Information Conveyed by Vowels

(Ladefoged and Broadbent)

Three kinds of information conveyedLinguisticMeaning of utterance

Information Conveyed by Vowels

(Ladefoged and Broadbent)

Three kinds of information conveyedLinguisticMeaning of utterance

SociolinguisticSocial classRegion of originEthnicity

Information Conveyed by Vowels

(Ladefoged and Broadbent)

Three kinds of information conveyedLinguisticMeaning of utterance

SociolinguisticSocial classRegion of originEthnicity

IdiosyncraticGenderPersonal vocal characteristics

Information Conveyed by Vowels

(Ladefoged and Broadbent)

Most information about vowels is in formants

Two theories

Vowel identification is made by absolute values of formants (with a little wiggle room)

It's [I] because F1 is about 270 and F2 is about 2290

Two theories

Vowel identification is made by absolute values of formants (with a little wiggle room)

It's [I] because F1 is about 270 and F2 is about 2290

Vowel identification depends on relative formant frequencies for individual speaker

Two theories

Bob's [e] in red Bill's [e] in blueBob's vowels are all lower than Bill'sIf you heard Bob use Bill's [e] you'd hear [i]

Two theories

Bill's and Bob's [i, e, æ] are identified in respect to each other not to a particular formant frequency

[i]

[e]

[æ]

Two theories

“The effect that the phonetic quality of a vowel depends on the relationship between the formant frequencies for that vowel and the format frequencies of other vowels pronounced by that speaker.”It's the relationships between vowels not the absolute F1 and F2 frequencies

The experiment

Please say what this word is produced by synthesizerSix different versionsSounded like different people saying same thing

The experiment

Four test words synthesizedVowel ranged between bit, bet, bat, but

The experiment

Four test words synthesizedVowel ranged between bit, bet, bat, butPeople heard a test sentence then a test wordThey chose which word (bit, bet, bat, but) they heard

The experiment

If vowel identification depends on absolute frequencies the different versions of Please say what this word is shouldn't influence test word choice

The experiment

If vowel identification depends on absolute frequencies the different versions of Please say what this word is shouldn't influence test word choiceIf vowel identification depends on relative difference between an individual's vowels, the different version of the test sentence will influence test word choice

The experiment

Connections with formal approaches

Formal approaches require static, unchanging symbolic units to be manipulated

Connections with formal approaches

Formal approaches require static, unchanging symbolic units to be manipulatedVowels aren't static with absolute frequencies

Connections with formal approaches

Formal approaches require static, unchanging symbolic units to be manipulatedVowels aren't static with absolute frequenciesVowel identification depends on relative frequencies

Connections with formal approaches

Formal approaches require static, unchanging symbolic units to be manipulatedVowels aren't static with absolute frequenciesVowel identification depends on relative frequenciesHow would formal approach account for the results of this experiment (done in 1957)?