Contextual factors in lexical processing: the case of French Liaison

Variable forms in French-learning toddlers’ lexical representations.

“…However, although it is true that liaison consonants tend to be shorter than onset consonants, the disambiguating acoustic cues are notably more subtle and variable than in consonant-intrusion cases in other languages. Significant differences in length between liaison consonants and their consonant-initial counterparts have been found in some studies (e.g., Gaskell et al, 2002; Spinelli et al, 2003; Tremblay, 2011), whereas other studies have found inconsistent differences for some cases (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017; Tremblay & Spinelli, 2013) or even no overall significant differences (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2007; Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996). Furthermore, disambiguating liaison-related acoustic cues were shown to be too subtle to be used by French adults in identification/segmentation tasks involving potential liaison-ambiguous contexts (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017; Shoemaker & Birdsong, 2008; Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996).…”

“…Significant differences in length between liaison consonants and their consonant-initial counterparts have been found in some studies (e.g., Gaskell et al, 2002; Spinelli et al, 2003; Tremblay, 2011), whereas other studies have found inconsistent differences for some cases (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017; Tremblay & Spinelli, 2013) or even no overall significant differences (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2007; Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996). Furthermore, disambiguating liaison-related acoustic cues were shown to be too subtle to be used by French adults in identification/segmentation tasks involving potential liaison-ambiguous contexts (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017; Shoemaker & Birdsong, 2008; Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996). For instance, Babineau et al (2017) showed that after hearing ambiguous /t/-liaison phrases involving pseudonouns, such as un petit /t/ onche [a little onche ] and un petit tonche [a little tonche ] (homophonous sequences surfacing as [œ̃.peti.tɔ̃ʃ]), native French-speaking adults were not able to identify the intended target (e.g., onche or tonche ) based on acoustic cues, with their performance close to chance.…”

“…However, although it is true that liaison consonants tend to be shorter than onset consonants, the disambiguating acoustic cues are notably more subtle and variable than in consonant-intrusion cases in other languages. Significant differences in length between liaison consonants and their consonant-initial counterparts have been found in some studies (e.g., Gaskell et al, 2002;Spinelli et al, 2003;Tremblay, 2011), whereas other studies have found inconsistent differences for some cases (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017;Tremblay & Spinelli, 2013) or even no overall significant differences (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2007;Yersin-Besson & 1 Based on a search of a large Parisian child-directed-speech corpus (Morgenstern & Parisse, 2012), young children rarely encounter a vowelinitial noun after a vowel-ending Word 1 (e.g., the singular forms of demi [half] and joli [pretty]), with only one case found in the whole corpus. In contrast, adjectives ending with a coda (triggering the surfacing of a liaison consonant) frequently precede vowel-initial nouns (i.e., 3,019 cases of nouns following the adjectives petit [little] and grand [big/tall]).…”

“…Furthermore, disambiguating liaison-related acoustic cues were shown to be too subtle to be used by French adults in identification/segmentation tasks involving potential liaison-ambiguous contexts (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017; Shoemaker & Birdsong, 2008; Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996). For instance, Babineau et al (2017) showed that after hearing ambiguous /t/-liaison phrases involving pseudonouns, such as un petit /t/ onche [a little onche ] and un petit tonche [a little tonche ] (homophonous sequences surfacing as [œ̃.peti.tɔ̃ʃ]), native French-speaking adults were not able to identify the intended target (e.g., onche or tonche ) based on acoustic cues, with their performance close to chance. Given that even adults can have trouble identifying the intended form for a vowel-initial word heard in a liaison context, it is undeniable that this phonological process can create a challenge for children during acquisition.…”

When language‐general and language‐specific processes are in conflict: The case of sub‐syllabic word segmentation in toddlers

“…However, this acoustic difference is notably more subtle and variable in French liaison cases than in other types of consonant-intrusion cases found in other languages. A difference in length between liaison consonants and true word onset consonants was found in some studies (e.g., Gaskell et al, 2002;Spinelli et al, 2003;Tremblay, 2011), while other studies found differences for only some consonants but not for others (e.g., Babineau et al, 2017;Tremblay & Spinelli, 2013), or even no overall significant differences (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2007;Yersin-Besson & Grosjean, 1996). Mixed findings have also been found in studies investigating adults' use of acoustic cues marking French liaison.…”