The Psychological Relevance of Phonological Generalizations in Spanish: An Experiment

Abstract

A psycholinguistic experiment aids in determining if the phonological generalizations which ap- pear in the literature on Spanish phonology are psychologically significant for Spanish speakers. The experi- ment focuses on whether common phonological alternations play a role in native speakers' perceptions of whether two words share a morpheme. The results indicate that they are a significant factor in speakers' per- ceptions of morphemic relatedness. Therefore, these findings provide some evidence that these phonological generalizations are psychologically valid, and not merely descriptive in nature.