Abstract
Previous studies reported conflicting results for the effects of homophony on visual word processing across languages. On finding significant differences in homophone density in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and English, we conducted two experiments to compare native speakers’ competence in homophone auditory processing across these three languages. A lexical decision task showed that the effect of homophony on word processing in Japanese was significantly less detrimental than in Mandarin and English. A word-learning task showed that native Japanese speakers were the fastest in learning novel homophones. These results suggest that language-intrinsic properties influence corresponding language processing abilities of native speakers.
Highlights
Human languages around the world should be efficient in carrying meanings
We further examined if homophony ratio is correlated qualitatively with phonological resources based on the data from the World Atlas of Language Structures Online (WALS)
This section reported an auditory lexical decision task that was used to examine the consequences of homophony
Summary
Human languages around the world should be efficient in carrying meanings. How different languages encode meanings using linguistic units, can be strongly constrained by the phonological and morphological resources that each language makes available. For example, differ drastically in how many phonemes they comprise. There are only 13 phonemes in Hawaiian, while there are 69 in Irish (UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (UPSID), 2019a; 2019b). Another source of difference in phonological resources arises from the nature of phonotactic constraints. The extent of phonological resources, which determines the inventory of possible legal syllables, can differ by orders of magnitude
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
