Abstract
Recent disputes concerning lexical effects on speech variability in speech production are whether these effects are due to lexically selective encoding processes or post‐access phonological processes. This study investigates how lexical variables (inherent frequency and contextual predictability) affect nasal coda neutralization (alveolar /n/ versus velar /ŋ/) in Taiwan Mandarin, as measured in degree of vocalic nasalization (A1‐P0 and A1‐P1), formant transition (F1, F2, and F3), and nasal consonant duration and intensity. Participants read a random list of 527 monosyllabic Chinese morphemes in a speeded naming task. The results of linear regression reveal that (1) while sociolinguistic (genders and home languages), phonological (adjacent segmental features), orthographic (familiarity of characters and accuracy of transcription), and processing variables (response times and speaking rates) are factored out, lexical variables are found to enhance nasal coda neutralization; (2) however, a larger proportion of the variance is predicted by the correlation of both lexical and processing variables, suggesting that phonological planning and articulatory velocity are the means of achieving lexically‐driven nasal coda neutralization.
Published Version
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