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Universality versus language-specificity in listening to running speech
Anne Cutler1, Katherine Demuth, James M McQueen
1Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. anne.cutler@mpi.nl
Psychological Science
|May 15, 2002
Summary
Spoken word recognition is more efficient when invalid word candidates are inhibited. This study found that this inhibition is universal, regardless of language-specific word structures like syllables.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Spoken word recognition involves activating multiple word candidates.
- Selection efficiency is improved by inhibiting candidates that leave parts of the input unrecognized (stranded).
- Previous research in European languages indicated inhibition for stranded consonants but not syllables.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the universality of the viability constraint in spoken word recognition.
- To determine if language-specific word structure (syllable as a word) influences inhibition.
- To test if inhibition occurs for stranded monosyllables in Sesotho, where syllables cannot form words.
Main Methods:
- Experiments were conducted using the Sesotho language.
- Participants' word recognition was measured under conditions with stranded consonants and stranded monosyllables.
- Performance was compared to stranded bisyllables, which can form valid Sesotho words.
Main Results:
- Word recognition in Sesotho was inhibited by stranded consonants.
- Stranded monosyllables did not impede recognition more than stranded bisyllables.
- This indicates that the viability constraint is not dependent on whether a syllable can be a word.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest the viability constraint is a universal principle in spoken word recognition.
- Language-specific phonotactics or word structure do not appear to modulate this inhibition mechanism.
- The brain's process for inhibiting invalid word candidates is robust across different language types.