Effects of dialect familiarity on word identification in a visual-world eye-tracking task

Abstract

The acoustic closeness of vowels across American English dialects results in cross-dialect lexical competition among minimal pair words. In the current study, we investigated how listener familiarity with specific dialects affects performance in a cross-dialect visual-world eye-tracking task. Listeners heard both acoustically close and control minimal pairs in each of three regional American English dialects (New England, Southern, and Northern) in a four-alternative forced-choice identification task. Listener dialect familiarity was assessed for each dialect based on each individual’s self-reported residential history for themselves, their parents, and their significant others. Preliminary analyses revealed more accurate and faster responses to New England talkers as familiarity with the New England dialect increased, consistent with talker and accent familiarity effects in the literature. However, responses to Southern talkers were slower as familiarity with the Southern dialect increased, contrary to the typical pattern. Responses to Northern talkers were not affected by familiarity with the Northern dialect, consistent with the lack of enregisterment of this variety. Together, these findings suggest that listener dialect familiarity has different effects on the resolution of cross-dialect lexical competition, reflecting both the nature of the variation and the social stereotypes associated with the dialect. Analysis of the eye-tracking data is ongoing.