Prosodic conditioning of phonetic detail of German plosives

Contains fulltext : 75108.pdf (author's version ) (Open Access

Compensation for assimilatory devoicing and prosodic structure in German fricative perception

Contains fulltext : 85959.pdf (author's version ) (Open Access

Prosodic structure in speech production and perception

Contains fulltext : 76884.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)RU Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 14 april 2009Promotor : Cutler, A. Co-promotor : Ernestus, M.T.C.158 p

Lexical status effects on compensation for fricative assimilation

Contains fulltext : 56571.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In German, word-initial voiced fricatives may be devoiced if they follow /t/. This assimilation could make recognition of words beginning with /v/ harder, since there may be competing words beginning with /f/, but will not affect words beginning with /z/, since initial /s/ in German is illegal. Our previous research has shown that speakers indeed produce more assimilation across word boundaries than across phrase boundaries for /z/, but inhibit the assimiliation across word boundaries for /v/. In the present study, German listeners identified the fricative continua /f-v/ and /s-z/, across word versus phrase boundaries, in viable versus non-viable contexts for assimilation. Less voicing was required for a /v,z/ judgement in viable than in non-viable assimilation contexts. This context effect was larger after a word boundary than after a phrase boundary. Within the viable-context condition, a prosodic effect appeared for /f-v/, with less voicing required for /v/ judgements after a word than a phrase boundary, but no such effect appeared for /s-z/. This asymmetry reverses the difference observed in production. Thus listeners adjust phoneme category boundaries to compensate for prosodically-conditioned variation where such adjustment is functional for word recognition, but do not adjust where adjustment would have no functional consequences.1 p

Prosodic structure affects the production and perception of voice-assimilated German Fricatives

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Perceptual compensation for voice assimilation of German fricatives

Contains fulltext : 75107.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)In German, word-initial lax fricatives may be produced with substantially reduced glottal vibration after voiceless obstruents. This assimilation occurs more frequently and to a larger extent across prosodic word boundaries than across phrase boundaries. Assimilatory devoicing makes the fricatives more similar to their tense counterparts and could thus hinder word recognition. The present study investigates how listeners cope with assimilatory devoicing. Results of a cross-modal priming experiment indicate that listeners compensate for assimilation in appropriate contexts. Prosodic structure moderates compensation for assimilation: Compensation occurs especially after phrase boundaries, where devoiced fricatives are sufficiently long to be confused with their tense counterparts