Alan Yu
University of Chicago, Linguistics, Faculty Member
Individual variation is ubiquitous in the acoustic realization of human speech; however, little is known about the nature of individual differences in coarticulation. Through an in-depth case study of the temporal dynamics of vocalic... more
Individual variation is ubiquitous in the acoustic realization of human speech; however, little is known about the nature of individual differences in coarticulation. Through an in-depth case study of the temporal dynamics of vocalic influences on the acoustic realization of Cantonese /s/, this study demonstrates that coarticulatory effects may vary by the sex and self-reported autistic-like traits of the individual. These findings have significant implications for research in phonetics, phonology, and sound change.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The study of phonotactics is concerned with speakers' knowledge of possible and impossible sound combinations. What is the reason for the absence of certain logically possible sound combinations in a language? Is it the result of... more
The study of phonotactics is concerned with speakers' knowledge of possible and impossible sound combinations. What is the reason for the absence of certain logically possible sound combinations in a language? Is it the result of accidents of history or do the gaps reflect a grammatical system that restricts the syllable inventory of the language? This entry reviews evidence of phonotactic generalizations in a variety of Chinese languages, examining ways to unearth Chinese speaker's knowledge of phonotactic constraints.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Much debate in recent years has focused on the relative contribution of analytic and channel biases in shaping the typology of sound. Moreton (2008) argues forcefully for the strength of analytic bias, such as Universal Grammar and other... more
Much debate in recent years has focused on the relative contribution of analytic and channel biases in shaping the typology of sound. Moreton (2008) argues forcefully for the strength of analytic bias, such as Universal Grammar and other non-modality-specific cognitive biases that facilitate the learning of some phonological patterns and inhibit that of others, in creating typological asymmetries on its own, unassisted by the robustness of phonetic precursors. This article focuses on the assessment of phonetic precursor robustness. The main goal of this article is two-fold: (i) to establish the inadequacy of Moreton’s method of evaluating relative phonetic precursor robustness and to offer an alternative to his approach; (ii) to report the results of a cross-linguistic study comparing the nature of vowel-to-vowel coarticulation and the interaction between obstruent voicing and vowel height with the same languages – no previous studies have directly compared these two phonetic precursors.
Research Interests:
It has often been claimed that vowel duration tends to be inversely related to approximate average f0 cross-linguistically. In this study, we test the empirical adequacy of this observation by conducting a rigorous typological survey of... more
It has often been claimed that vowel duration tends to be inversely related to approximate average f0 cross-linguistically. In this study, we test the empirical adequacy of this observation by conducting a rigorous typological survey of sound patterns involving level tones and duration. Our data reveals a robust negative correlation between tone height and duration (i.e. the lower the tone, the longer the duration). Counter-examples are explained away as the results of mismatch between phonological representation and phonetic realization or inadequate phonetic information.
Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon of phonetic convergence: the process by which speakers alter their productions to become more similar on some phonetic or acoustic dimension to those of their interlocutor. Though social... more
Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon of phonetic convergence: the process by which speakers alter their productions to become more similar on some phonetic or acoustic dimension to those of their interlocutor. Though social
factors have been suggested as a motivator for imitation, a relatively smaller body of studies has established a tight connection between extralinguistic factors and a speaker’s likelihood to imitate. The present study explores the effects of a speaker’s attitude toward an interlocutor on the likelihood of imitation for extended VOT. Experimental results show that the extent of phonetic convergence (and divergence) depends on the speaker’s disposition towards an interlocutor, but not on more “macro” social variables, such as the speaker’s gender.
factors have been suggested as a motivator for imitation, a relatively smaller body of studies has established a tight connection between extralinguistic factors and a speaker’s likelihood to imitate. The present study explores the effects of a speaker’s attitude toward an interlocutor on the likelihood of imitation for extended VOT. Experimental results show that the extent of phonetic convergence (and divergence) depends on the speaker’s disposition towards an interlocutor, but not on more “macro” social variables, such as the speaker’s gender.
Research Interests:
Individual differences in cognitive processing style have recently been hypothesized as an important source of systematic variability in speech processing. This study offers further evidence in support of this hypothesis by showing that... more
Individual differences in cognitive processing style have recently been hypothesized as an important source of systematic variability in speech processing. This study offers further evidence in support of this hypothesis by showing that variability in cognitive processing style, as measured by differences in working memory capacity and “autistic” traits, significantly influences listeners’ response to the effect of phonotactics in speech perception. As listeners’ failure to properly normalize for context-induced variation has been taken to be a major source of innovative linguistic variants, individual variability in cognitive processing style stands to be a significant source of systematic variation in language.
Research Interests:
Variation is a ubiquitous feature of speech. Listeners must take into account context-induced variation to recover the interlocutor's intended message. When listeners fail to normalize for context-induced variation properly, deviant... more
Variation is a ubiquitous feature of speech. Listeners must take into account context-induced variation to recover the interlocutor's intended message. When listeners fail to normalize for context-induced variation properly, deviant percepts become seeds for new perceptual and production norms. In question is how deviant percepts accumulate in a systematic fashion to give rise to sound change (i.e., new pronunciation norms) within a given speech community. The present study investigated subjects' classification of /s/ and /sh/ before /a/ or /u/ spoken by a male or a female voice. Building on modern cognitive theories of autism-spectrum condition, which see variation in autism-spectrum condition in terms of individual differences in cognitive processing style, we established a significant correlation between individuals' normalization for phonetic context (i.e., whether the following vowel is /a/ or /u/) and talker voice variation (i.e., whether the talker is male or female) in speech and their “autistic” traits, as measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). In particular, our mixed-effect logistic regression models show that women with low AQ (i.e., the least “autistic”) do not normalize for phonetic coarticulation as much as men and high AQ women. This study provides first direct evidence that variability in human's ability to compensate for context-induced variations in speech perceptually is governed by the individual's sex and cognitive processing style. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that the systematic infusion of new linguistic variants (i.e., the deviant percepts) originate from a sub-segment of the speech community that consistently under-compensates for contextual variation in speech.