Lexical Specification of Prosodic Information in Swedish: Evidence from Mismatch Negativity

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Neurolinguistics

Background:

• The Swedish stress system has traditionally been analyzed phonologically.
• Recent research highlights the significant role of morphology in stress systems.
• Swedish stress is proposed to be morphologically determined, categorizing morphemes as prosodically specified or unspecified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if stress is a lexical property of Swedish morphemes.
• To compare mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to changes in vowel quality and quantity in phonologically and lexically stressed words.
• To determine if the brain differentiates between phonologically and lexically stressed words based on these changes.

Main Methods:

• A passive oddball paradigm was used with 15 native Swedish speakers.
• Participants were presented with standard and deviant stimuli differing in vowel formant frequency and duration.
• Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses were recorded to detect processing differences.

Main Results:

• MMN responses differed in amplitude and topography between phonologically and lexically stressed words.
• MMN amplitude was greater and showed a more widespread distribution for phonologically stressed words.
• The brain's processing indicated activation of memory traces associated with derivations.

Conclusions:

• Morphology is directly involved in the Swedish stress system.
• Changes in phonological shape due to stress shifts signal upcoming stress and potential morpheme additions.
• The findings support the hypothesis that stress in Swedish is a lexical property influenced by morphology.