Lane H, Wozniak J, Perkell J
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Cambridge 02139.
J Acoust Soc Am. 1994 Jul;96(1):56-64. doi: 10.1121/1.410442.
Voice-onset time (VOT) and syllable duration were measured for the English plosives in /Cad/(C = consonant) context spoken by four postlingually deafened recipients of multichannel (Ineraid) cochlear implants. Recordings were made of their speech before, and at intervals following, activation of the speech processors of their implants. Three patients reduced mean syllable duration following activation. Using measures of VOT and syllable duration from speakers with normal hearing [Volaitis and Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 723-735 (1992)] and from the subjects of this study, VOT is shown to vary approximately linearly with syllable duration over the ranges produced here. Therefore, the VOT of each token was adjusted for the change in syllable duration of that token relative to the mean syllable duration in the first baseline session. This variable, labeled VOTc, was used to evaluate the effects on voicing of the speakers' renewed access to the voicing contrast provided by their implants. Preimplant, all four speakers characteristically uttered voiced plosives with too-short VOT, compared to the measures for hearing speakers. Voiceless plosive mean VOT was also abnormally short for two of the speakers, and close to normal for the remaining two. With some hearing restored, subjects made relatively few errors with respect to voicing when identifying plosives in listening tests, and three of the four speakers lengthened VOTc. The findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that speakers use their hearing to calibrate mechanisms of speech production by monitoring the relations between their articulations and their acoustic output.
对四名使用多通道（Ineraid）人工耳蜗的语后聋患者在/Cad/（C = 辅音）语境下发出的英语爆破音的语音起始时间（VOT）和音节时长进行了测量。在激活他们人工耳蜗的语音处理器之前以及之后的不同时间间隔对他们的语音进行了录制。三名患者在激活后平均音节时长缩短。利用听力正常的说话者[Volaitis和Miller，《美国声学学会杂志》92，723 - 735（1992）]以及本研究受试者的VOT和音节时长测量结果表明，在此处产生的范围内，VOT与音节时长大致呈线性变化。因此，针对每个音素的音节时长相对于第一个基线阶段的平均音节时长的变化，对该音素的VOT进行了调整。这个变量标记为VOTc，用于评估说话者重新获得人工耳蜗提供的浊音对比对发声的影响。植入前，与听力正常的说话者的测量结果相比，所有四名说话者发出的浊音爆破音的VOT都明显过短。对于其中两名说话者，清音爆破音的平均VOT也异常短，而另外两名接近正常。随着部分听力恢复，受试者在听力测试中识别爆破音时关于发声的错误相对较少，并且四名说话者中有三名延长了VOTc。这些发现被解释为支持这样一种假设，即说话者通过监测他们的发音与声学输出之间的关系，利用他们的听力来校准语音产生机制。
