Geminate and singleton contrast in English affixed words

Abstract

This paper presents two experiments examining different gemination behavior of English affixes. Experiment 1 focused on geminates through affixation with <italic>im</italic>-, <italic>un</italic>-, -<italic>ness</italic>, and -<italic>ly</italic>. The English group articulated geminates with longer absolute and relative durations than singletons for <italic>im</italic>-, <italic>un</italic>-, and -<italic>ness</italic>, but there was no difference for -<italic>ly</italic>. This suggests that -<italic>ly</italic> words are more likely to be perceived as whole words, and that -<italic>ly</italic> is less decomposable. Furthermore, <italic>un</italic>- geminates exhibited longer absolute and preceding vowel durations than <italic>im</italic>- geminates, suggesting that <italic>im</italic>- is more decomposable than <italic>un</italic>-. However, the Korean group produced geminates with longer absolute and relative durations than singletons for all <italic>im</italic>-, <italic>un</italic>-, -<italic>ness</italic>, and -<italic>ly</italic>, and produced comparable absolute durations of <italic>im</italic>- and <italic>un</italic>- geminates. Experiment 2 investigated different gemination behaviors of locative and negative <italic>im</italic>- prefixes. The English group showed durational contrast between geminates and singletons only for negative <italic>im</italic>-, indicating that locative <italic>im</italic>- is not easily separated from stem. However, the Korean group produced longer absolute and relative durations for geminates than for singletons for both locative and negative <italic>im</italic>-. According to the findings of Experiments 1 and 2, affix decomposability is less likely to influence Korean speakers’ English affix gemination, and spellings may have a greater influence.