title: Prosodic boundary information modulates phonetic categorization.
abstract: Categorical perception experiments were performed on an English /b-p/ voice onset time (VOT) continuum with native (American English) and non-native (Korean) listeners to examine whether and how phonetic categorization is modulated by prosodic boundary and language experience. Results demonstrated perceptual shifting according to prosodic boundary strength: A longer VOT was required to identify a sound as /p/ after an intonational phrase than a word boundary, regardless of the listeners' language experience. This suggests that segmental perception is modulated by the listeners' computation of an abstract prosodic structure reflected in phonetic cues of phrase-final lengthening and domain-initial strengthening, which are common across languages.
authors.affiliation: Department of English Education, Hongik University, Sangsu-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul 121-791, Korea. sahyang@hongik.ac.kr
authors.forename: Sahyang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Taehong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception