Adults' Perception and Production of the English Vowel /i/

awalley{at}uab.edu

This study investigated the link between the perception and production of the English vowel /i/ by adult native speakers of English. Participants first produced the vowel /i/ using normal (citation) and careful (hyperarticulated) speech, then completed a method of adjustment task in which they selected their ideal exemplar of /i/. In this perceptual task, 24 of 35 participants had a prototype; the remaining 11 did not, but were retained for comparison. In keeping with the hyperspace effect (K. Johnson, E. Flemming, & R. Wright, 1993), all participants selected perceptual stimuli with F1 and F2 values that were more extreme (i.e., higher and further forward in the vowel space) than those of their normal, citation productions. An analysis of front-back and high-low qualities for the perceptual and production data in Euclidian space revealed that hyperarticulated speech was closer to the perceptual data than citation speech was, but only for participants with relatively clear-cut prototypes. The basis for such individual variation in perception-production links is discussed.

KEY WORDS: vowel perception, vowel production, vowel prototypes, perception-production link, hyperspace effect

Submitted on October 12, 1998
Accepted on June 2, 1999

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