Perception of Rate-Induced Resyllabification: Cross Language Comparison

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Kyoko Nagao
Byung-jin Lim
Kenneth de Jong

Abstract

Perceptual resyllabification is a phenomenon in which English listeners start to perceive repeated coda (VC) structures as onset (CV) structures as repetition rates increase (Stetson 1951). This paper investigates whether non-native listeners exhibit perceptual resyllabification. In order to explore influences of non-native syllabic inventories and voicing distinctions, cross language comparisons were made between English, Japanese, and Koreans. We found that (1) non-native listeners exhibit perceptual resyllabification even more persuasively than native listeners, (2) voicing categorization is influenced by the existence of native categories and is syllable-position dependent, and (3) subjective evaluation of performance is not a good index of accuracy. These results suggest that non-natives, on one hand, are readily able to acquire near native-level perception of English syllabification, but on the other hand, voicing contrasts in their native language continue to have more persistent effects on voicing perception.

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