<p>Phonemes are the smallest units of speech sound, usually about 20 to 60 in number, and different for each language (<a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/phoneme" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1</a>). They are what letter are to words, actually  alphabetic writing systems are derived from phonemes (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme#Correspondence_between_letters_and_phonemes" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2</a>). A group of phonemes together form a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chunk</a>, that represent a word. These chunks are arbitrary and are created by culture, and are learned by humans from very early age. Furthermore these chunks point to specific <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept" rel="nofollow noreferrer">concepts</a> that are stored in our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_memory" rel="nofollow noreferrer">semantic memory</a>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Concepts</strong> arise as abstractions or generalisations from experience;
  from the result of a transformation of existing ideas; or from innate
  properties. A concept is instantiated by all of its
  actual or potential instances, whether these are things in the real
  world or other ideas.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Semantic</strong> memory refers to general world knowledge that we have
  accumulated throughout our lives. This general knowledge (facts,
  ideas, meaning and concepts) is intertwined in experience and
  dependent on <strong>culture</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-21T06:32:34.870Z
hmm... so no such analogy can be linked.. so how exactly is sound perceived and understood as language?
Carlton Banks
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-21T06:33:41.643Z
and does categorical perception exist in the brain?
Carlton Banks
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-21T05:28:16.093Z
2017-07-21T05:28:16.093Z
DesignerAnalyst
<p>I am currently trying to understand how speech is being perceived and understood. I am currently aware of the workings of inner ears and the basilar membrane and its frequency filtering, but going from an acoustic signal to something meaningful such as perceiving speech is still very unclear. I am working with implementing speech recognition software, and what we do is recognising basic speech units namely phonemes, but it this is how the auditory system perceives speech?.. is speech perceived as basic units, or just something man made? or is the perception of speech (very) different, and how different?</p>

<perception><hearing><speech>
Is speech perceived as set of phonemes by human?
Carlton Banks
# Is speech perceived as set of phonemes by human?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-07-21)

I am currently trying to understand how speech is being perceived and understood. I am currently aware of the workings of inner ears and the basilar membrane and its frequency filtering, but going from an acoustic signal to something meaningful such as perceiving speech is still very unclear. I am working with implementing speech recognition software, and what we do is recognising basic speech units namely phonemes, but it this is how the auditory system perceives speech?.. is speech perceived as basic units, or just something man made? or is the perception of speech (very) different, and how different?

**Tags:** perception, hearing, speech


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-07-21. Score: 3

Phonemes are the smallest units of speech sound, usually about 20 to 60 in number, and different for each language ([1](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/phoneme)). They are what letter are to words, actually alphabetic writing systems are derived from phonemes ([2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme#Correspondence_between_letters_and_phonemes)). A group of phonemes together form a [chunk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology)), that represent a word. These chunks are arbitrary and are created by culture, and are learned by humans from very early age. Furthermore these chunks point to specific [concepts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept) that are stored in our [semantic memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_memory).

> **Concepts** arise as abstractions or generalisations from experience;
> from the result of a transformation of existing ideas; or from innate
> properties. A concept is instantiated by all of its
> actual or potential instances, whether these are things in the real
> world or other ideas.
>
> **Semantic** memory refers to general world knowledge that we have
> accumulated throughout our lives. This general knowledge (facts,
> ideas, meaning and concepts) is intertwined in experience and
> dependent on **culture**.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: hmm... so no such analogy can be linked.. so how exactly is sound perceived and understood as language?  
> **username_0**: and does categorical perception exist in the brain?  

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