Vocabulary structure and spoken-word recognition : evidence from French reveals the source of embedding asymmetry

Anne Cutler, Laurence Bruggeman

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paperpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    ![CDATA[Vocabularies contain hundreds of thousands of words built from only a handful of phonemes, so that inevitably longer words tend to contain shorter ones. In many languages (but not all) such embedded words occur more often word-initially than word-finally, and this asymmetry, if present, has far-reaching consequences for spoken-word recognition. Prior research had ascribed the asymmetry to suffixing or to effects of stress (in particular, final syllables containing the vowel schwa). Analyses of the standard French vocabulary here reveal an effect of suffixing, as predicted by this account, and further analyses of an artificial variety of French reveal that extensive final schwa has an independent and additive effect in promoting the embedding asymmetry.]]
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2013), 25-29 August 2013, Lyon, France
    PublisherInternational Speech Communication Association
    Pages2812-2816
    Number of pages5
    Publication statusPublished - 2013
    EventInternational Speech Communication Association. Conference -
    Duration: 25 Aug 2013 → …

    Publication series

    Name
    ISSN (Print)2308-457X

    Conference

    ConferenceInternational Speech Communication Association. Conference
    Period25/08/13 → …

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