The perceptual basis of the feature vowel height

Katerina Chladkova; Paul Boersma; Titia Benders

The perceptual basis of the feature vowel height

Katerina Chladkova, Paul Boersma, Titia Benders

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

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Abstract

The present study investigated whether listeners perceptually map phonetic information to phonological feature categories or to phonemes. The test case is a phonological feature that occurs in most of the world’s languages, namely vowel height, and its acoustic correlate, the first formant (F1). We first simulated vowel discrimination in virtual listeners who perceive speech sounds through phonological features and virtual listeners who perceive through phonemes. The simulations revealed that feature listeners differed from phoneme listeners in their perceptual discrimination of F1 along a front-back boundary continuum as
compared to a front (or back) continuum. The competing predictions of phoneme-based versus feature-based vowel discrimination were explicitly tested in real human listeners. The real listeners’ vowel discrimination did not resemble the simulated phoneme listeners, and was compatible with that of the simulated feature listeners. The findings suggest that humans perceive vowel F1
through phonological feature categories like /high/ and /mid/.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of ICPhS 2015
Place of Publication	Glasgow
Publisher	University of Glasgow
Pages	1-5
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	9780852619414
Publication status	Published - 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	International congress of phonetic sciences (18th : 2015) - Glasgow, UK Duration: 10 Aug 2015 → 14 Aug 2015

Conference

Conference	International congress of phonetic sciences (18th : 2015)
City	Glasgow, UK
Period	10/08/15 → 14/08/15

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2015. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

speech perception
vowel discrimination
vowel height
distinctive features

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Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 1.16 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "The perceptual basis of the feature vowel height",

abstract = "The present study investigated whether listeners perceptually map phonetic information to phonological feature categories or to phonemes. The test case is a phonological feature that occurs in most of the world{\textquoteright}s languages, namely vowel height, and its acoustic correlate, the first formant (F1). We first simulated vowel discrimination in virtual listeners who perceive speech sounds through phonological features and virtual listeners who perceive through phonemes. The simulations revealed that feature listeners differed from phoneme listeners in their perceptual discrimination of F1 along a front-back boundary continuum as compared to a front (or back) continuum. The competing predictions of phoneme-based versus feature-based vowel discrimination were explicitly tested in real human listeners. The real listeners{\textquoteright} vowel discrimination did not resemble the simulated phoneme listeners, and was compatible with that of the simulated feature listeners. The findings suggest that humans perceive vowel F1 through phonological feature categories like /high/ and /mid/.",

keywords = "speech perception, vowel discrimination, vowel height, distinctive features",

author = "Katerina Chladkova and Paul Boersma and Titia Benders",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2015. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.; International congress of phonetic sciences (18th : 2015) ; Conference date: 10-08-2015 Through 14-08-2015",

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language = "English",

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booktitle = "Proceedings of ICPhS 2015",

publisher = "University of Glasgow",

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T1 - The perceptual basis of the feature vowel height

AU - Chladkova, Katerina

AU - Boersma, Paul

AU - Benders, Titia

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2015. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - The present study investigated whether listeners perceptually map phonetic information to phonological feature categories or to phonemes. The test case is a phonological feature that occurs in most of the world’s languages, namely vowel height, and its acoustic correlate, the first formant (F1). We first simulated vowel discrimination in virtual listeners who perceive speech sounds through phonological features and virtual listeners who perceive through phonemes. The simulations revealed that feature listeners differed from phoneme listeners in their perceptual discrimination of F1 along a front-back boundary continuum as compared to a front (or back) continuum. The competing predictions of phoneme-based versus feature-based vowel discrimination were explicitly tested in real human listeners. The real listeners’ vowel discrimination did not resemble the simulated phoneme listeners, and was compatible with that of the simulated feature listeners. The findings suggest that humans perceive vowel F1 through phonological feature categories like /high/ and /mid/.

AB - The present study investigated whether listeners perceptually map phonetic information to phonological feature categories or to phonemes. The test case is a phonological feature that occurs in most of the world’s languages, namely vowel height, and its acoustic correlate, the first formant (F1). We first simulated vowel discrimination in virtual listeners who perceive speech sounds through phonological features and virtual listeners who perceive through phonemes. The simulations revealed that feature listeners differed from phoneme listeners in their perceptual discrimination of F1 along a front-back boundary continuum as compared to a front (or back) continuum. The competing predictions of phoneme-based versus feature-based vowel discrimination were explicitly tested in real human listeners. The real listeners’ vowel discrimination did not resemble the simulated phoneme listeners, and was compatible with that of the simulated feature listeners. The findings suggest that humans perceive vowel F1 through phonological feature categories like /high/ and /mid/.

KW - speech perception

KW - vowel discrimination

KW - vowel height

KW - distinctive features

UR - https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2015/proceedings.html

M3 - Conference proceeding contribution

SP - 1

EP - 5

BT - Proceedings of ICPhS 2015

PB - University of Glasgow

CY - Glasgow

T2 - International congress of phonetic sciences (18th : 2015)

Y2 - 10 August 2015 through 14 August 2015

ER -

The perceptual basis of the feature vowel height

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this