Moore, R.K. orcid.org/0000-0003-0065-3311 and Skidmore, L. (2019) On the use/misuse of the term 'phoneme'. In: Kubin , G. and Kačič, Z., (eds.) Proceedings, Interspeech 2019. Interspeech 2019, 15-19 Sep 2019, Graz, Austria. International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) , pp. 2340-2344.
Abstract
The term ‘phoneme’ lies at the heart of speech science and technology, and yet it is not clear that the research community fully appreciates its meaning and implications. In particular, it is suspected that many researchers use the term in a casual sense to refer to the sounds of speech, rather than as a well defined abstract concept. If true, this means that some sections of the community may be missing an opportunity to understand and exploit the implications of this important psychological phenomenon. Here we review the correct meaning of the term ‘phoneme’ and report the results of an investigation into its use/misuse in the accepted papers at INTERSPEECH-2018. It is confirmed that a significant proportion of the community (i) may not be aware of the critical difference between ‘phonetic’ and ‘phonemic’ levels of description, (ii) may not fully understand the significance of ‘phonemic contrast’, and as a consequence, (iii) consistently misuse the term ‘phoneme’. These findings are discussed, and recommendations are made as to how this situation might be mitigated.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 ISCA. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | phoneme; phonetics; phonology; speech units; phonemic contrast; science vs. technology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 Nov 2019 12:00 |
Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2019 12:00 |
Published Version: | https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/Interspeech_20... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.21437/Interspeech.2019-2711 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:153058 |