34 research outputs found
Investigating the asymmetry of English sibilant assimilation: Acoustic and EPG data
We present tongue-palate contact (EPG) and acoustic data on English sibilant assimilation, with a particular focus on the asymmetry arising from the order of the sibilants. It is generally known that /s# / sequences may display varying degrees of regressive assimilation in fluent speech, yet for / #s/ it is widely assumed that no assimilation takes place, although the empirical content of this assumption has rarely been investigated nor a clear theoretical explanation proposed. We systematically
compare the two sibilant orders in word-boundary clusters. Our data show that /s# / sequences assimilate frequently and this assimilation is strictly regressive. The assimilated sequence may be indistinguishable from a homorganic control sequence by our measures, or it can be characterized by measurement values intermediate to those typical for / / or /s/. / #s/ sequences may also show regressive assimilation, albeit less frequently and to a lesser degree. Assimilated / #s/ sequences are always distinguishable from /s#s/ sequences. In a few cases, we identify progressive assimilation for / #s/. We discuss how to account for the differences in degree of assimilation, and we propose that the order asymmetry may arise from the different articulatory control structures employed for the two sibilants in conjunction with phonotactic probability effects.casl2pub2269pub
Conditioning factors in external sandhi : an EPG study of English /l/ vocalisation.
English l-sandhi involves an allophonic alternation
in alveolar contact for word-final /l/ in connected
speech [4]. EPG data for five Scottish Standard
English and five Southern Standard British English
speakers shows that there is individual and
dialectal variation in contact patterns. We analysed
vocalisation rate (% of tokens with no alveolar
contact) and the area of any residual alveolar
contact. Word-final /l/ contact is, to some extent,
onset-like before vowel-initial words and coda-like
before words with a labial onset C. If the vowel
has a glottal attack, however, or the onset C is /h/,
sandhi is less predictable, suggesting that
resyllabification is insufficient as a mechanism for
conditioning tongue tip behaviour of word final /l/.casl[1] Browman, C. & Goldstein, L. 1995. Gestural syllable
position effects in American English, Producing Speech:
Contemporary Issues, F. Bell-Berti & L.J. Raphael, eds.
AIP Press: Woodbury, NY. 19-33.
[2] Giles, S.B. & Moll, K.L., 1975. Cinefluorographic study
of selected allophones of English /l/. Phonetica, 31, 206-
227.
[3] Hardcastle, W. & Barry, W., 1989. Articulatory and
perceptual factors in /l/ vocalisations in English. Journal
of the IPA, 15, 3-17.
[4] Scobbie, J. & Wrench, A., 2003. An articulatory
investigation of word-final /l/ and /l/-sandhi in three
dialects of English. Proc. XVth ICPhS, 1871-1874.
[5] Sproat, R. & Fujimura, O., 1993. Allophonic variation in
English /l/ and its implications for phonetic
implementation. JPhon, 21, 291-311.
[6] Wrench, A., 2000. A multi-channel/multi-speaker
articulatory database for continuous speech recognition
research. Phonus, 5, 1-13.pub44pu
Rhotics.New Data and Perspectives
This book provides an insight into the patterns of variation and change of rhotics in different languages and from a variety of perspectives. It sheds light on the phonetics, the phonology, the socio-linguistics and the acquisition of /r/-sounds in languages as diverse as Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Kuikuro, Malayalam, Romanian, Slovak, Tyrolean and Washili Shingazidja thus contributing to the discussion on the unity and uniqueness of this group of sounds
The time course of auditory and language-specific mechanisms in compensation for sibilant assimilation
Models of spoken-word recognition differ on whether compensation for assimilation is language-specific or depends on general auditory processing. English and French participants were taught words that began or ended with the sibilants /s/ and /∫/. Both languages exhibit some assimilation in sibilant sequences (e.g., /s/ becomes like [∫] in dress shop and classe chargée), but they differ in the strength and predominance of anticipatory versus carryover assimilation. After training, participants were presented with novel words embedded in sentences, some of which contained an assimilatory context either preceding or following. A continuum of target sounds ranging from [s] to [∫] was spliced into the novel words, representing a range of possible assimilation strengths. Listeners' perceptions were examined using a visual-world eyetracking paradigm in which the listener clicked on pictures matching the novel words. We found two distinct language-general context effects: a contrastive effect when the assimilating context preceded the target, and flattening of the sibilant categorization function (increased ambiguity) when the assimilating context followed. Furthermore, we found that English but not French listeners were able to resolve the ambiguity created by the following assimilatory context, consistent with their greater experience with assimilation in this context. The combination of these mechanisms allows listeners to deal flexibly with variability in speech forms
The ACROBAT 2022 Challenge: Automatic Registration Of Breast Cancer Tissue
The alignment of tissue between histopathological whole-slide-images (WSI) is
crucial for research and clinical applications. Advances in computing, deep
learning, and availability of large WSI datasets have revolutionised WSI
analysis. Therefore, the current state-of-the-art in WSI registration is
unclear. To address this, we conducted the ACROBAT challenge, based on the
largest WSI registration dataset to date, including 4,212 WSIs from 1,152
breast cancer patients. The challenge objective was to align WSIs of tissue
that was stained with routine diagnostic immunohistochemistry to its
H&E-stained counterpart. We compare the performance of eight WSI registration
algorithms, including an investigation of the impact of different WSI
properties and clinical covariates. We find that conceptually distinct WSI
registration methods can lead to highly accurate registration performances and
identify covariates that impact performances across methods. These results
establish the current state-of-the-art in WSI registration and guide
researchers in selecting and developing methods
The role of syllable structure in external sandhi: An EPG study of vocalisation and retraction in word-final English /l/
A pre-vocalic connected speech context is said to enable the resyllabification of word-final consonants into an onset, thus conditioning alternations. We present EPG data on English word-final /l/, measuring the extent of alveolar contact and the rate of vocalisation, the extent of dorsal retraction (representing darkness-), and the timing of alveolar contact relative to dorsal retraction. Two dialects of British English are considered, namely Scottish Standard English and Southern Standard British English. Results are that /l/ alternation is systematic: the tongue tip contact of word-final /l/, quite categorically for some speakers, is more onset-like in pre-vocalic and more coda-like in pre-consonantal contexts. This alternation is not along the lines predicted by a segmental resyllabification account, however. First, the segmental identity of the following consonant (/b/ or /h/) may be as powerful a factor in conditioning the presence or absence of alveolar contact for some speakers. Second, glottalisation of lexically vowel-initial words regularly occurs, but does not seem to condition the appearance (or otherwise) of tongue tip contact. Third, the tongue dorsum remains retracted and does not adopt an onset-like form or timing even when /l/ is pre-vocalic. Thus categorical resyllabification of a word-final /l/ segment based on phonotactic acceptability is rejected as a mechanism controlling English L-sandhi in connected speech. Instead, we propose a gestural-episodic model, in which individual gestures display different levels of coherence in lexical syllable roles, while in connected speech, segmental sequences are influenced by similarity to well-rehearsed lexical sequences, if they exist.casl38pub1592pub