What are minimal pairs? Minimal pairs are two words (a pair) that are identical in all sounds but one. We use them to show which phonemes are distinct, or contrastive in a language. Distinct phonemes are those of which a speaker is aware. We know that two sounds are distinct from each other if, when the sounds are exchanged, meaning changes. This applies to both consonants and … [Read more...]
Phonetics: Practicing the Description of Vowels of Standard English 1.2
Phonetics: Practicing the Description of Consonants in Standard English 1.2
A Closer Look at Flaps and Glottal Stops in Standard American English
Flaps (or taps) and glottal stops in Standard American English (SAE) are most often found as allophonic variants of alveolar stops, although their distribution is not limited to this alone. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will focus on the former. A flap, often referred to as “tap”[1] is defined as a voiced consonant produced with a single and brief motion in which the tip of the tongue … [Read more...]
Psycholinguistics: An Introduction to Memory
Memory Human beings are born with a complex, interrelated system for categorizing and storing every event experienced throughout life. Audio, visual, sensory, and emotional information is integrated, yielding images that are linked to lexical items as events. These are stored in memory. Not all information is equally easy to recall, since different types of events are stored in different parts … [Read more...]
An Introduction to the Architectures of Speech Processing Models
Models of lexical retrieval for both perception and production have contributed significantly to our understanding of the relationship between the brain and language. They give insight into how the lexicon is structured in terms of where words are stored. They show the most effective (quickest) pathways that lead from stimulus (audio or visual speech input) to target (the intended word being … [Read more...]
Lexical Retrieval and Models of Speech Perception
Have you ever considered the why people who speak with a foreign accent are sometimes quite difficult to understand? Or why one might mistake a young child’s whining for a cat’s meow? Maybe you have been surprised to realize that the lyrics to one of your favorite songs were not at all what you thought you had been hearing for years? The process of recognizing speech is fascinating, … [Read more...]
Morphology—Word Construction and Compositionality
This tutorial will introduce you to the basic concept of how a certain class of words are constructed in Standard English. What is a Morpheme? A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. It can be expressed in three different ways: as a word, whether monosyllabic, e.g., coat, love, or polysyllabic, e.g., pillow, avocado, as a syllable, e.g., un- as in unforgiving, or re- as in refocus, or … [Read more...]
Phonetics: The Basics About Acoustic Features of Consonants in Standard English
When analyzing speech segments on a spectrograph, you will notice a significant difference in their respective sound patterns. In this tutorial, we will note the more salient patterns of obstruents and sonorants. Consonants are formed by the constriction of passive and active articulators in the vocal tract. The movement of articulators towards or away from each other creates differing degrees … [Read more...]
The Basics About Acoustic Phonetics
Acoustic phonetics is the study of the acoustic (physical) properties of sounds, which are determined by measuring pitch (formants and frequencies), loudness (amplitude), and quality (timbre). Sounds are measured in terms of sound waves, which are composed of harmonics, frequencies, and formants that show air pressure patterns created during phonation. The physical process of speech production can … [Read more...]
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