Current Search: Grammar, Comparative and general -- Phonology (x)
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Title
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Now you hear it, now you don't: The effect of markedness on the perception of unattested clusters.
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Creator
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Lennertz, Tracy J., Florida Atlantic University, Berent, Iris, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
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Abstract/Description
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Linguistic theory predicts that speakers are equipped with universal sonority principles that restrict the structure of the syllable: onset clusters with sonority rises are preferred to onsets with plateaus, which are preferred to onsets with falling sonority (bn > bd > lb). We investigate the source of this preference in English, a language in which these sonority profiles are unattested. We gauged speakers' preferences for unattested onsets by examining their susceptibility to epenthetic...
Show moreLinguistic theory predicts that speakers are equipped with universal sonority principles that restrict the structure of the syllable: onset clusters with sonority rises are preferred to onsets with plateaus, which are preferred to onsets with falling sonority (bn > bd > lb). We investigate the source of this preference in English, a language in which these sonority profiles are unattested. We gauged speakers' preferences for unattested onsets by examining their susceptibility to epenthetic repair. If English speakers are sensitive to onset structure, then onsets that are universally dispreferred should be more likely to elicit repair (e.g., lbif→lebif). Results from a syllable judgment task and an identity task support our predictions: onsets of rising sonority are perceived more accurately compared to onsets with sonority plateaus, which, in turn, are perceived more accurately compared to onsets with sonority falls. Our findings suggest that speakers are equipped with phonological preferences for sonority profiles that are unattested in their language.
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Date Issued
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2006
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13392
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Subject Headings
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Markedness (Linguistics), Grammar, Comparative and general--Phonology, Tone (Phonetics), Lexical phonology, Optimality theory (Linguistics)
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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Title
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No bones about it (or are there?): evaluating markedness constraints on structural representations of the phonology skeleton.
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Creator
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Causey, Kayla B., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
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Abstract/Description
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Linguistic research suggests that speakers represent syllable structure by a CV-frame. CVC syllables are more frequent than VCC ones. Further, the presence of VCC syllables in a language asymmetrically implies the presence of CVC syllables. These typological facts may reflect grammatical constraints. Alternatively, people's preferences may be due solely to their sensitivity to the statistical properties of sound combinations in their language. I demonstrate that participants in an auditory...
Show moreLinguistic research suggests that speakers represent syllable structure by a CV-frame. CVC syllables are more frequent than VCC ones. Further, the presence of VCC syllables in a language asymmetrically implies the presence of CVC syllables. These typological facts may reflect grammatical constraints. Alternatively, people's preferences may be due solely to their sensitivity to the statistical properties of sound combinations in their language. I demonstrate that participants in an auditory lexical decision task reject VCC nonwords faster than CVC nonwords, suggesting that the marked VCC syllables are dispreferred relative to CVC syllables. In a second experiment, I show that people are also sensitive to the distribution of these frames in the experiment. Findings indicate that syllable structure is represented at the phonological level, that individuals have preferences for certain syllables, and that these preferences can not be accounted for by the statistical properties of the stimuli.
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Date Issued
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2008
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/166449
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Subject Headings
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Grammar, Comparative and general, Phonology, Phonetics, Computational linguistics, Universals (Linguistics), Learning, Psychology of
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Format
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Document (PDF)