Vowel contexts are shown to influence the perceived distinction of sibilants at different places,e.g.,with alveolar vs.palatal sibilants perceptually less distinct in the [_i] context than in the [_a] context This stu...Vowel contexts are shown to influence the perceived distinction of sibilants at different places,e.g.,with alveolar vs.palatal sibilants perceptually less distinct in the [_i] context than in the [_a] context This study investigates if this pattern holds across different sibilant place contrasts,e.g.,an alveolar-palatal contrast vs.an alveolar-retroflex contrast.Twenty-four listeners completed a speeded-AX discrimination task in which the stimuli were the sound pairs [si-ci][sa-ca][si-si][sa-sa],which aimed to access the relative psychoacoustic distinction of these pairs.The [si-ci] pair turned out to introduce a lower accuracy and a longer response time than the other pairs,with no response time difference among the other three.Assuming a longer response time to indicate less perceptual distinctiveness,the results confirm the observation in the literature that a [si-ci] pair is perceptually less distinct than a [sa-ca] pair;the lack of difference in [si-si] vs.[sa-sa] suggests that the[_i] context does not reduce the perceived sibilant place distinction across all places.There seems to be a trading relation between the effect of vowel context (e.g.,a reduced distinction in the [_i] context) and the relative acoustic difference between sibilants when evaluating the distinctiveness of a CV pair.展开更多
基金partially supported by Hong Kong Baptist University Research Committee’s Start-up Grant for New Academics and Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant (FRG) CategoryⅡ(No.FRG2/17-18/076)
文摘Vowel contexts are shown to influence the perceived distinction of sibilants at different places,e.g.,with alveolar vs.palatal sibilants perceptually less distinct in the [_i] context than in the [_a] context This study investigates if this pattern holds across different sibilant place contrasts,e.g.,an alveolar-palatal contrast vs.an alveolar-retroflex contrast.Twenty-four listeners completed a speeded-AX discrimination task in which the stimuli were the sound pairs [si-ci][sa-ca][si-si][sa-sa],which aimed to access the relative psychoacoustic distinction of these pairs.The [si-ci] pair turned out to introduce a lower accuracy and a longer response time than the other pairs,with no response time difference among the other three.Assuming a longer response time to indicate less perceptual distinctiveness,the results confirm the observation in the literature that a [si-ci] pair is perceptually less distinct than a [sa-ca] pair;the lack of difference in [si-si] vs.[sa-sa] suggests that the[_i] context does not reduce the perceived sibilant place distinction across all places.There seems to be a trading relation between the effect of vowel context (e.g.,a reduced distinction in the [_i] context) and the relative acoustic difference between sibilants when evaluating the distinctiveness of a CV pair.
