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On the internal structure of phonetic categories: a progress report
1Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115.
Cognition
|April 1, 1994
Summary
Phonetic categories possess complex internal structures, not just simple labels. Acoustic context significantly influences how listeners perceive speech sounds and their category goodness.
Area of Science:
- Phonetics
- Psychoacoustics
- Speech Perception
Background:
- Growing evidence suggests phonetic categories have rich internal structures.
- Category members vary systematically in category goodness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To underscore the existence and robustness of phonetic category structure.
- To investigate the complex mapping between acoustic signals and internal category structure.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of acoustic-phonetic context.
- Examination of exemplar properties within phonetic categories.
Main Results:
- Phonetic category structure is robust and systematically organized.
- Best exemplars are highly context-dependent, influenced by multiple acoustic properties.
- The mapping between acoustic signals and category structure is complex.
Conclusions:
- Listeners' phonetic form representations retain categorical and fine-grained acoustic-phonetic details.
- Understanding phonetic perception requires considering both categorical and continuous acoustic information.
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