Why do some accents sound stronger than others? In this study we examine the roles of functional load (a measure of a sound contrast’s contribution to word distinctions in a language) and acoustic confusability (the ease with which sounds are mistaken for one another) in accent perception. We found that neither functional load nor acoustic confusability is significantly tied to perceived accentedness, and our results suggest a prototype-based model in which listeners maintain a mental representation of a generic non-native accent to which they compare novel accented speech.
Stein, Ariel,
"What Makes an Accent Strong? Disentangling the Roles of Functional Load and Confusability in Accent Perception"
(2022).
Summer Research Symposium.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/egxv-p503
Each year, Brown University showcases the research of its undergraduates at the Summer Research Symposium. More than half of the student-researchers are UTRA recipients, while others receive funding from a variety of Brown-administered and national programs and fellowships and go …
