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Vowel production and perception: hyperarticulation without a hyperspace effect.

D H Whalen1, Harriet S Magen, Marianne Pouplier

  • 1Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. whalen@haskins.yale.edu

Language and Speech
|December 8, 2004
PubMed
Summary
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Listeners do not perceive vowel sounds as more extreme than produced. Perceptual vowel spaces are calibrated to specific synthetic vowel spaces, not directly to speaker productions.

Area of Science:

  • Phonetics
  • Psychoacoustics
  • Speech Perception

Background:

  • The hyperspace hypothesis suggests speakers exaggerate speech sounds (hyperarticulation).
  • Previous research indicated perceptual 'best exemplars' for vowels were more extreme than actual productions.
  • This implied vowel targets themselves must be hyperarticulated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the hyperspace hypothesis regarding vowel perception and production.
  • To determine if perceptual vowel spaces align with speaker productions or a calibrated synthetic space.
  • To re-evaluate the necessity of the hyperspace hypothesis based on empirical findings.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Replicated Johnson, Flemming, and Wright's (1993) procedure for vowel perception and production.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Experiment 2: Employed identification and rating tasks for synthetic vowel stimuli.
  • Acoustic analysis of vowel formants (F1 and F2) to measure spectral properties.

    • Main Results:

    • Partial replication of previous findings: low vowels showed higher F1 (consistent with hyperspace).
    • Front vowels showed increased frontness (F2), but back vowels were less extreme (hypoarticulated) on F2.
    • Results suggest perceptual space is calibrated to a synthetic vowel space, not directly to speaker vocal tracts or dialects.

    Conclusions:

    • The original hyperspace hypothesis may stem from methodological artifacts and specific dialectal features (e.g., California English back vowel fronting).
    • The hyperspace hypothesis is not necessary to explain vowel perception.
    • Vowel perception is influenced by speaker-specific vocal tract and dialect information, calibrated against a stable perceptual space.