Analysis and Analogy in the Perception of Vowels

Memory & Cognition 2003, 31 (7), 1126-1135 Analysis and analogy in the perception of vowels ROBERT E. REMEZ Barnard College, New York, New York JENNIFER M. FELLOWES New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York EVA Y. BLUMENTHAL J. P. Morgan Chase & Company, New York, New York and DALIA SHORETZ NAGEL School of Medicine, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts In two experiments, we investigatedthe creation of conceptual analogies to a contrast between vowels. An ordering procedure was used to determine the reliability of simple sensory and abstract analogies to vowel contrasts composed by naive volunteers. The results indicate that test subjects compose stable and consistent analogies to a meaningless segmental linguistic contrast, some invoking simple and complex relationalproperties. Although in the literatureof psychophysics such facilityhas been ex- plained as an effectof sensory analysis, the present studies indicate the action of a far subtler and more versatile cognitive function akin to the creation of meaning in figurative language. What is the pitch of a vowel? Acoustically, the shape several studies of vowel perception:perceptual analysis of and motion of the talker’stongue, jaw, and lips determine vowel pitch and analogical reasoning about vowel con- the complex spectra that distinguish the vowels. Concur- trasts. The problem that led Kuhl et al. to these alternatives rently,the frequency of phonationof the talker’slarynxde- was defined by an observationthat perceivers readily com- termines the pitch or intonation of the utterance that a lis- bine auditory and visual presentations of speech in per- tener hears. Consequently, variation in vowel identity is ceiving consonants and vowels. In order for such multi- largely independent of vocal pitch in speech production sensory combinations to occur, there must be a form and perception.This fact of independenceis grasped intu- common to vision and hearing in which the sensory effects itively;note that the same vowel can be sung by a bass voice of speech are evaluated—that is, a common metric (see at low pitch and by a soprano at high pitch, and that two Marks, 1975; Massaro, 1994; Summerfield, 1987). For different vowels can be sung on the same note. Obvious vowels, Kuhl et al. initially proposed that a spectral den- aspects of ordinary experience aside, within a lively tradi- sity function is derived through perceptual analysis, iden- tion psychologistsand linguistshave labored to tie impres- tifying an auditory center of gravity for each vowel sions of pitch to particular vowels. An account of the sta- whether the sensory vehicle is auditory or visual. Accord- bility of vowel identification thereby has relied on a ing to this explanation, a vowel evokes the same internal component of perception that is akin to pitch analysis of pitch regardless of its sensory form, and intersensory cor- auditory sensation. Until recently, in these attempts im- respondenceis thereby achievedby projectingeach modal- pressions of pitch, thought to derive from analytic listen- ity into a common sensory pitch space. A corollary of this ing, have been equated with vowel attributes. claim proved true: Subjects in several tests reported consistent pitch differences for the vowels /i/and/A/ whether Vowel Analysis and Analogy the vowels were presented acoustically,presented visually, Two alternative accounts were entertained by Kuhl, or merely imagined. Williams, and Meltzoff (1991) to explain the outcome of The methods that Kuhl et al. (1991) used in these three conditions were straightforward albeit dissimilar. In test- ing audible vowels, a subject listened to a 3-sec pattern The authors gratefully acknowledge the advice and encouragement comprising a vowel, either /i/or/A/, alternatingwith a pure of Art Markman, Larry Marks, Philip Rubin, Bella M. Schanzer, and tone. The task was to match the vowel and the tone by turn- Michael Studdert-Kennedy.This research was supported by National In- ing a knob that controlled the frequency of the tone. The stitutes of Health Grant DC00308 to Barnard College. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to R. E. Remez, Department method was different for visible vowels. In this condition, of Psychology,Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027- the subject viewed a pair of moving images projected side 6598 (e-mail: [email protected]). by side, each depictinga face silentlyarticulatinga vowel, Copyright 2003 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 1126 VOWEL ANALYSIS AND ANALOGY 1127 one speaking/i/ and the other/A/. The pair of faces cycled of a specific vowel contrastto a contrastbetween high and for 2 min, during which they switched position 10 times. low pitch tones. This alternativewas not preferred by Kuhl Concurrently, one of six pure tones with its acoustic rise et al., and it is easy to concur due to a lack of direct evi- and fall synchronized to the depicted facial motions is- dence of a propensity to form conceptual analogies em- sued from a loudspeakerat the midpoint between the pro- ploying vowels as terms. jected images of the faces. At the end of the 2-min span, Indeed, is it even plausible that vowels—meaningless the subject indicated whether the /i/-face or the /A/-face segments in the phonology of a language—can be em- better matched the tone. In the test of imagined vowels, ployed in meaningful analogies? A linguistic characteri- the subject read a card on which a printed word appeared; zation of the vowels of a language as a closed system of the vowel within the word was either /i/ or /A/. The sub- contrasts suggests that analogies, including those beyond ject was asked to imagine the vowel in the word and to pitch, are possible by attention to ordinal contrasts be- match it to a brief pure tone by turning a knob that con- tween vowels along single dimensionssuch as height (de- trolled tone frequency. termined by whether the jaw is raised or lowered in pro- In explainingthe performance across these tasks, which duction) and advancement (determined by whether the approximated the contrast between /i/ and /A/ with a con- tongue is in the front or in the back of the oral pharynx). trast between highand low pitch,Kuhl et al. (1991)echoed Althoughthis considerationof the ideal spatial properties a long tradition characterizing vowels as elementary sen- of vowel-producing articulatory configurations2 makes sory qualities.There had been many attempts to fix an es- the notion of analogies to vowel contrasts appear less un- timate of vowel quality as a precise pitch (summarized in reasonable, no direct evidence on this question is avail- Boring, 1942), and it is understandable,especially in clas- able. Accordingly, the outcome reported by Kuhl et al. sic conceptualizations that antedate acoustic spectral (1991) was more legitimatelyascribed to sensory analysis, analysis, that vowels have been characterized in reference pending evidence that a vowel contrast is an effective to a kind of spectral pitch (cf. Ekdahl & Boring, 1934). component of an analogy. The vowels of English produced by a given talker are read- The present investigationwas conductedto estimate the ily ordered if the relevant concentrationof acoustic power ability of native speakers of English to make conceptual is taken to be the frequency of the second formant— analogies using the vowels /i/ and /A/. Our method in Ex- /iIE{AOöUu/—arranged from higher frequency to lower.1 periment 1 posed analogy problems for naive subjects to However, this psychoacoustic conceptualization of solve. When problems were solved consistently by our vowels as auditory qualities opposes some linguistic de- group of subjects, we took this as an index of plausibility scriptions. Inherent in the notion of distinctiveopposition of an analogy between vowel attributes and the attributes is an alternative to the auditory definition of the mean- of objects or events. Because the solutionsto many vowel ingless segmental units of language: “The phoneme can analogy problems were found to be stable and consistent, be defined satisfactorily neither on the basis of its psy- this experiment provides prima facie evidence of the abil- chologicalnature nor on the basis of its relation to the pho- ity of individualsto create conceptualanalogiesto a vowel netic variants, but purely and solely on the basis of its contrast. Among the analogy problems that were solved function in the system of language” (Trubetzkoi, 1939/ consistentlywas that of a conceptualanalogythat subjects 1969, p. 41). According to this view, each consonant or reported between this vowel contrast and a conceptual vowel acts principally as an elementary linguisticmarker. pitch contrast. This specific finding reveals that a corre- Therefore, to identify an English vowel perceptually is to lation of a vowel and a pitch report can stem from a con- identify it as one of nine stable phonemes, each of which ceptual cause, as an alternative to the sensory or percep- can be used to distinguishone word of the language from tual cause claimed by Kuhl et al. (1991). another, and neither the psychoacousticeffects of hearing We also examined analogiesto pitch or brightness con- a vowel, nor the sense of effort or the orofacial tactile re- trasts, two sensory dimensions that theorists have pro- afference of producing it, nor the visual impression of an- posed as underlying vowel variationin language.By using other talker articulating it is definitive (Remez, 1994; the same set of comparisons with vowel analogies, pitch Remez, Rubin, Berns, Pardo, & Lang, 1994; cf. Ohala, analogies, and brightness analogies, we used the coinci- 1996). From this point of view, the phonemic contrasts dence of solutions to analogy problems to estimate the among the vowels and consonants of a language define a conceptual similarity of vowels, pitch, and brightness. A listener’s perceptual categories far more than psycho- finding of uniform solutions to these three sets of prob- acoustic experience does (Jakobson & Halle, 1956). lems would have been strong evidence to support a claim In accordance with a linguist’s definition, Kuhl et al.

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