ABSTRACT
This paper is an experimental study on how perceptions about a speaker’s age and ethnicity may influence whether listeners perceive the THOUGHT / LOT distinction. The macro-categories of age and ethnicity have been found to correlate with the lowering of raised THOUGHT (Wong 2012, Becker 2010) and the favoring of the merged vowels in perception (Haddican et al. 2016). This thesis examines whether images of faces associated with different age and ethnicity categories condition perception of auditory stimuli as belonging to either the LOT or THOUGHT class. This thesis builds on previous results suggesting that non-linguistic information influences speech perception (Rubin 1992, Hay, Warren and Drager 2006), and one specific line of work in this area has shown that being shown a photograph of a person of a particular ethnic background affects listeners’ comprehension of their speech.
","abstract_html":"<p>ABSTRACT</p> <p>This paper is an experimental study on how perceptions about a speaker’s age and ethnicity may influence whether listeners perceive the THOUGHT / LOT distinction. The macro-categories of age and ethnicity have been found to correlate with the lowering of raised THOUGHT (Wong 2012, Becker 2010) and the favoring of the merged vowels in perception (Haddican et al. 2016). This thesis examines whether images of faces associated with different age and ethnicity categories condition perception of auditory stimuli as belonging to either the LOT or THOUGHT class. This thesis builds on previous results suggesting that non-linguistic information influences speech perception (Rubin 1992, Hay, Warren and Drager 2006), and one specific line of work in this area has shown that being shown a photograph of a person of a particular ethnic background affects listeners’ comprehension of their speech.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ortiz, Omar"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master","degree_discipline":"Linguistics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["William Haddican"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:30Z","subjects":["Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics","Other Linguistics","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Phonetics and Phonology","Speech perception","new york city english","merger in progress"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4080","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["William Haddican"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ortiz, Omar"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-09-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Linguistics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics","Other Linguistics","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Phonetics and Phonology","Speech perception","new york city english","merger in progress"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4080"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["ABSTRACT
This paper is an experimental study on how perceptions about a speaker’s age and ethnicity may influence whether listeners perceive the THOUGHT / LOT distinction. The macro-categories of age and ethnicity have been found to correlate with the lowering of raised THOUGHT (Wong 2012, Becker 2010) and the favoring of the merged vowels in perception (Haddican et al. 2016). This thesis examines whether images of faces associated with different age and ethnicity categories condition perception of auditory stimuli as belonging to either the LOT or THOUGHT class. This thesis builds on previous results suggesting that non-linguistic information influences speech perception (Rubin 1992, Hay, Warren and Drager 2006), and one specific line of work in this area has shown that being shown a photograph of a person of a particular ethnic background affects listeners’ comprehension of their speech.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Cot in the Act: Ethnicity and Age Affects Phonemic Perception of the Low-Back Merger in New York City English"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["William Haddican"],"dc:creator":["Ortiz, Omar"],"dc:date.available":["2020-09-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["ABSTRACT
This paper is an experimental study on how perceptions about a speaker’s age and ethnicity may influence whether listeners perceive the THOUGHT / LOT distinction. The macro-categories of age and ethnicity have been found to correlate with the lowering of raised THOUGHT (Wong 2012, Becker 2010) and the favoring of the merged vowels in perception (Haddican et al. 2016). This thesis examines whether images of faces associated with different age and ethnicity categories condition perception of auditory stimuli as belonging to either the LOT or THOUGHT class. This thesis builds on previous results suggesting that non-linguistic information influences speech perception (Rubin 1992, Hay, Warren and Drager 2006), and one specific line of work in this area has shown that being shown a photograph of a person of a particular ethnic background affects listeners’ comprehension of their speech.
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