1. Modelling the perceptual development of first- and second-language phonological contrasts with the Gradual Learning Algorithm Paola Escudero, University of Reading p.r.escudero@reading.ac.uk Paul Boersma, University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, February 22, 2001

2. Sound Contrasts  Sound contrasts and acoustic information  An example of a sound contrast in English  What are the acoustic differences between the two?

3. Acoustic cues to “ship” vs. “sheep”

4. Elspeth’s production environment (Scottish English)

5. Liz’s production environment (Southern English)

6. Elspeth and Liz’s production environments, averaged

7. Do Elspeth and Liz perceive [350 Hz, 80 ms] as “ship” or as “sheep”?

8. Why using the nearest production prototype in perception?  Why not perceiving it as an /e/ or an /o/?  Answer: “ likelihood maximisation ”, the most likely category  Functional principle: minimise the probability of perceptual confusion

9. How do Elspeth and Liz perceive the segments reliably? [350 Hz, 80 ms] 350 Hz not /I/ 80 ms not /i/ 80 ms not /I/ 350 Hz not /i/ /I/*!*  /i/ ** [350 Hz, 80 ms] 350 Hz not /i/ 80 ms not /i/ 80 ms not /I/ 350 Hz not /I/  /I/ ** /i/*!* E L

10. How about baby Elspeth and baby Liz?

11.  Little Elspeth makes a mistake when categorising [350 Hz, 80 ms] [350 Hz, 80 ms] 350 Hz not /i/ 80 ms not /i/ 80 ms not /I/ 350 Hz not /I/  /I/ ** **  /i/*!  **

12. Little Elspeth and little Liz learn to perceive “ship” and “sheep” reliably

14. The perception of real adult Elspeth and Liz

15. How about adult Isabel and adult Carmen that move to Scotland and Southern England, respectively?  Do they learn to perceive English “ship” and “sheep”? If so, how do they do it?

16. Isabel and Carmen’s production environment (Spanish)

17. Isabel and Carmen’s perception (Spanish)

18. New production environment (English) Scotland

19. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (1) Scotland

20. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (2) Scotland

21. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (3) Scotland

22. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (4) Scotland

23. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (5) Scotland

24. How Isabel learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (6) Scotland

25. The perception of real Isabel

26. South England New production environment (English)

27. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (1) South England

28. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (2) South England

29. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (3) South England

30. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (4) South England

31. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (5) South England

32. How Carmen learns to perceive “ship” and “sheep” (6) South England

33. The perception of real Carmen (1)

34. BUT...! The perception of real Carmen (2)

35. L1 and L2 categorisation: Elspeth vs. Isabel

36. L1 and L2 categorisation: Liz vs. Carmen

37. Summary  For our perception model, we assumed: 1) OT perception grammar with GLA 2) Grammar copying (full transfer for L2) 3) Category duplication  With these assumptions, we can handle: 1) L1 Scottish and Southern English 2) L2 Scottish and Southern English, partially

38. BUT!!  We could not completely handle L2 English!!  Solution?: ‘Cues categorised separately’, the L2 grammar consists of the following constraints instead 1)“350 Hz not /mid/”, “350 Hz not /high/” 2)“80 ms not /short/”, “80 ms not /long/”

39. Conclusion  Cue reliance depends on cue reliability, or: Differences in production account for differences in perception.  The functional principle underlying this production- perception dependence is “minimisation of perceptual confusion”.  This functional principle follows from our formal modelling of the perception grammar.

40. Dank u wel voor uw aandacht!