Speech perception as pattern recognition

Abstract

This work provides theoretical and empirical arguments in favor of an approach to phonetics that is called double-weak. It is so called because it assumes relatively weak constraints both on the articulatory gestures and on the auditory patterns that map phonological elements. This approach views speech production and perception as distinct but cooperative systems. Like the motor theory of speech perception, double-weak theory accepts that phonological units are modified by context in ways that are important to perception. It further agrees that many aspects of such context dependency have their origin in natural articulatory processes. However, double-weak theory sides with proponents of auditory theories of phonetics by accepting that the real-time objects of perception are well-defined auditory patterns. Because speakers find ways to obey “orderly output conditions” (Sussman et al., 1995), listeners are able to successfully decode speech using relatively simple pattern-recognition mechanisms. It is suggested that this situation has arisen through a stylization of gestural patterns to accommodate real-time limits of the perceptual system. Results from a new perceptual experiment, involving a four-dimensional stimulus continuum and a 10-category /hVC/ response set, are shown to be largely compatible with this framework.