Speechwave properties influencing segmental integration
David R. Dechovitz · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1979
The fricative-affricate contrast is signaled by a set of diverse acoustic features. The present research proposed to identify properties of the speechwave constraining the stretch of signal over which these features are integrated. In addition, the possibility was investigated that these properties may also define the constraints which close off processing units for perceivers. To these ends, the role of silence in distinguishing fricative from affricate was assessed at various syntactic boundaries and in speech samples produced with various degrees of articulatory continuity. Previous results suggested that information specifying the temporal period of an utterance delimits coherent units and may even define units over multiple talkers [D. R. Dechovitz and B. Rakerd, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 64, S18(A) (1978)]. The present data suggest further that this information is not necessarily correlated with the acoustic structure signalling major constituent boundaries. [Work supported by NIH, BRS Grant RR05596.]