L19 - Phonemes Flashcards
Why study language
Language helps us think and construct our understanding of the world, influences how we percieve, understand and communicate with each other. A fundamental aspect to our life
What is statistical/distributional learning?
Where we unconsciously track information around us and keep it stored
E.g. the number of times we hear things together
What are habituation experiments?
A type of experiment that taps into the fact that young babies are very interested in novel things
This means you can find out what is new and exciting to them, without the need for them to be able to tell us
Language is complex and has many interrelated levels
What are the 4 levels of language?
Phonemes
Syllables
Words
Grammar
What are Phonemes?
The smallest unit of sound in a language, that distinguishes words from each other.
- They can be letters but not always connect to letters (i.e. ch (chuh) sound)*
- I.e. Bike to bake or bake, cake, shake (underlined is phenomes)*
- Bike and bake change the vowels - bake cake shake changes consonants*
Can phenomes be vowels or consonants?
Both
What are the features of vowels?
Air is not blocked (no constriction of airflow)
They differ on tongue position (high mid or low)
- Closed: high tongue, small space; i, u*
- Open: low tongue, large space; a, o*
- Differ on lip position (differs the pathway of the string)*
- Fat lips; i, a*
- Circular lips; u, o*
What is the defining feature of the consonant?
The sound is blocked
They are defined by where and how the sound is blocked
What are the three major features of consonants?
Voicing: When do the vocal cords begin to vibrate
- Voice onset time
Place: Where is the obstruction? (where is the obstruction, what type (how narrow), is tongue on one side?)
Manner: Where does the air pass through?
- Approximants: partially obstruct the air (w,r,l,j)
- Fricatives: almost completely half the airflow (f,v,s,z)
- Stops: completely halt the airflow
What are the 3 types of ‘manner’ in which the air passes through when we speak?
(important, maybe break down each one)
Approximants: partially obstruct the airflow (w,r,l,j)
Fricatives: almost completely half the airflow is blocked (f,v,s,z)
Stops: completely halt the airflow
- Plosive stop - means the nasal cavity is closed (p, t, k, g)*
- Nasal stop - this means the nasal cavity is open (m, n)*
Why is understanding the ‘manner’ of language important?
Help with speech therapy, understanding exactly what part of the language the patient is having trouble with.
What is voice onset time (VOT)?
When the vocal cords begin to be used
The delay between the start of the speech sound and the beginning of vocal chord vibration.
- This is subtle but can be measured*
- Not about the full word, but the length of time of the first letter that is being measured.*
What does plosive release mean?
There is 0 voice onset time (vocal cords happen at the beginning of the word)
What does positive VOT mean?
A delay between the beginning of word and VOT
What does negative VOT mean?
Voice happens prior to the measurable word (like with vowels)
Can two phonemes share the same features?
No, otherwise they would be the same sound - they are marked with binary features
Do consonants or vowels require more precise articulation?
Consonants
This is why kids have more trouble with them
What does bilabial mean?
Both lips are involved
How variable are phonemes across languages?
Highly variable,
- 40 in English, 11 in Polynesia, Khoisan (South Africa) has 141*
- Their features differ widely*
- E.g. English speakers is less variable than Japan*
How do adults perceive phonemes in their native language?
Categorically
Even if there is continuous transition (in VOT) we hear one phenome or another
If you change from b to p slowly (over 10 times with different graduations), you wouldn’t hear subtle differences, we are very good at categorising - we wouldn’t see a p that was like a b, it is either or
Are people better are discriminating between phoneme categories or within phoneme categories in their natural language?
Between phoneme categories
In their natural language people struggle to discriminate sounds from the same category, but are very good when discriminating from different categories
Phoneme categories are universal across cultures. - True or false?
False - Phonemes are language-specific
Why do some people hear ‘Yanny’ and others hear ‘Laurel’?
The pitch that we can hear - older people tend to hear Laurel
How can you change whether people hear Yanni or Laurel?
Yanni: remove low tones,
Laurel: remove high tones (only low)
We can imagine two animals (pictures) blended together. Can we hear two words (i.e. ‘Yanni’ and ‘Laurel’) together?
No, we only hear things in very strict categories
Can adults perceive phonemes outside their native language?
No
Japanese people cannot differentiate between l and r because they do not need the category in their language
Describe how infants can perceive phonemes at 4 months
Can discriminate phoneme contrasts across all languages
Describe how infants can perceive phonemes at 4-8 months.
Begin to learn the sounds of own language, babble becomes closer to those sounds
Vowel contrasts more specific to native language at 6 months
Describe how infants can perceive phonemes at 8-12 months.
Their ability to distinguish between all sounds in their native language strengthens
They lose their ability to perceive sounds differences outside their native language
Consonant contrasts more specific to native language around 12 months
(they are classifying sounds)
What did Kuhl et al. (2006) find in their American/Japanese infant experiments?
What kind of test did Kuhl et al. (2006) use to discover the American/Japanese ‘l’ ‘r’ findings?
Describe the results
Habituation test
Researchers showed the sound repeatedly and then over time they became disinterested in it, showed what they found interesting.
What is habituation?
When a stimulus is repeatedly shown to an infant, they tend to reduce their response to it (it becomes less interesting to look at)
What is dishabituation?
When a novel stimulus is then shown to the infant and they recover their response (they stare at it again)
How do habituation tests work?
Since infants are interested in novel stimuli, they measure the time they look at a stimulus to determine whether they heard it or are interested in it.
If they don’t look at it any more they are ‘habituated’ to the sound.
9-month-old infants have a preference to listen to phonemes from their own language and 6 months old do not.
True or false
True
They seem to be motivated universally
How do infants learn phoneme contrasts?
Statistical learning (or distributional learning)
Explain the Maye, Weiss and Astin (2008) statistical learning test stages
Stage 1 training phase da to ta
One group heard more frequent closer set of the distribution, where the sounds were more similar to one another(unimodal distribution) - the other group had a more bi-modal distribution (heard less of the grey area on the continuum)
Stage 2: habituation test
A and B occurred the same amount of time in both distributions, children were tested on these sounds
If they saw A and B the same then they were different - if sound B was novel then they were not habituated
What were the results of the Maye, Weiss and Astin (2008) statistical learning test?
Does the phoneme distinction differ from adults to children?
Adults also learned phoneme distinctions but it takes much longer, is forgotten faster and there is no ability to generalise their learning.
What is a diphthong?
A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins at one vowel and moves towards another (i.e. coin, loud, side)
