Phonological Form Research Articles

VeLeSpa: An inflected verbal lexicon of Peninsular Spanish and a quantitative analysis of paradigmatic predictability

AbstractThis paper presents VeLeSpa, a verbal lexicon of Peninsular Spanish, which contains the full paradigms (all 63 cells) in phonological form of 6553 verbs, along with their corresponding frequencies. In this paper, the process and decisions involved in the building of the resource are presented. In addition, based on the most frequent 3000 + verbs, a quantitative analysis is conducted of morphological predictability in Spanish verbal inflection. The results and their drivers are discussed, as well as observed differences with other Romance languages and Latin.

Teaching methods emphasizing phonological forms enhance L2 vocabulary learning

The present study aims to measure the effects of the teaching of second language (L2) phonological forms on L2 receptive vocabulary learning. Two teaching methods were compared in a pre- and delayed post-test to evaluate their impact on L2 word learning. Participants ( n = 127; mean age = 12;6, i.e. 12 years and 6 months) were randomly divided in two groups that followed either an explicit teaching method focused on L2 phonological forms, or a communicative teaching method focused on meaning, in which L2 phonological forms were taught implicitly. The teaching methods in the two groups aimed to foster the skills and the learning of phonological forms involved in the development of receptive vocabulary. The two teaching methods trained the same skills and relied on the same vocabulary. They both targeted the phonological forms of two difficult phonemic contrasts in French as a foreign language. The two teaching sequences took place during mandatory lessons in French as a foreign language for six weeks (12 lessons), in a Swiss state school. Generalized mixed models were fitted to the data to test for differences across teaching methods in their impact on L2 word learning. Overall, the results indicate that participants made significant progress in word learning, with no significant differences between the two teaching methods. Pronunciation, discrimination, retention in verbal working memory, and the mastery of phoneme–grapheme correspondences are significant factors of vocabulary learning in French as foreign language. The teaching of L2 phonological representations and the training of their processing facilitated the learning of words in L2 French. However, the teaching of vocabulary in French as a foreign language rarely involves a focus on phonological representations.

Evidence from aphasia suggests a bidirectional relationship between inner speech and executive function

Research over the past several decades has revealed that non-linguistic cognitive impairments can appear alongside language deficits in individuals with aphasia. One vulnerable cognitive domain is executive function, an umbrella term for the higher-level cognitive processes that allow us to direct our behavior towards a goal. Studies in healthy adults reveal that executive function abilities are supported by inner speech, the ability to use language silently in one's head. Therefore, inner speech may mediate the connection between language and executive function deficits in individuals with aphasia. Here, we investigated whether inner speech ability may link language and cognitive impairments in 59 adults with chronic, post-stroke aphasia. We used two approaches to measure inner speech: one based on internal retrieval of words and one based on internal retrieval plus silent manipulation of the retrieved phonological forms. Then, we examined relationships between these two approaches to measuring inner speech and five aspects of executive function ability: response inhibition, conflict monitoring/resolution, general task-switching ability, phonological control, and semantic control. We also looked for dissociations between inner speech ability and executive function ability. Our results show tentative relationships between inner speech (across multiple measurement approaches) and all aspects of executive function except for response inhibition. We also found evidence for a double dissociation: many participants show intact executive function despite poor inner speech, and vice versa, so neither process is strictly reliant on the other. We suggest that this work provides preliminary evidence of a bidirectional relationship between inner speech and executive function: inner speech supports some aspects of executive function via internal self-cueing and certain aspects of executive function support performance on complex inner speech tasks.

Phonological prediction during comprehension: A review and meta-analysis of visual-world eye-tracking studies

Current theories of language prediction stipulate that people can predict various types of linguistic information, including the phonological form of a highly predictable word, and some theories posit that phonological prediction plays a pivotal role in prediction-driven learning. However, a review of studies investigating phonological prediction suggests that the effect is inconsistent and small, which raises a question about its role during everyday language comprehension and language learning. Here, I conduct a meta-analysis of visual-world eye-tracking studies investigating phonological prediction with the goal of revealing the robustness and the time-course of the phonological prediction effect. The combined analysis of 20 experiments revealed a small but reliable effect of the phonological prediction effect. This effect emerged rapidly but was not closely aligned to the predictable word onset. The size of this effect depended on the target word cloze probability and depended marginally on the experiment design and the type of visual stimuli. I discuss the implications for the theories of language prediction.

VeLePa: Central Pame verbal inflection in a quantitative perspective

This paper reports on the compilation and quantitative analysis of VeLePa, an inflected lexicon containing paradigms of 216 Central Pame verbs and a total of 12528 elicited words, in phonological form, supplied with cell and lexeme frequency information. The language (Otomanguean) is of interest due to both its extraordinary morphological complexity, as well as due to the organization of the inflection into a four-fold concurrent classification system where prefixes, stems, tone-stress, and suffixes all display inflection classes and irregularities which are only partially predictable from each other. A quantitative analysis of morphological predictability as per the Paradigm Cell Filling Problem is conducted for every layer, and for the whole word, as well as of the uncertainties language users face to learn or predict the morphosyntactic values or lexical meaning of a verb form from its morphology.

Statistical Relationships Between Phonological Form, Emotional Valence and Arousal of Spanish Words.

A number of studies have provided evidence of limited non-arbitrary associations between the phonological forms and meanings of affective words, a finding referred to as affective sound symbolism. Here, we explored whether the affective connotations of Spanish words might have more extensive statistical relationships with phonological/phonetic features, or affective form typicality. After eliminating words with poor affective rating agreement and morphophonological redundancies (e.g., negating prefixes), we found evidence of significant form typicality for emotional valence, emotionality, and arousal in a large sample of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words. These affective form-meaning mappings remained significant even when controlling for a range of lexico-semantic variables. We show that affective variables and their corresponding form typicality measures are able to significantly predict lexical decision performance using a megastudy dataset. Overall, our findings provide new evidence that affective form typicality is a statistical property of the Spanish lexicon.

Effects of irrelevant speech on semantic and phonological judgments of Chinese characters

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether background speech impairs lexical processing and how speech characteristics modulate such influence based on task type. Chinese character pairs were displayed to native Chinese readers under four auditory conditions: normal Chinese speech, phonotactically legal but meaningless speech, spectrally-rotated speech (i.e. meaningless sound with no accessible phonological form), or silence. Participants were tasked with determining whether the presented character pair shared the same meaning (semantic judgment), or the same initial phoneme (phonological judgment). Participants performed better and faster in the semantic than in the phonological judgment task. Phonological properties of meaningless speech prolonged participants’ reaction times in the phonological but not the semantic judgment task, whilst the semantic properties of speech only delayed reaction times in the semantic judgment task. The results indicate that background speech disrupts lexical processing, with the nature of the primary task affecting the extent of phonological and semantic disruption.

VeLeRo: an inflected verbal lexicon of standard Romanian and a quantitative analysis of morphological predictability

AbstractThis paper presents VeLeRo, an inflected lexicon of Standard Romanian which contains the full paradigm of 7297 verbs in phonological form. We explain the process by which the resource was compiled, and how stress, diphthongs and hiatus, consonant palatalization, and other relevant issues were handled in phonemization. On the basis of the most token-frequent verbs in VeLeRo, we also perform a quantitative analysis of morphological predictability in Romanian verbs, whose complexity patterns are presented within the broader Romance context.

Indonesian Language Acquisition of 0-2-Year-Old Children: A Study of Psycholinguistic Perspective

This study discusses the problem of phonology and morphology acquisition in children aged 0-2 years whose parents use Indonesian in their daily interaction (communication) in the family while the surrounding community interacts (communicates) using the local language (Javanese). This research concludes that the embryonic development of children's language can vary in each individual, can develop quickly and can also be slow, depending on the level or level of age, the ability of the parents, and the active environment to develop it. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research. The data generated from this research is in the form of spoken words, which will then be transcribed into writing. Data related to this research, which is devoted to language acquisition in the form of phonology and morphology acquisition in children aged 0-2 years, was obtained using several methods.

What the Schwartzes Told Me about Allomorph Priority

In Standard Yiddish, -s and -ən are used as default allomorphs for plural word formation. It is argued here that the choice is left to the phonology, with -s acting as a default within a default. This status is used to explain the exclusive use of -s in the pluralization of proper names, which are claimed to be formed with no sensitivity to the phonological form of the base.

Ukrainian Translation of English Lexicalized Constructions: A Case of BBC News and BBC News Ukraine Headlines

Drawing on the headlines from the BBC News and BBC News Ukraine websites, the paper seeks to identify the patterns of translating English lexicalized constructions consisting of fixed and non-fixed elements. The fixed component is considered to be a stable island of reliability that has a phonological form unchanged in different contexts, while the non-fixed component is dependent and selected according to the communicative situation. The paper is the first study finding that English lexicalized constructions in BBC News headlines are translated on the BBC News Ukraine website according to four semantic patterns: re-perspectivation, generalization or specification of the meaning of the Ukrainian components of the English lexicalized constructions, as well as grammaticalization. The implementation of the re-perspectivation pattern involves shifting the focus of attention from one feature of a referent in the original to a different one in the translation with the help of adjectives or nouns. Within the generalization translation pattern of English lexicalized constructions, the semantics of their components shifts from the basic categorization level, associated with the speakers’ perceptual experience, to the superordinate level involving generalization. According to the specification pattern, the semantics of the English lexicalized constructions’ components shifts in translation from the basic to the subordinate categorization level, focusing on the specific features of referents. The shifts in the categorization levels, characteristic of the generalization and specification translation patterns, results from the peculiarities of the British and Ukrainian worldviews brought about by the nations’ histories and lifestyles. The grammaticalization patterns render the English lexicalized constructions into Ukrainian by the prepositional structures denoting CONTAINER and by the relative structures specifying the features of referents.

Leksikon dan Distribusi Bahasa Melayu Riau Melalui Fitur Fonologi di Kabupaten Kampar

The lexicon and distribution of Riau Malay emerged because of causes that are closely related to language changes observed in certain elements found in the variety of dialects, regional boundaries, number of speakers, residence, identity and cultural pride, and economic conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine (1) the lexical form of phonology and (2) the geographical distribution of phonological forms that experience variations in Riau Malay in Kampar Regency. This research uses a descriptive method with listening, interviewing, recording, and recording techniques. The methods and analytical techniques used are the padan method and the banding technique. This research was conducted at nine observation points in Kampar Regency. The sample of informants at each observation point amounted to one person. The research instrument used for the interview was a list of questions containing 441 questions. The results of this study are based on its realization: the determination of phonetic innovations based on the discovery of variants that show a phonotactic change from the original variant at the Riau Malay observation point in Kampar Regency. Its geographical phonological distribution is based on observation points and the results of data phenomena in the field that often experience dispersal at observation points (1), (2), (3), (8), and geographically.

A case study of the American Sign Language patterns of a natively-exposed Deaf autistic signer

ABSTRACT Research on the acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) by deaf autistic children has documented similarities to the linguistic profile of hearing children on the autism spectrum and has identified sign-specific phenomena that could serve as clinical markers of autism in the deaf population. However, the acquisition of a signed language by deaf autistic individuals whose language use appears to be at age-level is not well documented. Here we present a case study of ASL use by a Deaf autistic adolescent exposed to ASL since birth. Data include two video recordings (collected at age 16;11 and 17;4 years) of his spontaneous ASL. Utterances were coded for repetitions, phonological form, fingerspelling, metalinguistic awareness, and facial expressions having grammatical functions. Other data include a writing sample (17;6) and background information obtained from parental interviews and formal psycho-educational evaluations (between ages 14 and 17). Results revealed this adolescent has strong ASL skills including sophisticated vocabulary and semantic content, advanced fingerspelling, and evidence of metalinguistic awareness. His distinctive signing patterns include abundant repetition of phrases, intrusion of non-ASL handshapes, articulation disfluency, reduced facial expressiveness, and a dissociation between fingerspelling and writing skills. The results of this study diversify and broaden discussions of the ways that autism may interact with language development, especially in the visual-gestural modality. Understanding language patterns in autistic signers more fully will improve identification of autism in the deaf population, promote acceptance of diverse signing patterns in the Deaf community, and lead to better support for this population.

Lexical knowledge, memory and experience

Abstract Knowing a language involves knowing a large number of idiosyncratic units such as individual words and collocations which must be learned from the input. This study explores the role of implicit and explicit memory, as well as language experience, and specifically print exposure, with regard to adult native English speakers’ knowledge of vocabulary and collocations. Consistent with prior research, our findings reveal a strong correlation between print exposure and performance on both language tasks. However, contrary to predictions, there were no significant effects of either implicit or explicit memory on either task. We argue that this is most likely due to the fact that language learning relies primarily on memory for associations between form and meaning and between words rather than memory sequences of meaningless phonological forms.

A preliminary description of haptices in Italian social-haptic communication

Deafblind individuals experience a combination of partial/complete loss of hearing andsight. They use a variety of communication modes, amongst which social-haptic communication(SHC), which consists of brief tactile messages performed on the body ofthe deafblind person (haptices). A phonological-like structure can be observed in SHCif we consider the smallest units of touch individuated by Lahtinen (2008), called haptemes.Haptemes can create minimal contrasts in haptices. This contribution discusseswhether the recently created Italian haptices also have a phonological structure. Accordingto a preliminary analysis, Italian haptices seem to have their own formof phonology,which responds to physical constraints of signal transmission (such as tactile perceptibility)and to pragmatic contextual factors.

Sound-meaning associations allow listeners to infer the meaning of foreign language words

An attribute of human language is the seemingly arbitrary association between a word’s form and meaning. We provide evidence that the meaning of foreign words can be partially deduced from phonological form. Monolingual English speakers listened to 45 antonym word pairs in nine foreign languages and judged which English words corresponded to these words’ respective meanings. Despite no proficiency in the foreign language tested, participants’ accuracy was higher than chance in each language. Words that shared meaning across languages were more likely to share phonological form. Accuracy in judging meaning from form was associated with participants’ verbal working memory and with how consistently phonological and semantic features of words covaried across unrelated languages. A follow-up study with native Spanish speakers replicated the results. We conclude that sound maps to meaning in natural languages with some regularity, and sensitivity to form-meaning mappings indexes broader cognitive functions.

ALTERNATIONS OF INDONESIAN SOUNDS IN SAMBAS MALAY

Indonesian is derived from Standard Malay, while Sambas Malay (SM), a language-code spoken by indigenous people mostly living in Sambas Regency, West Kalimantan, becomes one of Malay dialects; and SIL (2006) also explains it becomes one of standard variations of Malay. Therefore, the two language codes are assumed to be derived from the same ancestral language, i.e., Proto-Austronesian language. Consequently, Indonesian and SM share sameness which is shown by identical cognates of the two language codes. There are other cognates which show sound alternations. The sound alternations comprise changes, additions, deletions, and syllabic movements of segments and sound clusters. The data corpora are the phonological forms of the cognates of Indonesian and SM. The phonological forms of SM cognates are obtained from and/or based on a previous study on phonological aspects of SM lexical items conducted by Firman et al. (1998). Meanwhile, Indonesian cognates are Indonesian lexical items which are available in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (the Main Dictionary of Indonesian) and become the equivalents for SM lexical items afore-mentioned; and the phonological forms of Indonesian cognates are determined by referring to the rules of grapheme-phoneme correspondences in Indonesian proposed by Fauzi (2015). Sound alternations show morphophonemic alternations like consonant weakening, consonant strengthening, lenition, fortition, nasalization, de-nasalization, glottalization, de-glottalization, vowel laxing, vowel tensing, diphthongization, sound deletion, sound addition, gemination or consonant doubling, sound fusion, sound fission, metatheses, assimilation, dissimilation, word lengthening, word shortening, and de-reduplication. Certain findings show certain phonotactics in SM. The result of the discussion also shows the distribution of segments in both of two language codes.

Individual differences in L2 listening proficiency revisited: Roles of form, meaning, and use aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge

Abstract The present study revisits the differential roles of form, meaning, and use aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge in L2 listening proficiency. A total of 126 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language listeners completed the TOEIC Listening test, working memory and auditory processing tests, the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire, and several tasks designed to tap into three broad aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge: (1) the ability to access phonological forms without any orthographic cues (phonologization), (2) the ability to recognize words regardless of the talker (generalization), and (3) the ability to determine the semantic and collocational appropriateness of words in global contexts in a fast and stable manner (automatization). Whereas the perceptual, cognitive, and metacognitive variables made relatively small contributions to L2 listening proficiency (0.4%–21.3%), the vocabulary factors explained a large amount of the variance (77.6%) in the full regression model (R2 = .507). These large lexical effects uniquely derived from the three different aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge—automatization (55.3%), phonologization (20.8%), and generalization (1.5%). The findings suggest that successful L2 listening skill acquisition draws on not only various levels of phonological form-meaning mapping (phonologization, generalization) but also the spontaneous and robust retrieval of such vocabulary knowledge in relation to surrounding words (automatization).

Linguistic Illusions Guide Eye Movement: Evidence From Doubling

Across languages, certain phonological patterns are preferred to others (e.g., blog > lbog). But whether such preferences arise from abstract linguistic constraints or sensorimotor pressures is controversial. We address this debate by examining the constraints on doubling (e.g., slaflaf, generally, XX). Doubling demonstrably elicits conflicting responses (aversion or preference), depending on the linguistic level of analysis (phonology vs. morphology). Since the stimulus remains unchanged, the shifting responses imply abstract constraints. Here, we ask whether these constraints apply online, in eye movements. Experiment 1 shows that, in bare phonological forms, doubling is dispreferred, and correspondingly it elicits shorter fixations. Remarkably, when doubling signals morphological plurality, the aversion shifts into preference, in Experiment 2. Our results demonstrate for the first time that the constraints on doubling apply online. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that phonological knowledge arises, in part, from an abstract linguistic source.

Cascaded processing develops by five years of age: evidence from adult and child picture naming

ABSTRACT Although there is compelling evidence for cascading activation in adult lexical planning, there is little research on how and when cascaded processing develops. We use a picture naming task to compare word planning in adults and five-year-old children. We manipulated image codability (name agreement) and name frequency, factors that affect lexical selection and phonological encoding, respectively. These factors had qualitatively similar influences on naming response time in both populations, suggesting similar underlying planning processes. Critically, we found an under-additive interaction between codability and frequency such that the frequency effect was attenuated when name agreement was low. This interaction generalises across experiments and languages and can be simulated in a planning architecture in which phonological forms become activated before lexical selection is complete. These results provide evidence for cascaded processing at an earlier age than previous studies, suggesting that informational cascades are a fundamental property of the production architecture.