Use of Syntax in Perceptual Compensation for Phonological Reduction

Bibliographic Data

ID10256708
AuthorsAnnelie Tuinman (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands, corresponding author), Holger Mitterer (0000-0003-4318-0032, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands), Antony Cutler (0000-0002-4203-0692, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands)
Year2014
Volume57
Issue1
Pages68-85
Publication date2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage and Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8309 • E-ISSN: 1756-6053
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0023830913479106
PMID24754221
OpenAlexW2106777123
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited32

Listeners resolve ambiguity in speech by consulting context. Extensive research on this issue has largely relied on continua of sounds constructed to vary incrementally between two phonemic endpoints. In this study we presented listeners instead with phonetic ambiguity of a kind with which they have natural experience: varying degrees of word-final /t/-reduction. In two experiments, Dutch listeners decided whether or not the verb in a sentence such as Maar zij ren(t) soms ‘But she sometimes run(s)’ ended in /t/. In Dutch, presence versus absence of final /t/ distinguishes third- from first-person singular present-tense verbs. Acoustic evidence for /t/ varied from clear to absent, and immediately preceding phonetic context was consistent with more versus less likely deletion of /t/. In both experiments, listeners reported more /t/s in sentences in which /t/ would be syntactically correct. In Experiment 1, the disambiguating syntactic information preceded the target verb, as above, while in Experiment 2, it followed the verb. The syntactic bias was greater for fast than for slow responses in Experiment 1, but no such difference appeared in Experiment 2. We conclude that syntactic information does not directly influence pre-lexical processing, but is called upon in making phoneme decisions

Ambiguity · Context (archaeology · Linguistics · Perception · Sentence · Sentence processing · Syntax · Verb · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multisensory perception and integration · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology

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