School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
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ItemJapanese Vowel Devoicing Modulates Perceptual Epenthesis(Australian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2018)
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ItemPredictability, Word Frequency and Japanese Perceptual Epenthesis(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019)Speakers typically invest less effort in the articulation of sounds and words that are highly predictable from their contexts. Recent research reveals a perceptual corollary to this behaviour, showing that listeners pay less attention to acoustic signal in predictable contexts. The present paper expands on this finding by testing the acceptability and discriminability of sequences of speech with varying levels of predictability. Stimuli are contrast pairs and are either phonotactically attested or else contain an illicit nonhomorganic consonant cluster. Such clusters violate Japanese phonotactics and have been found to elicit perceptual epenthesis in Japanese listeners. The results show that unattested consonant clusters are perceived as more acceptable in high-frequency sequences than in low-frequency sequences.
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ItemAcoustic correlates of lexical stress in Wubuy(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019)We examined the acoustic correlates of lexical stress in the non-Pama-Nyungan language Wubuy (Northern Territory, Australia). We tested two hypotheses about stress: that stress is determined by (1) a combination of syllable position in prosodic word and quantity sensitivity, or (2) by position alone. To test these hypotheses, we elicited trisyllabic noun roots differing in position of heavy syllables in frame-final environments from 3 speakers. We found that both position and predicted stress based on prior phonological descriptions could account for many correlates (segment and syllable duration, f0, intensity, vowel formants) although overall syllable position appeared to account for more of the variance.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableNative prosodic systems and learning experience shape production of non-native tones(ISCA, 2016)This study investigates how native prosodic systems and second language (L2) learning experience shape non-native tone production. Speakers from tone language backgrounds (native Cantonese and Mandarin speakers [CS & MS]) and non-tone language backgrounds (English monolinguals [ES] and English speakers with Mandarin learning experience [EM]) produced the six Cantonese tones in an imitation task. The results suggest systematic effects of native prosodic systems on L2 tone production, regardless of tone or non-tone language backgrounds. MS have more problems with pitch height whereas ES tend to produce every tone in a level shape, which echoes the findings from previous perception studies. Further, MS’s ability to integrate their native sensitivity to pitch height, along with their Mandarin training in pitch contour, contributes to their exceptional performance in producing the new tone language. Importantly, EM speakers performed better than MS speakers, suggesting that L1 experience with tone may be less helpful to learners than L2 tone acquisition experience, even when this L2 experience is with a different tone language (here Mandarin).
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ItemPerception of Cantonese tones by Mandarin speakers(International Phonetics Association, 2015)
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ItemThe vowel inventory of Roper Kriol(International Phonetics Association, 2015)
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ItemA comparison of the acoustics of nonsense and real word stimuli: coronal stops in Bengali(International Phonetics Society, 2015)Research suggests that nonsense and real words often exhibit differences in their acoustic properties. Despite this, the use of nonsense stimuli is prevalent in acoustic analyses of a range of phenomena and in experimental studies of segmental perception. The present study examined stop duration and preceding vowel formant transitions for two Bengali coronal stops produced in real and nonsense word stimuli. Firstly, significant differences were observed based on the stimulus type. Nonsense word production showed more distinct dental-retroflex differentiation. Secondly, the results revealed that F3 was a more reliable cue to place of articulation than closure duration and voice onset time.
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ItemVoicing perception in the absence of voicing contrast(International Speech Communication Association, 2015)
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ItemWubuy coronal stop perception by speakers of three dialects of Bangla.(International Speech Communication Association, 2015)We tested native speakers from three major dialect groups of Bangla, on their discrimination of a four-way coronal stop contrast from the Australian Indigenous language Wubuy. Bangla is generally assumed to have a two-way contrast in coronal stops, with an additional place distinction in affricates. The results show that Bangla speakers are able to discriminate the Wubuy contrasts, but also that certain contrasts are more difficult to discriminate than others. We discuss these results with respect to the Bangla coronal inventory, and importantly, with respect to the variation in the phonetic realisation of coronals between the dialects of Bangla. We argue that the phonetic realisation of what is regarded to be the 'same' phonemic inventory can have implications for the perceptual behaviour of speakers.
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ItemIncorporation in Wubuy(Australian Linguistic Society, 2014)In Wubuy (Northern Australia), nouns can be productively incorporated into verbs and adjectives. A longstanding controversy in linguistics has revolved around the question of whether these constructions are syntactic (derived by movement) or lexical (formed in the lexicon). Here I show that the arguments which may be linked to incorporated nouns show rather more freedom than generally supposed, and in this respect display similarities to compounding. I propose an analysis using aspects of Construction Morphology (e.g. B. Baker, 2008; Booij, 2010a) but with the crucial difference that incorporation structures always admit a phrasal interpretation, rather than a lexical one.