Marie Huffman | SUNY: Stony Brook University (original) (raw)

Papers by Marie Huffman

2nd International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP 1992)

Communication presentee a : 'International Conference on Speech and Language Processing'S... more Communication presentee a : 'International Conference on Speech and Language Processing'SIGLEAvailable at INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : RP 11787 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 2019

We present a study of the development of L2 stop VOT (voice onset time) in lower-level English-sp... more We present a study of the development of L2 stop VOT (voice onset time) in lower-level English-speaking learners of Spanish over the course of a college semester. Participants were recorded six times in two-week intervals. Halfway through the semester, students received a brief pronunciation training session with practice and feedback. Overall, the learners did not lower their L2 VOTs in the first half of the study, before pronunciation training. Following training, however, they lowered their mean VOTs for Spanish voiceless stops significantly. A similar effect was not found for their mean VOTs of Spanish voiced stops, in line with prior work suggesting that prevoicing may be harder to acquire. Yet careful examination suggests that learners are increasing the frequency with which they use prevoicing in Spanish, suggesting this metric might inform future work on L2 Spanish pronunciation development. This work has implications for teaching and research in second language pronunciation.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1997

Hillenbrand et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 3099–3111 (1995)] have shown that English vowels are ... more Hillenbrand et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 3099–3111 (1995)] have shown that English vowels are distinguished better by discriminant analysis when a measure of spectral change is used than when a simple formant steady‐state measure is used. Many English speakers on Long Island have six front vowels instead of the five treated in most discussions of American English—in addition to low front ae, there is a higher, or ‘‘tensed’’ ae (henceforth AE). With this more crowded vowel space, spectral dynamism should be equally, if not more, important to distinguishing Long Island vowels than other varieties of English such as the Michigan English described by Hillenbrand et al. Vowels were recorded in real words of the form hVd and bVd, spoken in a frame sentence. F1 and F2 values from LPC spectral analysis were analyzed via formant plots and discriminant analysis. Preliminary results for front vowels support the hypothesis: improvement in discrimination using dynamic rather than static spectral measures was largest ...

Journal of Phonetics, 2005

This paper examines effects of segmental context and prosodic phrasing on the occurrence of coda ... more This paper examines effects of segmental context and prosodic phrasing on the occurrence of coda glottalization in American English. On the basis of acoustic data from six female speakers, it is argued that the main effect of following segmental context on the occurrence of coda glottalization is due to anticipatory coarticulation, with anticipation of following sonorant consonant articulations favoring the

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2020

L1 and L2 category compactness have been reported to correlate with L2 vowel pronunciation accura... more L1 and L2 category compactness have been reported to correlate with L2 vowel pronunciation accuracy in advanced intermediate learners (Kartushina and Frauenfelder, 2014). However, it is not clear whether category compactness is an effect of L2 learning, or whether it is an individual characteristic that might predict aspects of L2 learning. Holliday (2015) suggests that more variable VOT categories early in L2 learning may facilitate acquisition of new L2 VOT patterns. We tested relationships between L1 and L2 category compactness and L2 pronunciation progress for voiceless stops, in ten L1 English-L2 Spanish learners over the course of one semester of early Spanish courses. We found that lower L2 Spanish VOT correlated with higher voiceless VOT standard deviation at the end of the semester for all but the absolute beginners (R2 = 0.6256, F(1,5) = 37.75, p = 0.004). Thus, for early learners, as production improves, L2 categories may expand. In addition, L1 English voiceless stop VOT category compactness at beginning of term correlated with L2 Spanish VOT accuracy at end of term for all learners (R2 = 0.6798, F(1,9) = 17.0, p = 0.003), suggesting that L1 category compactness may reflect individual properties that influence progress in L2 learning.

Research Methodology and Instrumentation:R.A. Krakow and M.K. Huffman, Instruments and Techniques... more Research Methodology and Instrumentation:R.A. Krakow and M.K. Huffman, Instruments and Techniques for Investigating Nasalization and Velopharyngeal Function in the Laboratory: An Introduction. Physiology:F Bell-Berti, Understanding Velic Motor Control: Studies of Segmental Context. R.A. Krakow, Nonsegmental Influences on Velum Movement Patterns. Syllables, Sentences, Stress, and Speaking Rate. Aerodynamics and Acoustics: D. W. Warren, R.M. Dalston, and R. Mayo, Aerodynamics of Nasalization. S. Maeda, Acoustics of Vowel Nasalization and Articulatory Shifts in French Nasal Vowels. Perception: P.S. Beddor, The Perception of Nasal Vowels. K.M. Kurowski and S.E. Blumstein, Acoustic Properties for the Perception of Nasal Consonants. Phonetic and Phonological Representation: J.J. Ohala and M. Ohala, The Phonetics of Nasal Phonology: Theorems and Data. I. Maddieson and P. Ladefoged, Phonetics of Partially Nasal Consonants. M.K. Huffman, Phonetic Patterns of Nasalization and Implications for Feature Specification. A.C. Cohn, The Status of Nasalized Continuants. L. Trigo, The Inherent Structure of Nasal Segments. D. Steriade, Closure, Release, and Nasal Contours.

In this paper we address two problems in loanword phonology: (i) why some foreign structures are ... more In this paper we address two problems in loanword phonology: (i) why some foreign structures are more likely to be preserved than other equally novel foreign structures and (ii) why particular repairs for foreign structures are favored, even when the native language offers a choice of possible mappings to legal native structures. We will focus on the adaptation of the structures [ti] and [si] in words borrowed from English into Japanese. Although neither [ti] nor [si] is attested in native Japanese vocabulary, [ti] is far more likely than [si] to be preserved in established loanwords, as illustrated by the pronunciation of ‘Citibank’ as [itibaoku] (Ito & Mester 1995, 1999, 2001), where [s] is palatalized but [t] is retained. This asymmetry exemplifies 1

Assimilatory phonetic drift in L1 has been shown to occur in early second language learners when ... more Assimilatory phonetic drift in L1 has been shown to occur in early second language learners when separate L2 categories have not been established. The direction and likelihood of drift is affected by degree of L1:L2 difference [2], and the need to maintain L1 distinctions [10]. We assessed the impact of explicit L2 phonetic training on L1:L2 interaction when novel L2 sounds could lead to a more crowded L1-L2 phonetic space. Native English-speaking college students completed a lesson on Spanish:English stop voicing contrasts midway through their first semester of introductory Spanish. Training led to improved Spanish VOT values, improved L1 and L2 category differentiation for most subjects, and L1 phonetic drift in voiceless and/or voiced stops for individual speakers. Thus, explicit instruction can facilitate L2 category learning even when this produces crowding among L1 and L2 categories. Furthermore, L1 drift is a common but not necessarily inevitable part of the process.

Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 2020

We test how the compactness of L1 and L2 sound categories may reflect individual differences in L... more We test how the compactness of L1 and L2 sound categories may reflect individual differences in L2 sound acquisition. To this end, we examined the speech of ten L1 English-L2 Spanish learners over one semester in early Spanish courses. We analyzed VOT values of voiceless word-initial stops produced during wordlist reading tasks in both languages. The results show that L1 English VOT compactness at the beginning of the semester correlated with L2 Spanish VOT accuracy at the end of the semester for all learners (R2 =.663, F(1,9)=15.7, p=.004). This finding indicates that L1 category compactness may reflect speaker characteristics, such as production precision, which influence progress in L2 learning. Moreover, we found that lower, more target-like L2 Spanish VOT correlated with higher L2 Spanish VOT standard deviation at the end of the semester for all learners but those with the most target-like pronunciation (R2 = .562, F(1,7) =7.71, p =.032). This suggests that speakers with relatively target-like L2 pronunciations may show more compact categories; yet, for early learners with non-target-like pronunciations, L2 categories may expand as production improves. In sum, L2 categories seem to reflect both a learner's personal production precision and their specific time-point in their L2 pronunciation development.

Journal of Phonetics, 1983

Laboratory Phonology, 2012

Department of Linguistics Ucla, Mar 1, 1990

Huffman, M K, Krakow, R A Phonetics and Phonology; Nasals, nasalization, and the velum, 1993

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the studies that reveal complex relation between phonolog... more Publisher Summary This chapter presents the studies that reveal complex relation between phonological representations and their phonetic realization. The studies provide a variety of views of the spatial and temporal regularities associated with the realization of linguistic feature specifications, and they identify some phonetic patterns of nasalization which, instead of being characterized by phonological feature specifications, are more appropriately handled within the domain of phonetic representations and processes. Consequently, these new data have resulted in a refinement in views regarding phonetic implementation and thus, the way phonetic data may be used to investigate phonological feature specification. The chapter presents Keating's view of the phonetic implementation of segmental features. The chapter discusses the results of recent studies that have focused on the implementation of [nasal] and the refinements which they suggest to Keating's approach.

Nasals, Nasalization, and the Velum, 1993

Publisher Summary Speech research in the laboratory can take many forms depending, in part, on th... more Publisher Summary Speech research in the laboratory can take many forms depending, in part, on the level or levels of speech organization one wishes to study. One can study the activity of muscles controlling articulator movement, the movements themselves, the aerodynamic conditions set up by the various movements, their acoustic consequences, and the impact of the acoustic signal on the listener. This chapter describes a variety of instruments and techniques that can be used to study nasalization at various levels in the speech production process. It focuses on the research methods that can be used to study nasalization and velopharnygeal function, and methods for studying nasalization with physiological, aerodynamic, and acoustic data; that is, speech production research. Of the techniques described in the chapter, only X rays pose a known health risk, and this risk has been drastically reduced with the development of X-ray microbeam technology. Some techniques are more conducive to the combined study of different articulatory subsystems than are others, and this is often an important consideration in an experimenter's choice of instrumentation.

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets

Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the physical apparatus used to produce speech sounds and... more Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the physical apparatus used to produce speech sounds and the physical and cognitive factors that determine what are possible speech sounds and sound patterns. Given the common understanding that speech articulation is an integrated part of a communication system that also includes speech perception, articulatory phonetics is usually treated within a broader context of the full speech chain, which additionally includes speech aerodynamics, speech acoustics, and speech perception. Consequently, the research reports and reference and teaching tools in the field are dispersed over a wide range of works that treat phonetics more generally. Because of the enormous size of the relevant literature, only more recent or particularly comprehensive earlier works are highlighted here. Key theoretical questions in articulatory phonetics include what units are used in speech planning and which aspects of observed speech movements are learned as part of a pa...

Categorization is an important facet of speech communication. However, we do not yet have a compl... more Categorization is an important facet of speech communication. However, we do not yet have a complete understanding of how speech categories are learned in infancy or adulthood. At least part of the reason for this is that it is not feasible to entirely control and manipulate speech to observe the consequences of different patterns of experience. Converging methods of crosslanguage observation, laboratory-based training of speech and nonspeech categories, and animal models of learning can provide a means of balancing the competing demands of ecological validity and experimental control to reveal how auditory and cognitive constraints affect speech category learning. The present half-chapter describes evidence from these approaches and explains how this evidence informs us about how general perceptual and cognitive constraints affect learning speech categories. 2 Speech Categorization The notorious acoustic complexity of speech presents a challenge for listeners. Some of the acoustic variability of speech is linguistically-significant, but some is unrelated to the message. Even clear speech in a quiet room varies with talker affect, phonetic context, and room acoustics. Adding to the complexity, what counts as linguistically-significant is language

Phonetica, 1984

A language’s use of the phonetic vowel space depends not only on how many vowel phonemes the lang... more A language’s use of the phonetic vowel space depends not only on how many vowel phonemes the language has, but on how each phoneme varies allophonically across contexts. This study tests the hypothesis that Japanese vowel allophones, measured from a wide range of contexts, will not fill the vowel formant space. This was predicted because Japanese has few vowel phonemes, distributed unevenly in the vowel space, and has no obvious processes of vowel reduction. Formant frequencies of vowel tokens from word lists and from read texts were compared for 7 speakers. These data show that, in Japanese, vowel allophones in prose fill in the vowel formant space more than allophones in word lists do, mainly as a result of centralization of the prose tokens. The use of the total formant space is determined in part by the distribution of phonemes, and in part by allophone centralization.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1985