Unmerging the sibilant merger via phonetic imitation: Phonetic, phonological, and social factors

Lee-Kim, Sang-Im; Chou, Yun-Chieh

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101298

Journal of Phonetics

2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101298

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Unmerging the sibilant merger via phonetic imitation: Phonetic, phonological, and social factors

Sang-Im Lee-Kim,

Yun-Chieh Chou

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2024

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Cited by 2 publications

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Abstract and Acoustic Targets in Phonetic Imitation

Hauser

2024

Language and Linguist. Compass

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Phonetic imitation (also called convergence or accommodation) occurs when talkers alter their pronunciation towards speech they hear. This can happen spontaneously with only a few minutes of exposure in a laboratory experiment even without instruction to imitate. While there is considerable evidence for spontaneous imitation, in many cases it is not clear exactly which aspects of the model talker are being imitated. It is possible to imitate the raw acoustics of the model's voice or more abstract targets like normalised acoustics of the model's voice, phonological patterns the model exhibits, or speech style. Although there is substantial literature demonstrating convergent speech behaviour, existing work typically does not distinguish between these different types of targets. This has theoretical implications for accounts of imitation and normalisation, methodological significance for analysis of imitation studies, and potential applied significance for how imitation is used in language teaching and clinical speech therapy. This paper will review these issues, discuss the statistical challenges associated with measuring convergence to competing targets, and make methodological recommendations for future studies.

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Abstract and Acoustic Targets in Phonetic Imitation

Hauser

2024

Language and Linguist. Compass

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Raw acoustic vs. normalized phonetic convergence: Imitation of the Northern Cities Shift in the American Midwest

Clopper,

Dossey,

Gonzalez

2024

Laboratory Phonology

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Word shadowing tasks elicit phonetic convergence to the stimulus model talkers, suggesting a tight perception-production link. The magnitude of this convergence is affected by linguistic and social factors, suggesting that the perception-production link is mediated by higher-level phonological and social structures. The current study explored the nature of the perception-production link in an explicit comparison of raw acoustic vs. normalized phonetic convergence in word shadowing. American Midwestern participants repeated words after a model talker with features of the Northern Cities Shift vowels in one of three instruction conditions, which varied in whether participants were primed with the regional background of the model talker and in whether they were asked explicitly to imitate her. The results revealed normalized phonetic convergence to the model talker’s Northern Cities Shift vowels, even when this convergence entailed divergence from the raw acoustics, and token-by-token variability in her productions, consistent with a tight perception-production link that is mediated by linguistic structure. Modest effects of instruction condition on the magnitude of phonetic convergence were also observed, consistent with social information mediating this perception-production link. The results of this study provide converging evidence for phonetic convergence that is both phonetically-detailed and subject to constraint by higher-level representations.

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Unmerging the sibilant merger via phonetic imitation: Phonetic, phonological, and social factors

Cited by 2 publications

References 53 publications

Abstract and Acoustic Targets in Phonetic Imitation

Abstract and Acoustic Targets in Phonetic Imitation

Raw acoustic vs. normalized phonetic convergence: Imitation of the Northern Cities Shift in the American Midwest

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