The presentation order effect and the role of linguistic experience: a cross-linguistic perceptual study on an [i]-[e] continuum.
Résumé
It has been proposed that a vowel change is harder to perceive when the first element in a pair occupies an extreme position in the acoustic space, based on the assumption that peripheral vowels tend to perceptually ‘absorb' neighbouring vowels. Using an articulatory model, we have prepared a 10-vowel continuum extending from an /i/ (stimulus no. 1, the most extreme) to a mid-close /e/ (stimulus no. 10) and have conducted two experiments with French, Southern Italian (Salentinian), Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish listeners. In Experiment 1, 106 listeners were requested to identify the ten 350-ms stimuli either as /i/ or /e/. Results revealed a non-linear transition from /i/ to /e/, with the boundary being located in different positions for three of the four languages. Ninety-six listeners from the general pool participated in Experiment 2 (a slightly modified AX roving discrimination task) and pairs of stimuli - differing in one or two steps along the continuum - were presented in both orders. An order effect being attested only for French and Salentinian Italian and only for extreme, /i/-like stimuli, we postulate that the asymmetry phenomenon is triggered by peripherality on the F2' dimension given the focal nature of the latter tokens. In addition, given that the effect is found only for these two languages, we suggest that it is mostly a linguistic - and not a psychoacoustic - phenomenon based on the cognitive status of F2' in a system.
Domaines
Linguistique
Origine :
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