Lexical statistics of competition in L2 versus L1 listening

Abstract

Spoken-word recognition involves multiple activation of alternative word candidates and competition between these alternatives. Phonemic confusions in L2 listening increase the number of potentially active words, thus slowing word recognition by adding competitors. This study used a 70,000-word English lexicon backed by frequency statistics from a 17,900,000-word corpus to assess the competition increase resulting from two representative phonemic confusions, one vocalic (ae/E) and one consonantal (r/l), in L2 versus L1 listening. The first analysis involved word embedding. Embedded words (cat in cattle, rib in ribbon) cause competition, which phonemic confusion can increase (cat in kettle, rib in liberty). The average increase in number of embedded words was 59.6 and 48.3 temporary ambiguity. Even when no embeddings are present, multiple alternatives are possible: para- can become parrot, paradise, etc., but also pallet, palace given /r/–/l/ confusion. Phoneme confusions (vowel or consonant) in first or second position in the word approximately doubled the number of activated candidates; confusions later in the word increased activation by on average 53 third, 42 confusions significantly increase competition for L2 compared with L1 listeners.