Phonetic and Phonological Features of Approximants in Athabaskan and Eskimo
Authors: Cook Eung-Do 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
The Athabaskan and Eskimo approximants, particularly [j], [w], and [l], behave phonologically like obstruents. In both language families, [j], which alternates with a sibilant, is phonologically [+coronal], although its coronality has been questioned on phonetic grounds. These approximants best illustrate Sapir’s [1925] notion of ‘a true point in pattern’ which must be defined ‘over and above its natural [phonetic] classification on organic and acoustic grounds’. The fact that approximants are classified phonologically as sonorants or obstruents in different languages is incompatible with the universality of distinctive features and their phonetic properties. This problem is resolved by placing a phonological boundary for [+/––sonorant] somewhat differently in the continuum of the sonority hierarchy, depending on how approximants behave in individual languages.
Cross-Language Influence on the Production of Mandarin /f/ and /x/ and Taiwanese /h/ by Native Speakers of Taiwanese Amoy
Authors: Peng Shu-hui 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
The present study examines the patterns of interference between a first (here, Amoy) and second language (here, Mandarin) by comparing the production of a Mandarin phone [f] (a ‘new’ phone) with another Mandarin phone [x] (which is ‘similar’ to an Amoy phone [h]) by three groups of native Amoy subjects differentiated by proficiency in Mandarin. Their Mandarin production was also compared to that of Mandarin monolinguals. The spectrum of each consonant was analyzed to show the frequency range and energy of the fricative. In general, native Amoy speakers interpreted Mandarin /f/ and /x/ in terms of their first language phones [h<sup>w</sup>] and [h], but showed different patterns of interference for different proficiency levels. The least proficient simply substituted the Amoy phones for the Mandarin. More proficient speakers could approximate the Mandarin monolingual phonetic norm for the ‘new’ phone [f] more accurately than for the ‘similar’ phone [x]. The most proficient showed little Amoy-to-Mandarin interference on even the ‘similar’ phone [x]. On the other hand, the most proficient showed some interference from Mandarin /x/ on their Amoy production.
Individual Variation in Measures of Voice
Authors: Holmberg Eva B. , Perkell Joseph S. , Hillman Robert E. , Gress Carla 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Measures of inferred subglottal air pressure, glottal airflow waveform characteristics, sound pressure level (SPL) and the acoustic spectral slope were studied for individual speakers with normal voices. Combinations of different levels of sub-glottal air pressure and varying glottal configurations could result in the same SPL. Relatively high air pressure levels were associated with a steep spectral slope, reflecting a more sinusoidal glottal waveform and a relatively abducted membranous glottis, which would result in damping of F<sub>1</sub>. Data suggested that the interarytenoid glottal opening could vary without systematically affecting SPL or voice quality. The results indicate that the principles of production-related economy of effort and physiological, acoustic and perceptual constraints may apply to voice production.
What’s in a Schwa?
Authors: Koopmans-van Beinum Florien J. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Although the schwa sound is by far the most frequent vowel in Dutch, it has up to now been phonetically the most neglected. We used an existing database of vowel sounds from focus words in spontaneous speech and in lexically the same text, read aloud by one male speaker, to analyse durational and spectral characteristics of schwas, and we compared the results with data on schwa diphones used in Dutch text-to-speech synthesis. It turned out that, contrary to what is usually thought, lexical schwa sounds in natural continuous speech are considerably shorter than other short vowels, that there is no strong consonantal influence on schwa duration, that schwa sounds display a spectral spread larger than any other vowel, and that surrounding consonants seem to play a role with respect to the midpoint formant distribution of the schwa within the whole vowel system. In no way can the schwa be considered as the ‘bench-mark’ of a speaker’s vowel system.
Listeners’ Normalization of Vowel Quality Is Influenced by ‘Restored’ Consonantal Context
Authors: Ohala John J. , Feder Deborah 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
When listeners’ identifications of speech sounds are influenced by adjacent sounds, is it only the quantitative phonetic characteristics of these neighboring sounds that matter, or could their qualitative linguistic identity play a role? We tested this by inducing subjects to ‘restore’ a noise-obliterated medial consonant in VCe utterances by first presenting them with several prior utterances where this medial consonant could be heard clearly and was consistently the same, either a /b/ or a /d/. Included as V were synthetic steady-state vowels from the /i-u/ continuum. More /u/’s were identified out of this continuum in the environment of physically present /d/’s than /b/’s. Restored /d/’s had the same effect, thus indicating that the influence of context need not operate only via physical phonetic features. These results suggest that strict phonetic invariance of phonological units may not be necessary.
Prolegomena to a Theory of the Sound Pattern of the First Spoken Language
Authors: MacNeilage Peter F. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Although it would seem fundamental to the understanding of human beings, there has been virtually no attempt, in modern science, to develop a theory regarding the sound pattern of the first language. As a step towards such a theory, I suggest that ontogeny may recapitulate phylogeny. I propose that the pattern of open/close alternation of the mandible underlying the syllable which first appears in infants at the babbling stage is the missing link in the evolution of speech from ancestral primate vocal signals. In addition, I suggest that the conjoint set of sounds and sound patterns favored in babbling and early words, and in the world’s languages, constitutes, in effect, the fossil record of true speech, and I provide a tentative enumeration of this set.
Phonetics of Intervocalic Consonant Perception: Retrospect and Prospect
Authors: Pickett J.M. , Bunnell Timothy , Revoile Sally G. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
This article reviews the production characteristics and perceptual cues of intervocalic consonants as a background for acoustic studies of consonant perception in fluent speech. Data show that in conversation intervocalic consonants occur much more commonly than consonants in initial or final position; all phonetic features are strongly represented. Production characteristics of intervocalic consonants are seen to depend on the tempo and rhythmic conditions of the syllables of which they are components. At a moderate tempo, consonants in syllable-final position combine with the onset consonant of the following syllable. This affects durational characteristics and may be explained by higher energy efficiency of CV units in production. Phonological phenomena are related to the shifts in syllable position and the temporal compensations of intervocalic consonant production. Studies of consonant perception in fluent context have dealt with tempo of utterance, position in word, and rhythmic pattern, as well as phonemic context. Major phenomena are effects of coarticulation, invariance in consonant perception, and cue interaction and masking. Much evidence suggests a dominance of the perceptual cues in the CV portion of VCCV and VCV sequences. We suggest that exploration of perception variables that affect consonants in fluent context would be expedited by reorienting experimental procedures to employ listener adjustment of stimuli, instead of the traditional phoneme identification and discrimination procedures with large sets of constant stimuli. Most of the relevant literature deals with stop consonants. Lateral, rhotic, and nasal consonants also deserve intensive study because of their very frequent occurrence. Theoretical issues of phoneme perceptual invariance and motor vs. auditory theory of perception are discussed in relation to proposed experiments which vary syllable tempo and stress pattern.
Effects of Focus Distribution, Pitch Accent and Lexical Stress on the Temporal Organization of Syllables in Dutch
Authors: Sluijter A.M.C. , van Heuven V.J. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
In recent developments in phonological theory two independent representations for prosodic prominence are needed in languages such as Dutch and English. A nonculminative auto-segmental structure with high and low tones accounts for pitch accents in focused constituents, whereas a culminative metrical structure which is phonetically coded in relative duration accounts for the lexical stress position in a word. The most farreaching consequence following from this proposal is that relative temporal structure of a word does not change if a pitch accent is shifted to an unstressed syllable. Our results show that, if a pitch accent is shifted (through focus manipulation) from the stressed onto the unstressed syllable, rhyme durations are more or less inverted. Therefore, the assumption of completely independent tonal and metrical structure is largely untenable. However, our results also show a small residual effect of the original stress pattern after the accent shift, which can be accounted for by a metrical grid representation.
Kleine Phonetik und Große Phonetik
Authors: Tillmann Hans G. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to answer the two questions ‘What is phonetics?’ and ‘Is it a discipline in its own right?’ Because there seem to exist different answers, these questions are of some interest. Sometimes, phonetics is seen as less than a fully fledged discipline, i.e. merely a part of other disciplines. But on the other hand, it seems equally true that phonetics can be said to be more than just one single discipline, in which case we would get a whole set of ‘phonetic sciences’. Neither of those two paradoxical, or even contradictory, alternatives presents a satisfying solution. In the following we would like to show that phonetics can be called a well-defined discipline in exactly two different senses. Phonetics can be seen as one of two very specific versions of scientifically approaching what will be called the
phonetic
facts
of
spoken
language. Such facts are a necessary condition for every natural speech act, because there is no speech act without observable phonetic facts. Together, these two versions of scientifically dealing with phonetic facts, a smaller and a larger one, form phonetics as a whole discipline in its own right. This contribution to the Festschrift is written in German, mainly because its title cannot be easily translated into English; for further explanations, please refer to note on p. 158.
Interactions of Fundamental Frequency Contour and Perceived Duration in Norwegian
Authors: van Dommelen Wim A. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
This study investigates the influence of fundamental frequency (F₀) contour on perceived vowel duration in Norwegian. In the first of four experiments, a falling vs. flat contour in short vs. long vowels in isolated monosyllables was shown to cause a perceptual lengthening of the vowel. Contrary to the expectations, embedding the monosyllables sentence-medially in experiment 2 did not turn the lengthening into a shortening effect. Also unexpectedly, a rising vs. flat contour did not influence perceived duration in monosyllables (experiment 3). Experiment 4 focused on falling as well as rising contours in disyllabic test words. Here, too, a lenghtening effect was found only for a falling pattern. In parallel with experiment 2, the presence of the test word’s second syllable did not turn perceptual lengthening into perceptual shortening. Comparison of the present results with data previously reported for German leads to the conclusion that the interaction of Fo contour and perceived vowel duration is language-specific and cannot be explained by assuming a universal psychophysical mechanism.
An Interactive Technique for Matching Speaker Identity
Authors: Carlson Rolf , Granström Björn 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
A speaker recognition experiment is described where subjects are asked to identify 1 out of 12 unknown speakers from short samples of speech. All were male speakers without strong regional accents and unknown to the subject group. The task was to match the voice of a test utterance to one of the speakers. The test was run individually as an interactive computer-controlled task. Results on speed and precision of this task are presented. The result demonstrates that it is possible for subjects to quite accurately match unknown voices, speaking different utterances, if the test utterances are reasonably long. However, listeners differ widely in this ability. The study will be used as a baseline for synthesis of speaker characteristics.