Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1993, Page 78

76 Jörgen Pind
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íslensku. íslenskt mál og almenn málfrœði 12-13:143-190.
SUMMARY
This article provides a tutorial introduction to studies of speechperception. The main
focus of the article is the perception of duration as a cue to quantity and preaspiration
in Icelandic. It is a well known fact that the acoustic representation of speech segments
is highly context dependent. In particular the durations of speech sounds do not have
fixed values but vary depending on their immediate context, speech tempo etc. In spite
of this variability, the perceiver usually perceives correctly what the speaker intends
to say. Two theories have been proposed to account for this. On the one hand it has
been postulated that the listener perceives correctly by taking into account the context
of each speech segment that he or she hears (the theory of normalization). On the
other hand it has been claimed that speech sound variability is primarily a surface level
phenomenon and that, on closer analysis, invariants in speech production can be found
to which the listener is sensitive (the theory of constancy).
The article details both production and perception studies of Icelandic which show
that durational ratios play an important part in production and perception and function
as highly invariant and reliable cues to both quantity and preaspiration.
The perceptual studies investigated the effects of local (within the temporal domain
of the speech cue) and extemal contextual factors on the perception of preaspiration and
quantity. Alterations of Iocal factors caused noticeable changes in perception whereas
manipulation of the extemal factors led to only small (often statistically insignificant)
changes. Thus, normalization only applies within the interval of uncertainty separating
focal stimuli on the stimulus continua. It is concluded that the studies provide strong
support for the theory of constancy in speech production and perception.
Orðabók Háskólans
107 Reykjavík
jorgen@lexis.hi.is