Fowler C A
J Exp Psychol Gen. 1983 Sep;112(3):386-412. doi: 10.1037//0096-3445.112.3.386.
The article reviews the literature from psychology, phonetics, and phonology bearing on production and perception of syllable timing in speech. A review of the psychological and phonetics literature suggests that production of vowels and consonants are interleaved in syllable sequences in such a way that vowel production is continuous or nearly so. Based on that literature, a hypothesis is developed concerning the perception of syllable timing assuming that vowel production is continuous. The hypothesis is that perceived syllable timing corresponds to the times sequencing of the vowels as produced and not to the timing either of vowel onsets as conventionally measured or of syllable-initial consonants. Three experiments support the hypothesis. One shows that information present during the portion of an acoustic signal in which a syllable-initial consonant predominates is used by listeners to identify the vowel. Compatibly, this information for the vowel contributes to the vowel's perceived duration. Finally, a measure of the perceived timing of a syllable correlates significantly with the time required to identify syllable-medial vowels but not with time to identify the syllable-initial consonants. Further support for the proposed mode of vowel-consonant production and perception is derived from the literature on phonology. Language-specific phonological conventions can be identified that may reflect exaggerations and conventionalizations of the articulatory tendency for vowels to be produced continuously in speech.
本文回顾了心理学、语音学和音系学领域中与言语音节计时的产生和感知相关的文献。对心理学和语音学文献的回顾表明，元音和辅音的产生在音节序列中相互交错，使得元音的产生是连续的或几乎是连续的。基于这些文献，在假设元音产生是连续的前提下，提出了一个关于音节计时感知的假设。该假设是，感知到的音节计时与所产生元音的时间序列相对应，而不是与传统测量的元音起始时间或音节开头辅音的时间相对应。三个实验支持了这一假设。其中一个实验表明，听众会利用在音节开头辅音占主导的那部分声学信号中呈现的信息来识别元音。相应地，关于元音的这一信息也有助于感知到的元音时长。最后，对音节感知计时的一种测量与识别音节中间元音所需的时间显著相关，但与识别音节开头辅音的时间无关。对所提出的元音 - 辅音产生和感知模式的进一步支持来自音系学文献。可以识别出特定语言的音系规则，这些规则可能反映了在言语中元音连续产生的发音倾向的夸张和常规化。
