Lexical classification and spelling: Do people use atypical spellings for atypical pseudowords?

Abstract

Many English phonemes have more than one possible spelling. People's choices among the options may be influenced by sublexical patterns, such as the identity of neighboring sounds within the word. However, little research has explored the possible role of lexical conditioning. Three experiments examined the potential effects of one such factor: whether an item is typical of English or atypical. In Experiment 1, we asked whether presenting pseudowords as made-up words or the names of monsters would cause participants to classify them as atypical and spell phonemes within these pseudowords using less common patterns. This was not found to be the case in children (aged 7-12 years) or adults. In Experiment 2, children aged 10-12 and adults spelled pseudowords that contained phonologically frequent or infrequent sequences and, in Experiment 3, adults chose between two possible spellings of each of these pseudowords. Adults, but not children, used more common spellings in pseudowords that contained frequent sequences and that thus seemed more typical of English. They used fewer common spellings in pseudowords that contained infrequent sequences and therefore seemed atypical. These results suggest that properties of pseudowords themselves can affect lexical classification and hence spelling.

Routes to Reading and Spelling: Testing the Predictions of Dual-Route Theory

“…An alternative interpretation is that students may have had an implicit understanding of nonword units and therefore were unable to verbally explain their procedure during spelling production. We know from past research that the properties of pseudowords and nonwords can affect lexical classification and that students' spelling can be influenced by subtle sublexical patterns, such as number of phonological neighbors (Kemp, Treiman, Blackley, Svoboda, & Kessler, ). Young spellers, for example, are able to accept nonword items as being legal in English when containing final doublets (e.g., baff ), while rejecting other possibilities, including initial doublets (e.g., bbff ), because they are aware that, in general, English words tend not to begin with two consonant letters (see Cassar & Treiman, ).…”

Adults’ sensitivity to graphotactic differences within the English vocabulary

“…It may help them to pronounce written words, for example, as the pronunciation of a letter or letter group may differ according to whether the word in which it appears is Latinate or basic. Indeed, people seem to consider factors related to word origin in pronunciation and spelling tasks (Kemp et al, 2015; Treiman, Kessler, & Evans, 2007).…”

“…The idea that English includes different subsystems is based on linguistic analyses (Albrow, 1972; Carney, 1994) that are useful although not very detailed (Ryan, 2018). Litle work has investigated whether people are sensitive to the sometimes subtle differences that have been identified in the linguistic studies (Kemp, Treiman, Blackley, Svoboda, & Kessler, 2015; Treiman, Kessler, & Evans, 2007). The results of Treiman, Kessler, and Evans (2007) can be interpreted to support the view that skilled readers are sensitive to differences between the Latinate and basic subsets of English.…”