Contextually dependent cue realization and cue weighting for a laryngeal contrast in Shanghai Wu

Abstract

Phonological categories are often differentiated by multiple phonetic cues. This paper reports a production and perception study of a laryngeal contrast in Shanghai Wu that is not only cued in multiple dimensions, but also cued differently on different manners (stops, fricatives, sonorants) and in different positions (non-sandhi, sandhi). Acoustic results showed that, although this contrast has been described as phonatory in earlier literature, its primary cue is in tone in the non-sandhi context, with vowel phonation and consonant properties appearing selectively for specific manners of articulation. In the sandhi context where the tonal distinction is neutralized, these other cues may remain depending on the manner of articulation. Sonorants, in both contexts, embody the weakest cues. The perception results were largely consistent with the aggregate acoustic results, indicating that speakers adjust the perceptual weights of individual cues for a contrast according to manner and context. These findings support the position that phonological contrasts are formed by the integration of multiple cues in a language-specific, context-specific fashion and should be represented as such.