Meredith Tamminga UPenn

Individual differences in phonetic flexibility

Abstract:

Recent work in laboratory phonology has suggested that individual differences in perceptual flexibility might facilitate or inhibit the spread of sound changes (Yu 2013, Kingston et al. 2015). Productive flexibility, in the form of phonetic imitation, has also been proposed to be an ingredient in the spread of sound change (Auer & Hinskens 2005, Nguyen & Delvaux 2015). In this talk I report on two experiments investigating the relationship between perceptual and productive flexibility at the level of the individual speaker-hearer. Experiment 1 is a test-retest study investigating whether the degree to which an individual exhibits perceptual learning is a stable property of that individual. Experiment 2 replicates Experiment 1 and adds a phonetic imitation task in order to ask whether there is a correlation between high-perceptual-flexibility individuals and high-productive-flexibility individuals. The results from Experiment 1 suggest that individuals may differ on multiple dimensions in perceptual learning, while Experiment 2 finds little evidence for any association between flexibility in perception and production. I discuss potential implications for models of sound change
Thursday, April 6, 2017, 4:15pm-6pm

Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave, room C415A

All are welcome!

Refreshments to follow in room 7400