Phonological Word Research Articles

The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish

It is generally believed that Turkish stress is always word-final. Closer examination, however, reveals several types of exceptions to this pattern involving both roots and affixes. This paper proposes a unified analysis of regular and irregular stress in Turkish that crucially depends on our definition of the Phonological Word. In addition, we discuss stress in constituents beyond the word, and provide evidence for the Clitic Group as well as the Phonological Phrase. Finally, we also briefly discuss vowel harmony and a set of syllabification phenomena, and show how the latter, in particular, provide independent support for the proposal we advance here.

Cognitive Abilities and Print Exposure in Surface and Phonological Types of Reading Disability

Subgroups of children with reading disabilities were identified by using the regression method introduced by Castles and Coltheart (1993). Children who were poor in phonological, compared to orthographic, word decoding were identified as phonological-type participants, and children who were poor in orthographic, compared to phonological, decoding were identified as surface-type participants. The results replicated previous findings reported that if categorizations are based on comparisons with younger reading-level-matched controls instead of age-matched controls, the number of surface-type children is significantly reduced. Surface-type children performed below the other groups on most cognitive measures and reported that there were fewer books in their homes, and phonological-type children showed a specific deficit in phonological word decoding. The results provided additional support for the hypothesis that the surface type of reading disability can be characterized as a general developmental delay.

Cortical network dynamics during verbal working memory function

This study is an exploratory investigation of the regional timing of cortical activity associated with verbal working memory function. ERP activity was obtained from a single subject using a 124-channel sensor array during a task requiring the monitoring of imageable words for occasional targets. Distributed cortical activity was estimated every 2.5 ms with high spatial resolution using real head, boundary element modelling of non-target activity. High-resolution structural MRI was used for segmentation of tissue boundaries and co-registration to the scalp electrode array. The inverse solution was constrained to the cortical surface. Cortical activity was observed in regions commonly associated with verbal working memory function. This included: the occipital pole (early visual processing); the superior temporal and inferior parietal gyrus bilaterally and the left angular gyrus (visual and phonological word processing); the dorsal lateral occipital gyrus (spatial processing); and aspects of the bilateral superior parietal lobe (imagery and episodic verbal memory). Activity was also observed in lateral and superior prefrontal regions associated with working memory control of sensorimotor processes. The pattern of cortical activity was relatively stable over time, with variations in the extent and amplitude of contributing local source activations. By contrast, the pattern of concomitant scalp topography varied considerably over time, reflecting the linear summation effects of volume conduction that often confound dipolar source modelling.

The Development of Specialized Brain Systems in Reading and Oral-Language

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine differences between children (9–12 years) and adults (21–31 years) in the distribution of brain activation during word processing. Orthographic, phonologic, semantic and syntactic tasks were used in both the auditory and visual modalities. Our two principal results were consistent with the hypothesis that development is characterized by increasing specialization. Our first analysis compared activation in children versus adults separately for each modality. Adults showed more activation than children in the unimodal visual areas of middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus for processing written word forms and in the unimodal auditory areas of superior temporal gyrus for processing spoken word forms. Children showed more activation than adults for written word forms in posterior heteromodal regions (Wernicke's area), presumably for the integration of orthographic and phonologic word forms. Our second analysis compared activation in the visual versus auditory modality separately for children and adults. Children showed primarily overlap of activation in brain regions for the visual and auditory tasks. Adults showed selective activation in the unimodal auditory areas of superior temporal gyrus when processing spoken word forms and selective activation in the unimodal visual areas of middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus when processing written word forms.

The effectiveness of a prosodic intervention on children’s metrical patterns

Use of a trochaic template (S-w) stress pattern in early words and phrases has been documented in both normal and disordered populations. The purpose of this multiple baseline study was to determine the effectiveness of a prosodic intervention focusing on w-S stress patterns in phonological phrases and prosodic words, and its generalization to w-S patterns in untrained multi-syllabic words and phrases. Two children with speech and language impairments participated in a three-phase experimental treatment that focused on the article ‘the’ in phrases. Generalization probes designed to examine all phases of the therapy sequence and untrained stimuli were administered throughout therapy. Results indicate that the intervention procedures facilitated change in both children’s productions of w-S stress patterns in untrained multisyllabic words, although less so in untrained phrases.

Просодия говоров Терского берега Белого моря: предвaрительные наблюдения<br>(Prosodic Aspects of the Dialects of the Ter Coast of the White Sea: Preliminary Results)

The present article presents some preliminary results of the study of some prosodic characteristics of the dialects of Varzuga and Umba, two Northern Russian villages on the Ter Coast of the White Sea. In our recently collected recordings, we observed a number of prosodic characteristics which are assumed to be typical for Northern Russian. Firstly, vowels appear to be relatively short. Secondly, it was often rather difficult to determine the location of the stressed syllables. Thirdly, a tendency to attach a repeating prosodic pattern to each phonological word was observed. Finally, many non-question utterances ended in a rising pitch movement, although the steepness and the height of the Ter rise appear to be less extreme than in, for instance, some Pinega dialects of the Archangel' sk oblast' . Interestingly, the second and third characteristics seem to be closely related. In all but one of the cases with unclear stress patterns, the first syllable was realised with high pitch, immediately preceded and followed by low pitch. This seems to be the result of a tendency to attach a rising-falling pattern to each phonological word.

Evaluation of a rime-based reading program with Shuswap and Heiltsuk First Nations prereaders

The utility of teaching reading using rime-based readingstrategies with prereaders was examined. Two experiments are presentedthat studied the effects of a rime-based reading program with FirstNations prereaders; one experiment with Shuswap kindergartners andthe other with Heiltsuk Grade 1 children. Rhyming, phoneme identity,letter-sound knowledge, phonological working memory, First Nationslanguage speaking ability, and reading were measured. In the Shuswapgroup, the reading program increased the abilities that werespecifically taught, rhyming, initial phoneme identity, letter-sounds,and word reading by rime-analogy, compared to the control group.Children also developed abilities that were not specifically taught,final phoneme identity and reading by letter recoding, and could use therime-analogy strategy to read words with unfamiliar rime endings.Phonological working memory remained unchanged. The Heiltsuk childrengained in reading compared to a Grade 1 comparison group. Pretestletter-sound knowledge and rhyming were related to later reading butphoneme identity and First Nations language ability were not. Progressin phonological awareness and word reading can be enhanced in prereadersby adding experience with rime-based strategies to the readingprogram.

The role of different levels of phonological awareness in the development of reading and spelling in Greek

Phonological awareness is a strong predictor of children's progress in literacy acquisition. There are different ways of segmenting words into sound sequences – syllables, phonemes, onset-rime – and little is known about whether these different levels of segmentation vary in their contribution to reading and writing. Does one of them – for example, phoneme awareness – play the major role in learning to read and spell making the other phonological units irrelevant to the prediction of reading? Or do different levels of analysis make independent contributions to reading and spelling? Our study investigated whether syllable and phoneme awareness make independent contributions to reading and spelling in Greek. Four measures were used: syllable awareness, phoneme awareness, reading and spelling. Analyses of variance showed that Greek speaking children found it easier to analyse words into syllables than phonemes, irrespective of the influence of task variables such as position of the phonological element, word length, and placement of stress in the word. Regression analyses showed that syllable and phoneme awareness make significant and independent contributions to learning written Greek. We conclude that phonological awareness is a multidimensional phenomenon and that the different dimensions contribute to reading and writing in Greek.

Repeating Without Semantics: Surface Dysphasia?

We describe our investigations of MNA, who had a progressive, severe and global loss of semantic knowledge (semantic dementia). Her verbal vocabulary was restricted to a few common words and she was also unable to recognize common objects from sight. By contrast, she had a well-preserved digit span (7–8 digits). In this series of experiments, we focused on her ability to repeat lists and sentences in which familiarity, meaningfulness, morphology and syntactic structure were manipulated. In list repetition tasks, we found that MNA showed a reliable effect of phonological similarity, word frequency and stimulus lexicality, but was unaffected by linguistic complexity, word length, semantic coherence or the status of individual stimuli as ‘known’ or ‘unknown’. In sentence repetition, her performance was not influenced by any semantic variables. However, there was a substantial effect of the frequency of the constituent vocabulary, even for words outside the range of her retained vocabulary. The influence of syntax was restricted to minor effects of morphology. The phonemes of syllables and the syllables of words are bound by their co-occurrence rather than their meaning. We conclude that the phonological representation of words is functionally independent of the semantic system.

The Distribution of Superheavy Syllables in Modern English

The present article offers an Optimality-Theoretic analysis capturing the distribution of 'superheavy syllables' in Modern English, i.e. syllables consisting of a long vowel + consonants), a diphthong + consonant(s), or a short vowel + two or more consonants, e.g. feel, rout, farm. It will be shown that superheavy syllables are restricted to surfacing either (i) in word-final position, (ii) before a compound boundary, or (iii) before a consonant-initial suffix. By contrast, superheavy syllables are typically non-occurring in other environments. In the present article the following theoretical claims are made. First, superheavy syllables are analyzed as trimoraic. Second, environments (i)-(iii) above describe the right edge of a phonological word. The distribution of superheavy syllables is captured below with the constraint ALIGN-3μ, which ensures that the third mora in a syllable be situated at the right edge of a phonological word. Finally, ALIGN-3μ will be shown to be violated in certain (predictable) word-internal cases, e.g. the syllable [aun] in mountain; such facts will be accounted for by various language-specific constraint rankings. The present surface based analysis will be argued to be superior to an earlier one proposed for Modern English in a derivational framework by Borowsky (1986, 1989).

The Macedonian negation operator and cliticization

The paper focuses on the interaction between clitics and the negation operator, and on how this interaction affects stress in different dialects of Macedonian. The basic claims are, first, that there is no free variation in the relationship of the clitics and the negation operator; the variation is, nstead, only across dialects; and, second, that the phonological relationship of the clitics to the negation operator depends on the strength of Neg and on the values for the verbal, [±V], and the nominal, [±N], features of the head of the clause. In the dialect in which Neg is strong, the clitics encliticize to it. In the dialect with a weak Neg we have two distinct strategies. In clauses in which V is instantiated by a [+V, -N] category, the negation operator merges and forms a single phonological word with V and any modal, auxiliary, or pronominal clitics that find themselves wedged between Neg and V. In clauses in which V is instantiated by a [+V, +N] category, however, the negation operator merges and forms a single phonological word only with the clitics, to the exclusion of the instantiation of V. Since the clitics in clauses with [+V, -N] heads are typically verbal, while the clitics in clauses with [+V, +N] heads gravitate towards a second position, the analysis has an important theoretical ramification: it contributes to determining the relationship between second position and verbal clitic placement.

Phonological complexity and word duration in immediate recall: Different paradigms answer different questions. A comment on Cowan, Nugent, Elliott, and Geer

Phonological complexity and word duration in immediate recall: Different paradigms answer different questions. A comment on Cowan, Nugent, Elliott, and Geer

O clítico e seu status prosódico

Clitics have received great attention in recent years. Articles dealingwith their syntactic or prosodic structure enrich the literature. Butthe question we are raising here is about where clitics take prosodicstatus. Is it in the lexical or in the postlexical component?We will argue that clitics are prosodized in the postlexicalcomponent. Arguments will be provided for the difference betweenthe prefix that belongs to the Phonological Word formed in thelexical component and the clitic that belongs to the Clitic Group.The most important evidence that supports the idea that the cliticdoes not belong to the phonological word comes from Elision, asandhi rule, that applies between words including clitics.

Why Do Some Resist Phonological Intervention? A Swedish longitudinal study of poor readers in Grade 4

In a longitudinal intervention study, 33 Swedish poor readers in Grade 4 received phonological awareness instruction over 1 year. Three control groups were included in the study: Grade 4 controls, Grade 2 controls (both comparable in reading skill) and normal readers. The results showed that the phonological training group made the most progress in phonological awareness but did not improve their reading skills any more than the controls. However, a re-analysis of the results revealed important individual differences within the phonological training group. Some children improved their reading ability considerably, while others seemed resistant to the intervention. One critical difference between improved and resistant readers was identified. For the improved readers, both orthographic and phonological word decoding predicted text reading performance. For the resistant readers, only orthographic decoding skills predicted text reading before, during and after the intervention, in spite of a steady increase in phonological awareness.

How does a phonological dyslexic read words she has never seen?

How does a phonological dyslexic read words she has never seen?

Automatic activation of word phonology from print in deep dyslexia

Automatic activation of word phonology from print in deep dyslexia

Investigations in prosodic phonology : the role of the foot and the phonological word

The present volume consists of eight studies dealing with various aspects of Prosodic Phonology (see Booij 1983, Nespor & Vogel 1986 and much current work). The languages dealt with below include English, German, Italian, Luganda, Ndebele, Persian, Polish, Spanish, and Tamil.

Distribution of trimoraic syllables in German and English as evidence for the phonological word

In the present article I discuss the distribution of trimoraic syllables in German and English. The reason I have chosen to analyze these two languages together is that the data in both languages are strikingly similar. However, although the basic generalization in (1) holds for both German and English, we will see below that trimoraic syllabIes do not have an identical distribution in both languages.
 
 In the present study I make the following theoretical claims. First, I argue that the three environments in (1) have a property in common: they all describe the right edge of a phonological word (or prosodic word; henceforth pword). From a formal point of view, I argue that a constraint I dub the THIRD MORA RESTRICTION (henceforth TMR), which ensures that trimoraic syllables surface at the end of a pword, is active in German and English. According to my proposal trimoraic syllables cannot occur morpheme-internally because monomorphemic grammatical words like garden are parsed as single pwords. Second, I argue that the TMR refers crucially to moraic structure. In particular, underlined strings like the ones in (1) will be shown to be trimoraic; neither skeletal positions nor the subsyllabic constituent rhyme are necessary. Third, the TMR will be shown to be violated in certain (predictable) pword-internal cases, as in Monde and chamber; I account for such facts in an OptimalityTheoretic analysis (henceforth OT; Prince & Smolensky 1993) by ranking various markedness constraints among themselves or by ranking them ahead of the TMR. Fourth, I hold that the TMR describes a concrete level of grammar, which I refer to below as the 'surface' representation. In this respect, my treatment differs significantly from the one proposed for English by Borowsky (1986, 1989), in which the English facts are captured in a Lexical Phonology model by ordering the relevant constraint at level 1 in the lexicon.

Satisfying minimality in Ndebele

In this paper, I discuss four different verb forms in Ndebele (a Nguni Bantu language spoken mainly in Zimbabwe) - the imperative, reduplicated, future and participial. I show that while all four are subject to minimality restrictions, minimality is satisfied differently in each of these morphological contexts. To account for this, I argue that in Ndebele (as in other Bantu languages) Word and RED are not the only constituents which must satisfy minimality: the Stem is also subject to minimality conditions in some morphological contexts. This paper, then, provides additional arguments for the proposal that Phonological Word is not the only sub-lexical morpho-prosodic constituent. Further, I argue that, although Word, RED and Stern are all subject to the same minimality constraint – they must all be minimally bisyllabic - this does not follow from a single 'generalized' constraint. Instead, I argue, contra recent work within Generalized Template Theory (see, e.g., McCarthy & Prince 1994, 1995a, 1999; Urbanezyk 1995, 1996; and Walker 2000; etc.) that a distinct minimality constraint must be formalized for each of these morpho-prosodic constituents.

Decomposing morphologically complex words in a nonlinear morphology.

Most Hebrew words are composed of 2 intertwined morphemes: a triconsonantal root and a phonological word pattern. Previous research with conjugated verb forms has shown consistent priming from the verbal patterns, suggesting that verbal forms are automatically parsed by native speakers into their morphemic constituents. The authors investigated the decomposition process, focusing on the structural properties of verbal forms that are perceived and extracted during word recognition. The manipulations consisted of using verbal forms derived from "weak" roots that have one consonant missing in some of the forms. The results demonstrated that if 1 consonant is missing, the parsing system collapses, and there is no evidence for morphological priming. In contrast, when a random consonant is inserted into the weak form, the verbal-pattern priming re-emerges. This outcome suggests that the constraint imposed on the decomposition process is primarily structural and abstract. Moreover, the all-or-none pattern of results is characteristic of rule-based behavior and not of simple correlational systems.