Leveraging the uniformity framework to examine crosslinguistic similarity for long-lag stops in spontaneous Cantonese-English bilingual speech

While crosslinguistic influence is widespread in bilingual speech production, it is less clear which aspects of representation are shared across languages, if any. Most prior work examines phonetically distinct yet phonologically similar sounds, for which phonetic convergence suggests a cross-language link within individuals [1]. Convergence is harder to assess when sounds are already similar, as with English and Cantonese initial long-lag stops. Here, the articulatory uniformity framework [2, 3, 4] is leveraged to assess whether bilinguals share an underlying laryngeal feature across languages, and describe the nature of cross-language links. Using the SpiCE corpus of spontaneous Cantonese-English bilingual speech [5], this paper asks whether Cantonese-English bilinguals exhibit uniform voice-onset time for long-lag stops within and across languages. Results indicate moderate patterns of uniformity within-language—replicating prior work [2, 6]—and weaker patterns across languages. The analysis, however, raises many questions, as correlations were generally lower compared to prior work, and talkers did not adhere to expected ordinal VOT relationships by place of articulation. Talkers also retained clear differences for /t/ and /k/, despite expectations of similarity. Yet at the same time, more of the overall variation seems to derive from individual-specific differences. While many questions remain, the uniformity framework shows promise.

Формальные и семантические сближения в сфере русско-польской межъязыковой омонимии

This article deals with the issue of structural and semantic relationships in the area of Russian-Polish interlingual homonymy, such as exclusion, inclusion, and hybridization. The analysis of Russian-Polish homonymous doublets made it possible to specify two basic reasons for the differences in meaning of the lexemes in both languages: semantic divergence of the words with a common etymon (disintegration of polysemy) and phonetic convergence. The study revealed that interlanguage Russian-Polish correspondences with a partial coincidence of lexical meanings make up the largest group of interlanguage homo-pairs. The types of semantic relations described at the word level do not exhaust the variety of semantic relations between Russian-Polish interlanguage homonyms. The depth of meaning development is another theoretical problem of modern lexicology and lexicography. In addition to the semantic differences between Russian-Polish homo-pairs, there may be more complex relationships. They are observed in cases where stylistic and functional discrepancies are layered on semantic inconsistencies. The differences in pragmatic significance are the most significant and can form the subject of independent study.

Convergence Doesn't Show Lexically-Specific Phonetic Detail

Can phonetic convergence be lexically specific, providing evidence that representations include word-specific phonetic detail, or does it occur only at a phonological level? Some studies find more convergence in lower frequency words, which is interpreted as evidence for word-specific representations. However, this result has not been consistently replicated, and provides only indirect evidence for word-specific convergence. I more directly test the possibility of word-specific convergence in a shadowing task with different words manipulated in opposing directions; word-specific acoustic details are reflected in immediate repetition, but not in the post-task productions that would indicate shifts in the representation. I also examine a possible alternative source of apparent frequency-conditioned convergence. In a reading task with no exposure to other speakers, frequency was a predictor of speakers becoming more similar to each other in their second reading of a word; because effects of repetition are influenced by lexical frequency, apparent frequency-conditioned convergence can be produced as an artifact of the repetition inherent in shadowing tasks.

Interlocutor accommodation of gradually altered nasal signal levels in a model speaker

Background: Phonetic accommodation is observed when interacting speakers gradually converge (or diverge) on phonetic features over the course of a conversation. The present experiment investigated whether gradual changes in the nasal signal levels of a pre-recorded model speaker would lead to accommodation in the nasalance scores of the interlocutor in a speech-shadowing experiment. Methods: Twenty female speakers in two groups repeated sentences after a pre-recorded model speaker whose nasal signal level was gradually increased or decreased over the course of the experiment. Outcome measures were the mean nasalance scores at the initial baseline, maximum nasal signal level, minimum nasal signal level and final baseline conditions. The order of presentation of the maximum and minimum nasal signal levels was varied between the two groups. Results: The results showed a significant effect of condition in F(3) = 2.86, p = 0.045. Both groups of participants demonstrated lower nasalance scores in response to increased nasal signal levels in the model (phonetic divergence). The group that was first presented with the maximum nasal signal levels demonstrated lower nasalance scores for the minimum nasal signal level condition (phonetic convergence). Conclusion: Speakers showed a consistent divergent reaction to a more nasal-sounding model speaker, but their response to a less nasal-sounding model may depend on the order of presentation of the manipulations. More research is needed to investigate the effects of increased versus decreased nasality in the speech of an interlocutor.

Phonetic convergence in the shadowing for natural and synthesized speech in Polish

The matter of shadowing natural speech has been discussed in many studies and papers. However, there is very little knowledge of human phonetical convergence to synthesized speech. To find out more about this issue an experiment in the Polish language was conducted. Two types of stimuli were used – natural speech and synthesised speech. Five sets of sentences with various phonetic phenomena in Polish were prepared. A group of twenty persons were recorded which gave the total number of 100 samples for each phenomenon. The summary of results shows convergence in both natural and synthesised speech in set number 1, 2, 4 while in group 3 and 5 the convergence was not observed. The baseline production shown that the great majority of participants prefer ɛn/ɛm version of phonetic feature which was reflected in 83 out of 100 sentences. In the shadowing natural speech participants changed ɛn/ɛm to ɛw/ɛ̃ in 26 cases and in 4 ɛw/ɛ̃ to ɛn/ɛm. When shadowing synthesised speech shift from ɛn/ɛm to ɛw/ɛ̃ in 18 sentences and 4 from ɛw/ɛ̃ to ɛn/ɛm. The intonation convergence was also observed in the perceptual analysis, however the analysis of F0 statistics did not show statistically significant differences.