Dutch-learning and English-learning 9-month-olds were tested, using the Headturn Preference Procedure, for their ability to segment Dutch words with strong/weak stress patterns from fluent Dutch speech. This prosodic pattern is highly typical for words of both languages. The infants were familiarized with pairs of words and then tested on four passages, two that included the familiarized words and two that did not. Both the Dutch-and the English-learning infants gave evidence of segmenting the targets from the passages, to an equivalent degree. Thus, English-learning infants are able to extract words from fluent speech in a language that is phonetically different from English. We discuss the possibility that this cross-language segmentation ability is aided by the similarity of the typical rhythmic structure of Dutch and English words.
This study examined auditory processing in 2-month-old infants at genetic risk for dyslexia and in controls. Manipulated natural speech stimuli (/bAk/ and /dAk/), at either side of the phoneme boundary, were presented to these infants and their automatic cortical deviance responses were recorded. Control infants showed two distinct mismatch responses, thus extending similar findings reported with kindergartners in terms of topographical distribution and cortical sources. The absence of such mismatch responses in the infants at risk supports the hypothesis of basic auditory (temporal) processing impairments in the disorder. The results suggest that these early signs of deficient auditory processing may point to problematic categorical perception at a later age.
Schwa epenthesis and schwa deletion are two types of phonological variation which frequently occur in Dutch. These phonological variations are optional since speakers are free to insert or delete a schwa. A series of picture naming experiments investigated whether schwa epenthesis and schwa deletion are arbitrary processes or whether they are contextually driven and take place in the speech planning process. It is assumed that schwa epenthesis and schwa deletion change the rhythmic structure of the word, and may therefore be favored by the rhythmic structure of the context. The results show that a rhythmic context which contains a sequence of sw feet favors: (i) schwa epenthesis in monosyllabic words (e.g., tulp ‘tulip’ realized as the phonological variant [tyl[UNKNOWN]p] and not as the standard form [tylp]), and (ii) schwa deletion in trisyllabic sww words (e.g., kinderen ‘children’ realized as the phonological variant [kindr[UNKNOWN]n] and not as the standard form [kind[UNKNOWN]r[UNKNOWN]n]). A sww context does not favor schwa epenthesis in bisyllabic words (e.g., tulpen ‘tulips’ not realized as [tyl[UNKNOWN]p[UNKNOWN]n]), and a ss context does not favor schwa deletion in trisyllabic sws words (e.g., batterij ‘battery’ not realized as [batr∊i]). It is argued that speakers are sensitive to the rhythmic structure of the context in encoding the phonological variant or the standard form. The findings are discussed in relation to the speech planning mechanism, and are incorporated in a speech production model.
We report a series of experiments examining the effects on word processing of insertion of an optional epenthetic vowel in word-final consonant clusters in Dutch. Such epenthesis turns film, for instance, into filəm. In a word-reversal task listeners treated words with and without epenthesis alike, as monosyllables, suggesting that the variant forms both activate the same canonical representation, that of a monosyllabic word without epenthesis. In both lexical decision and word spotting, response times to recognize words were significantly faster when epenthesis was present than when the word was presented in its canonical form without epenthesis. It is argued that addition of the epenthetic vowel makes the liquid consonants constituting the first member of a cluster more perceptible; a final phoneme-detection experiment confirmed that this was the case. These findings show that a transformed variant of a word, although it contacts the lexicon via the representation of the canonical form, can be more easily perceptible than that canonical form. © 1999 Academic Press Key Words: word recognition; vowels; epenthesis; Dutch.No one act of spoken-word recognition is exactly like another. Even the same word spoken by the same person to the same listener in the same room may occur in a different context or against different ambient sound. Variability arising from talker differences and environmental conditions has prompted an enormous volume of research in speech perception and has formed one of the principal issues along which models of speech perception and spoken-word recognition divide: whether at some level of processing invariant cues to sounds and words may be abstracted and represented.As if the infinite variability offered by talker and environmental factors were not enough, however, the listener's lot is further complicated by variation as a function of the speech context. The precise form of speech sounds differs as a function of the other sounds that surround them; phonemes are not articulated separately, but are coarticulated with other sounds and vary in accord with the characteristics of their neighbours in the speech signal. This process can alter with speech rate, as well, such that at faster rates of speech coarticulation may result in greater contextual effects or effects which extend across a wider neighborhood; thus it adds another way in which variability complicates spoken-word recognition. And finally, as almost the coup de grace, yet further variation is permitted as a function of certain phonological processes. Thus sounds may assimilate to their phonological context, so that in English, for example, a phrase like hot cakes may be pronounced with either a /t/ or a /k/ at the end of the first syllable.One such form of phonologically determined variation is the epenthesis, or insertion, of isolated sounds where no such sound exists in the underlying form of the word. Epenthesis is a mechanism of historical change in word forms; thus the English word oven, Dutch oven, and German Ofen all have an...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.