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Perception of resyllabification in French
M Gareth Gaskell1, Elsa Spinelli, Fanny Meunier
1g.gaskell@psych.york.ac.uk
Memory & Cognition
|September 11, 2002
Summary
Phonological resyllabification in French speech, including enchainment and liaison, does not hinder word recognition. In fact, these processes may even facilitate the recognition of subsequent vowel-initial words.
Area of Science:
- Phonetics and Psycholinguistics
- Speech Perception Research
Background:
- The syllable is considered a dominant unit in French speech perception.
- Phonological resyllabification processes like enchainment and liaison alter syllable structure by reassigning word-final consonants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of enchainment and liaison on the perception of French speech.
- To determine if these resyllabification processes pose challenges for recognizing subsequent words.
Main Methods:
- Cross-modal priming experiment to assess word activation.
- Word-monitoring and sequence-monitoring experiments to evaluate recognition costs.
Main Results:
- No negative impact on the activation or recognition of words following resyllabification was observed.
- Facilitation in recognizing vowel-initial words was suggested when preceded by enchainment or liaison.
Conclusions:
- Syllable structure modifications through enchainment and liaison do not impede French word recognition.
- Resyllabification may offer processing advantages, particularly for vowel-initial words, refining the understanding of the syllable's role.