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Probabilistic Phonotactics as a Cue for Recognizing Spoken Cantonese Words in Speech
1Department of Psychological Studies, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR. mcwyip@ied.edu.hk.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
|April 20, 2016
Summary
Native Cantonese speakers use phonotactic probability to identify spoken words. This study found that high transitional probability phoneme combinations aid in recognizing words within continuous speech.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Speech Perception
- Phonetics
Background:
- Probabilistic phonotactics may signal word boundaries in continuous speech.
- Understanding spoken word recognition is a key psycholinguistic question.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of transitional probability in spoken word recognition.
- To test this hypothesis using Cantonese as a model language.
Main Methods:
- A word-spotting task was employed.
- Participants listened to nonsense sound sequences and identified target Cantonese words.
Main Results:
- Native Cantonese listeners more easily identified target words in sequences with high transitional probability phoneme combinations.
- Performance was lower when sequences contained low transitional probability phoneme combinations.
Conclusions:
- Native Cantonese listeners utilize transitional probability information for spoken word recognition.
- Phonotactic probability is a significant cue for segmenting continuous speech.
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