Talking
phonetics & phonology
speech & sign perception
Minds
Review
100
True or False: Linguistic variation exists at every level of grammar (phonology, words, sentences, politeness rules) between different languages / dialects of the same language.
True!
100
Which pairs of sounds share voicing? More than one answer may be correct.
1. [ g ] and [ z ]
2. [ l ] and [ ð ]
3. [ h ] and [ ʃ ]
4. [ k ] and [ j ]
1. [ g ] and [ z ]
2. [ l ] and [ ð ]
3. [ h ] and [ ʃ ]
100
Assigning two distinct categories to a bilabial stop despite gradual changes on a VOT continuum around the 30ms mark by an English listener is an example of
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categorical perception
100
Which of the following word pair form a minimal pair? More than one answer may be correct.
1. nice & mice
2. quite & sight
3. knight & wright
4. stick & kick
1. nice & mice
3. knight & wright
100
What is Voice Onset Time (VOT)? How does it related to categorical perception?
VOT is the amount of time that elapses between when the stop is released and when the voicing starts for the following vowel. Since it's a voicing continuum, we categorize the continuum to different categories. We can't tell the difference between sounds if they're in the same category.
200
True or False: Babies apply basic reasoning skills to infer the properties of their native language and they are not born with abstract knowledge of language.
False! Babies are born with some unconscious (abstract) knowledge of language and they need language input to trigger the acquisition process.
200
Which pairs of sounds share a manner of articulation? More than one answer may be correct.
1. [ b ] and [ v ]
2. [ s ] and [ ð ]
3. [ f ] and [ ʒ ]
4. [ n ] and [ j ]
2. [ s ] and [ ð ]
3. [ f ] and [ ʒ ]
200
What kind of perception effect in the follow description is?
An illusion in which a non-speech sound (white noise or a cough) replaces a speech sound within a recognizable word, with the result that people perceive the non-speech sound while also “hearing” the missing speech sound.
A. Ganong effect
B. McGurk effect
C. Phoneme restoration
C. Phoneme restoration
200
The voiceless glottal stop [ ʔ ] …
More than one answer may be correct.
1. is a phoneme in English.
2. is an allophone of / t / in English.
3. is an allophone of / p / in English.
4. is in complementary distribution with other allophones of / t / in English.
2. is an allophone of / t / in English.
4. is in complementary distribution with other allophones of / t / in English.
200
True or False: If we expose ourselves to different speech variation, it is possible that we will have less difficulties in perceiving those variation.
True! We are flexible to adjust our perception based on our linguistic experiences.
300
While English speakers perceive /r/ and /l/ as two distinct (a)_________, Japanese speakers perceive them as being (b)_________ on a continuum.
(a) phonemes (contrastive sound in A language)
(b) allophones (non-contrastive sound in B language)
300
Which pairs of sounds share a place of articulation? More than one answer may be correct.
1. [ b ] and [ w ]
2. [ ɹ ] and [ n ]
3. [ k ] and [ z ]
4. [ f ] and [ θ ]
1. [ b ] and [ w ]
2. [ ɹ ] and [ n ]
300
Which feature is contrastive between the two signs in Taiwan Sign Language?
1. Handshape
2. Location
3. Movement/motion
2. Location
300
Which sound has the longest VOT?
1. plain voiced stop (e.g. [b])
2. aspirated voiceless stop (e.g. [ph])
3. plain voiceless stop (e.g. [p])
4. they all have the same VOT
2. aspirated voiceless stop (e.g. [ph])
300
What is McGurk effect? What kind of cue influences our speech perception in McGurk effect?
An illusion in which the mismatch between auditory information and visual information pertaining to a sound’s articulation results in altered perception of that sound.
400
Explain why Nicaraguan Sign Language can be used as an example of nativism / humans being hard-wired for language?
Deaf people use individual homesign systems and gesture at home in Nicaragua. Deaf people come together to deaf school and start community building with their existing gesture and homesign systems. Eventually, individual systems converge over time, Nicaraguan Sign Language is born.
400
True or False: If a sound is not a phoneme in the language, then it must be an allophone.
False! It is possible that the sound doesn't exist in the language.
400
True of False: If we can find the same phoneme, e.g. /p/, in several languages, the acoustic reality would also be the same, e.g. having the same VOT boundary.
False! When processing speech sounds we use our phonemic knowledge of these sounds (in our native language) to help us. The categories are language-specific.
400
What concept does the figure below illustrate for the identification task?
It illustrates that people spend more time deciding which sound that they hear. When the sound is around the boundary, people have longer reaction time.
400
True or False: Under any circumstances, human beings are NOT able to perceive gradient/continuous stimuli.
False! “Nonspeech” sounds are perceived continuously, and listeners can discriminate many more sounds as long as they do not resemble language, for instance, musical notes.
500
1. two 'k' sounds different in "cookie" but we hear same sound [k]
2. The pitch of the child voice is higher than adults' voice, but we have no trouble hearing both of their speech
These examples demonstrate the phenomenon known as:
Perceptual invariance
500
The reason why [tvoj] and [vzglʲad̥] are well-formed pronunciation in Russian, but not in English is because both languages have different _______.
1. Phonemes
2. Allophones
3. Phonotactic constraints
4. Consonants
3. Phonotactic constraints
500
Which is the “problem” with perceiving speech and sign? (what do we need to do for speech perception) More than one answer may be correct.
1. speech /sign is a continuous signal (where is word boundary?)
2. understanding the signal involves assigning discrete (=phonemic) categories, as well as phoneme restoration in specific hard-to-hear contexts
3. speech /sign is highly variable across individuals and/or communities
4. baby first needs to learn what universal phonemic categories are in human languages
1. speech /sign is a continuous signal (where’s each word boundary?) ← segmentation problem
2. understanding the signal involves assigning discrete (=phonemic) categories, as well as phoneme restoration in specific hard-to-hear contexts
3. speech /sign is highly variable across individuals and/or communities
500
True or False: Cue-weighting will always work in the same way among languages and contexts.
False! Several types of cues are used in speech perception. Cue-weighting can be different among languages and contexts.
500
What does duality of patterning refer to?
combining a limited number of meaningless units to create a large number of meaningful words
