Constraints of vowels and consonants on lexical selection : cross-linguistic comparisons

Anne Cutler, Núria Sebastián-Gallés, Olga Soler-Vilageliu, Brit van Ooijen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    162 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Languages differ in the constitution of their phonemic repertoire and in the relative distinctiveness of phonemes within the repertoire. In the present study, we asked whether such differences constrain spoken-word recognition, via two word reconstruction experiments, in which listeners turned nonwords into real words by changing single sounds. The experiments were carried out in Dutch (which has a relatively balanced vowel--consonant ratio and many similar vowels) and in Spanish (which has many more consonants than vowels and high distinctiveness among the vowels). Both Dutch and Spanish listeners responded significantly faster and more accurately when required to change vowels as opposed to consonants; when allowed to change any phoneme, they more often altered vowels than consonants. Vowel information thus appears to constrain lexical selection less tightly (allow more potential candidates) than does consonant information, independent of language-specific phoneme repertoire and of relative distinctiveness of vowels.
    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages10
    JournalMemory and Cognition
    Publication statusPublished - 2000

    Keywords

    • Dutch speakers
    • Spanish speakers
    • consonants
    • phonemes
    • speech perception
    • vowels

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