Morgan Robertson, Linguistics Ph.D. student and GTA will be presenting.  The title of her talk is General vs. contrast enhancement: An acoustic analysis of native and non-native French clear speech.  The abstract is provided below.

Abstract:

Clear or hyperarticulated speech is a strategy that speakers often use to increase intelligibility of the acoustic signal or to enhance a specific phonological contrast. However, not all clear speech is the same nor does it always accomplish its goal of increasing intelligibility. For example, clearly spoken words in response to a General prompt (e.g., “What did you say?”) may differ in cues and severity of enhancement from a Competitor prompt (e.g., “Did you say X?”). In this talk, we will examine the acoustic properties of clearly spoken French produced by both native and non-native talkers in response to two different prompts. We will unpack two main questions in this talk: 1) Is there a difference between General clear speech and Competitor clear speech for either native or non-native talkers? 2) Do non-native speakers enhance different cues than native speakers? Previous research has shown that in imagined clear speech the acoustic properties speakers enhance tend to be primary cues to the categories. However, non-native speakers, whose categories may still be developing and are highly influenced by their native language, might differ from native speakers in the cues they enhance which could ultimately affect the intelligibility of the speech. We will conclude the talk with plans for an upcoming perception study, which will evaluate the intelligibility of native and non-native speakers’ clear-speech productions.