Phonological phrase boundaries constrain lexical access I. Adult data

Abstract

We tested the effect of local lexical ambiguities while manipulating the type of prosodic boundary at which the ambiguity occurred, using French sentences and participants. We observed delayed lexical access when a local lexical ambiguity occurred within a phonological phrase (consistent with previous research; e.g., ‘[un chat grincheux],’ containing the potential competitor word ‘ chagrin,’ was processed more slowly than ‘[un chat drogué]’ that contains no potential competitor). In contrast, when the lexical competitor straddled a phonological phrase boundary, there was no delay in lexical recognition (e.g., ‘[son grand chat] [ grimpait…],’ potential competitor ‘ chagrin,’ was not delayed relative to the non-ambiguous control). These results were observed with two different on-line tasks, word-monitoring and phoneme-monitoring. They suggest that lexical access occurs within the domain of phonological phrases. We discuss the implications of these results for models of lexical access.