Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech
During conversation, speakers produce reduced speech, and this can create homophones: ‘we were’ and ‘we’re’ can both be realized as [ɚ], and ‘he was’ and ‘he’s’ can be realized as [ɨz]. We investigate the types of information non-native listeners (Dutch L1-English L2) use to perceive the tense of su...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Languages |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/8 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832588124066152448 |
|---|---|
| author | Natasha Warner Daniel Brenner Benjamin V. Tucker Mirjam Ernestus |
| author_facet | Natasha Warner Daniel Brenner Benjamin V. Tucker Mirjam Ernestus |
| author_sort | Natasha Warner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | During conversation, speakers produce reduced speech, and this can create homophones: ‘we were’ and ‘we’re’ can both be realized as [ɚ], and ‘he was’ and ‘he’s’ can be realized as [ɨz]. We investigate the types of information non-native listeners (Dutch L1-English L2) use to perceive the tense of such verbs, making comparisons with previous results from native listeners. The Dutch listeners were almost as successful as natives (average percentage correct for ‘is’/’was’ in the most accurate condition: 81% for Dutch, 88% for natives). The two groups showed many of the same patterns, indicating that both make strong use of whatever acoustic information is available in the signal, even if it is heavily reduced. The Dutch listeners showed one crucial difference: a minimal amount of context around the target, just enough to signal speech rate, did not help Dutch listeners to recover the longer forms, i.e., was/were, from reduced pronunciations. Only the full utterance context (containing syntactic/semantic information such as ‘yesterday’ or another tensed verb) helped Dutch listeners to recover from reduction. They were not able to adjust their criteria based on the surrounding speech rate as native listeners were. This study contributes to understanding how L2 learners parse information from spontaneous speech in a World Englishes setting with inputs from multiple dialects. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-452e070e59c64b319c97dd52c28c8b28 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj-art-452e070e59c64b319c97dd52c28c8b282025-01-24T13:38:22ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2025-01-01101810.3390/languages10010008Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual SpeechNatasha Warner0Daniel Brenner1Benjamin V. Tucker2Mirjam Ernestus3Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USADepartment of Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USADepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USACentre for Language Studies, Radboud University, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDuring conversation, speakers produce reduced speech, and this can create homophones: ‘we were’ and ‘we’re’ can both be realized as [ɚ], and ‘he was’ and ‘he’s’ can be realized as [ɨz]. We investigate the types of information non-native listeners (Dutch L1-English L2) use to perceive the tense of such verbs, making comparisons with previous results from native listeners. The Dutch listeners were almost as successful as natives (average percentage correct for ‘is’/’was’ in the most accurate condition: 81% for Dutch, 88% for natives). The two groups showed many of the same patterns, indicating that both make strong use of whatever acoustic information is available in the signal, even if it is heavily reduced. The Dutch listeners showed one crucial difference: a minimal amount of context around the target, just enough to signal speech rate, did not help Dutch listeners to recover the longer forms, i.e., was/were, from reduced pronunciations. Only the full utterance context (containing syntactic/semantic information such as ‘yesterday’ or another tensed verb) helped Dutch listeners to recover from reduction. They were not able to adjust their criteria based on the surrounding speech rate as native listeners were. This study contributes to understanding how L2 learners parse information from spontaneous speech in a World Englishes setting with inputs from multiple dialects.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/8speech reductionspeech perceptionL2 listeningacoustic reduction |
| spellingShingle | Natasha Warner Daniel Brenner Benjamin V. Tucker Mirjam Ernestus Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech Languages speech reduction speech perception L2 listening acoustic reduction |
| title | Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech |
| title_full | Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech |
| title_fullStr | Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech |
| title_full_unstemmed | Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech |
| title_short | Non-Native Listeners’ Use of Information in Parsing Ambiguous Casual Speech |
| title_sort | non native listeners use of information in parsing ambiguous casual speech |
| topic | speech reduction speech perception L2 listening acoustic reduction |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/1/8 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT natashawarner nonnativelistenersuseofinformationinparsingambiguouscasualspeech AT danielbrenner nonnativelistenersuseofinformationinparsingambiguouscasualspeech AT benjaminvtucker nonnativelistenersuseofinformationinparsingambiguouscasualspeech AT mirjamernestus nonnativelistenersuseofinformationinparsingambiguouscasualspeech |