Mora or Phoneme? Further Evidence for Language-Specific Listening

Cutler, Anne; Otake, Takashi

doi:10.1006/jmla.1994.1039

Cited by 208 publications

(214 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…First of all, the vowel /a/ in Japanese-accented / " akto/ is not a phoneme of English (e.g., Ladefoged, 1999), and Japanese listeners perceive it as most similar to the English category />/ (Strange et al, 1998); and while English /b/ and /v/ are confusable at least for mid and low proficiency Japanese learners (Guion et al, 2000), Japanese-accented forms always contained an inserted vowel in coda position, thereby making the syllable structure of the English words permissible in Japanese. Listeners are known to be sensitive to phonological structure in their native language (e.g., Cutler & Otake, 1994Otake, Hatano, & Yoneyama, 1996), and it is unlikely therefore that Japanese listeners could not perceptually distinguish between the non-permissible CVC in /mu:v/ and the permissible CVs in /mu:bu/. As Fais et al (2005) have shown, Japanese listeners judge indeed the non-permissible form keet on a scale of goodness as significantly less good than the permissible form keeto.…”

Section: Experiments 1bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spoken-word recognition in foreign-accented speech by L2 listeners

Weber

Broersma

Aoyagi

2011

Journal of Phonetics

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a b s t r a c tTwo cross-modal priming studies investigated the recognition of English words spoken with a foreign accent. Auditory English primes were either typical of a Dutch accent or typical of a Japanese accent in English and were presented to both Dutch and Japanese L2 listeners. Lexical-decision times to subsequent visual target words revealed that foreign-accented words can facilitate word recognition for L2 listeners if at least one of two requirements is met: the foreign-accented production is in accordance with the language background of the L2 listener, or the foreign accent is perceptually confusable with the standard pronunciation for the L2 listener. If neither one of the requirements is met, no facilitatory effect of foreign accents on L2 word recognition is found. Taken together, these findings suggest that linguistic experience with a foreign accent affects the ability to recognize words carrying this accent, and there is furthermore a general benefit for L2 listeners for recognizing foreign-accented words that are perceptually confusable with the standard pronunciation.

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Section: Experiments 1bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spoken-word recognition in foreign-accented speech by L2 listeners

Weber

Broersma

Aoyagi

2011

Journal of Phonetics

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“…In French, Catalan, and Spanish, for example, the syllable is the basic metrical unit, and native speakers of these languages use syllabic information in segmentation (Cutler, Mehler, Norris, & Segui, 1986Mehler, Dommergues, Frauenfelder, & Segui, 1981;Pallier, Sebastiân-Gallés, Felguera, Christophe, & Mehler, 1993;Sebastian-Gallés, Dupoux, Segui, & Mehler, 1992). In Japanese, the basic metrical unit is the mora, and accord ingly it appears that Japanese listeners use moraic information in segmentation (Cutler & Otake, 1994;Otake, Hatano, Cutler & Mehler, 1993). Speakers of stress-timed languages like English and Dutch use the rhythmic distinction between strong and weak syllables for segmentation (Cutler & Butterfield, 1992 Zon, & de Gelder, 1996).…”

Section: Segmentation Cues In the Inputmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Possible-Word Constraint in the Segmentation of Continuous Speech

Norris

McQueen

Cutler

et al. 1997

Cognitive Psychology

224

280

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We propose that word recognition in continuous speech is subject to constraints on what may constitute a viable word of the language. This Possible-Word Constraint (PWC) reduces activation of candidate words if their recognition would imply word status for adjacent input which coultl not be a word -for instance, a single consonant. In two word-spotting experiments, listeners found it much harder to detect apple, for example, in fapple (where [f] alone would be an impossible word), than in vujfapple (where vuff could be a word of English). We demonstrate that the PWC can readily be implemented in a competition-based model of continuous speech recognition, as a constraint on the process of competition between candidate words; where a stretch of speech between a candidate word and a (known or likely) word boundary is not a possible word, activation of the candidate word is reduced. This implementation accu rately simulates both the present results and data from a range of earlier studies of speech segmentation. © 1997 Academic Press INTRODUCTIONWhen we listen to continuous speech, we apprehend a sequence of discrete words. The effortlessness with which we understand speech might suggest that recognition of spoken words is a rather simple task; but in fact it is a complex process, in which a very variable and largely continuous speech signal has to be mapped onto a lexicon of tens of thousands of words. TheWe thank the Longman Group, U.K. Inc. for allowing us to use a machine-readable version of the Longman Dictionary o f Contemporary English (Procter, 1975 Owned by Academic Press, 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495 Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount o f bonds, mortgages, and other securities None Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books o f the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name o f the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, also the statements in the two paragraphs show the affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books o f the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that o f a bona fide owner Names and addresses of individuals who are stockholders o f a corporation which itself is a stockholder or holder of bonds, mortgages, or other securities of the publishing corporation have been included in paragraphs 2 and 3 when the interests o f such individuals are equivalent to I percent or more of the total amount of the stock or securities of the publishing corporation Total no copies printed average no copies each issue during preceding 12 months 2249, single issue nearest to filing date 2247 Paid circulation (a) to term subscribers by mail, carrier delivery, or by other means average no copies each issue during preceding 12 months 1054, single issue nearest to filing date 1050 (b) Sal...

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“…Other tasks confirm the robustness of syllabic segmentation in Frcnch (Kolinsky, Morais & Cluytens, 1995;Scgui, Fraucnfelder, & Mchler, 1981). However, target detection docs not show syllabic segmentation in English (Cutler, Mchlcr, Norris & Scgui, 1986) or in Japanese (Otake, Hatano, Cutler, &' Mchlcr, 1993;Cutler & Otake, 1994). Cutler and Norris's (1988) observation that segmentation in English is stress based, by con trast, is supported by patterns of word boundary mispcrceptions (Cutler & Butterfield, 1992) and by evidcncc of activation of monosyllabic words em bedded as strong syllables in longer words (e.g., bone, in trombone; Shillcock, 1990).…”

Section: The Input To the Lexiconmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spoken Word Recognition and Production

CUTLER¹

1995

Speech, Language, and Communication

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Most language behavior consists of speaking and listening. However, the recognition and production of spoken words have not always been central topics in psycholinguistic research. Considering the two fields together in one chapter reveals differences and similarities. Spokcn-word recognition studies began in earnest in the 1970s, prompted on one hand by the develop ment of laboratory tasks involving auditory presentation and on the other hand by the realization that the growing body of data on visual word recognition (see Scidenbcrg, Chapter 5, this volume) did not necessarily apply to listening, bccausc of the temporal nature of speech signals. This recognition research has been, to a great extent, model driven. Spokcnword production research, on the other hand, has a longer history but a less intimate relationship with theory. Laboratory tasks for studying production are difficult to devise, so that much research addressed production failure, such as slips of the tongue. An unhappy result of this focus has been models of production that are largely determined by the characteristics of failed rather than succcssful operation of the processes modeled; moreover, the models have rarely prompted new research. Only in recent years have mod els and laboratory studies of successful production bccomc widely available. Despite these differences, theoretical questions in recognition and produc- Speech, Language, and Communication

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Mora or Phoneme? Further Evidence for Language-Specific Listening

Cited by 208 publications

References 27 publications

Spoken-word recognition in foreign-accented speech by L2 listeners

Spoken-word recognition in foreign-accented speech by L2 listeners

The Possible-Word Constraint in the Segmentation of Continuous Speech

Spoken Word Recognition and Production

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