Possible words and fixed stress in the segmentation of Slovak speech
The possible-word constraint (PWC; Norris, McQueen, Cutler, & Butterfield, 1997) has been proposed as a language-universal segmentation principle: Lexical candidates are disfavoured if the resulting segmentation of continuous speech leads to vowelless residues in the input - for example, single...
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| Autori principali: | , , |
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| Natura: | Article (Journal) |
| Lingua: | inglese |
| Pubblicazione: |
March 2010
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| In: |
Quarterly journal of experimental psychology
Year: 2010, Volume: 63, Fascicolo: 3, Pages: 555-579 |
| ISSN: | 1747-0226 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17470210903038958 |
| Accesso online: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210903038958
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| Note sull'autore: | Adriana Hanulíková, James M. McQueen, Holger Mitterer |
| Riassunto: | The possible-word constraint (PWC; Norris, McQueen, Cutler, & Butterfield, 1997) has been proposed as a language-universal segmentation principle: Lexical candidates are disfavoured if the resulting segmentation of continuous speech leads to vowelless residues in the input - for example, single consonants. Three word-spotting experiments investigated segmentation in Slovak, a language with single-consonant words and fixed stress. In Experiment 1, Slovak listeners detected real words such as ruka “hand” embedded in prepositional-consonant contexts (e.g., /gruka/) faster than those in nonprepositional-consonant contexts (e.g., /truka/) and slowest in syllable contexts (e.g., /dugruka/). The second experiment controlled for effects of stress. Responses were still fastest in prepositional-consonant contexts, but were now slowest in nonprepositional-consonant contexts. In Experiment 3, the lexical and syllabic status of the contexts was manipulated. Responses were again slowest in nonprepositional-consonant contexts but equally fast in prepositional-consonant, prepositional-vowel, and nonprepositional-vowel contexts. These results suggest that Slovak listeners use fixed stress and the PWC to segment speech, but that single consonants that can be words have a special status in Slovak segmentation. Knowledge about what constitutes a phonologically acceptable word in a given language therefore determines whether vowelless stretches of speech are or are not treated as acceptable parts of the lexical parse. |
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| Descrizione del documento: | Online veröffentlicht: 01. März 2010 Gesehen am 28.05.2026 |
| Descrizione fisica: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1747-0226 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17470210903038958 |