On the Objects of Speech Perception

Abstract

From both direct-realist and motor-theoretic perspectives, the objects of speech perception are construed as articulatory events. We offer the alternative view that it is the auditory properties of phonetic events to which listeners are primarily sensitive. Evidence for this alternative view comes from a variety of sources, including studies of phonetic and phonological universals, comparisons of the perception of speech and nonspeech signals, cross-language perceptual experi- ments, and studies of phonetic categorization by nonhuman animals.