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Syllables as units in speech production: Data from aphasia
Carolyn E Wilshire1, Jean-Luc Nespoulous
1School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, New Zealand. carolyn.wilshire@vuw.ac.nz
Brain and Language
|March 29, 2003
Summary
This study found that syllable frequency does not influence speech errors in individuals with aphasia. Findings suggest syllables may not be individually accessed during speech production.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Neurolinguistics
- Speech Production
Background:
- The role of the syllable in speech production is debated.
- Some theories propose syllables are distinct units accessed during phonological encoding.
Observation:
- Two individuals with aphasia, impaired in phonological encoding, participated.
- Participants read/repeated word pairs matched for syllabic complexity but differing in final syllable frequency.
- Lexical frequency was controlled.
Findings:
- Neither participant made more errors on low-frequency syllables.
- Neither participant showed a bias towards more frequent syllables in their speech errors.
- Results contradict the hypothesis of individually represented syllables in phonological encoding.
Implications:
- Challenges the model of syllables as individually accessed units in speech production.
- Suggests alternative models for phonological encoding in speech production.
- Provides empirical data on speech error patterns in aphasia.