Phonological Word Research Articles

Loanword phonology in Modern Hebrew

Abstract The phonology of loanwords often differs from the phonology of native words in various aspects. These differences are evident in the prosodic structure and even the segmental inventory. The differences between the loanword and native phonology, however, are not necessarily stable, and it is often the case that what originated as phonological structures in loanwords which were illicit in the native vocabulary eventually overrode the native norm, bringing about diachronic change to the phonology of the native words. Hebrew is no exception in this respect. The stress system of loanwords differs from that of native words, with the latter’s system undergoing changes inter alia due to the effect of loanwords (e.g. ante-penultimate stress, immobile stress patterns). The licit syllable structure inventory of native Hebrew words has been expanded to include loaned structures (e.g. complex codas, triconsonantal structures), and the phonemic inventory of Hebrew now includes several consonants originating in loanwords (e.g. ʒ and d͡ʒ).

Similarity of referents influences the learning of phonological word forms: Evidence from concurrent word learning

Although it is well accepted that various components of words (e.g., phonological word forms, and semantics) interact with each other during processing, it is less clear whether semantics and phonology interact with each other during word learning in the sense of affecting each other’s learning. This study employed three behavioral experiments as well as computational simulations to shed light on this issue by examining whether semantic similarity, operationalized as visual referent similarity, influences the learning of phonological word forms. Experiment 1 demonstrated an effect that would typically be interpreted as an effect of similarity on phonological learning, employing the commonly used naming task. We discuss how such results are confounded by at-test competition effects that can arise directly from the explicit presentation of similar referents, or indirectly from their re-activation even without explicit presentation. Experiments 2 and 3 used a stem completion test and a recognition from mispronunciation test to control for direct effects of competition, and still found effects of similarity on performance. A neural network model of word learning simulated the behavioral results, with analysis of the model confirming a genuine effect of referent similarity on phonological learning even when controlling for both direct and indirect at-test similarity effects. Together these results provide converging evidence that phonological word form learning is affected by referent similarity, suggesting that semantics and phonology interact with each other during learning.

The Phonology of Children's Early Words: Trends, Individual Variation, and Parents' Accommodation in Child-Directed Speech

The mental lexicon is dynamic and changes throughout the lifespan, but how does it begin? Previous research has established that children’s first words depend on their communicative needs, but also on their phonetic repertoire and phonological preferences. In this paper, we focus on the phonological characteristics of children’s first words, primarily looking at word-initial labials and word length in Norwegian children’s first words, as well as at how parents accommodate to child patterns in their speech. Comparing the Norwegian child data with data from children speaking five different languages, we examine how the child’s emergent lexicon is on the one hand shaped by the input of the ambient language, but on the other hand limited by more common phonological characteristics of child speech. Based on data from parental reports (CDI), we compared the 50 first words in Norwegian to those in Danish, Swedish, English and Italian, analysing two phonological aspects: word initial bilabials and word length in syllables. We found that Norwegian-speaking children follow the children speaking these other languages in having an affinity for word initial bilabials, but that the proportions of mono-, di- and polysyllables vary depending on the language acquired. Comparisons of the Norwegian child data with samples of adult directed speech (ADS) and child-directed speech (CDS) revealed more word-initial bilabials and shorter words among children than among adults. The CDS was more similar to children’s speech than ADS concerning the two phonological aspects dealt with here, which suggests that parents accommodate to children in phonologically detailed ways.

The phonological status of Low tones in Shanghai tone sandhi

Abstract In Shanghai tone sandhi, with the exception of T5 (yangru) sandhi, a pitch-fall occurs at the second or third syllable of a phonological word (or a sandhi domain). Previous analyses argue that this is invoked by the insertion of a default Low tone to satisfy the Well-formedness Condition of the autosegmental theory. However, in the framework of the present autosegmental theory, that condition is no longer necessarily satisfied, and an alternative interpretation, adopting a boundary Low tone, has been suggested. To evaluate the appropriateness of the default and boundary interpretations, we compared pitch contours among di- to tetrasyllabic words in greater detail. The results show that, in T1 to T4 sandhi, disyllabic words tend to have lower pitch contours than tri- and tetrasyllabic words at the first and second syllables, and that, in tetrasyllables, minimum pitch values were constantly attested at the third syllable. These results indicate that in Shanghai tone sandhi, a boundary Low tone is assigned at the right edge of a phonological word, and it is further associated with the third syllable in tetrasyllables. This boundary interpretation further gives an appropriate explanation of the difference of the pitch-fall between Middle and New Shanghai.

Phonological Words in the Syntax and in the Lexicon: A Study of Russian Prepositions

Phonological Words in the Syntax and in the Lexicon: A Study of Russian Prepositions

Neuroanatomical structures supporting lexical diversity, sophistication, and phonological word features during discourse

Deficits in lexical retrieval are commonly observed in individuals with post-stroke aphasia. Successful lexical retrieval is related to lexical diversity, lexical sophistication, and phonological word properties; however, the crucial brain regions supporting these different features are not fully understood. We performed MRI-based lesion symptom mapping in 58 individuals with a chronic left hemisphere stroke to assess how regional damage relates to spoken discourse-extracted measures of lexical diversity, lexical sophistication, and phonological word properties. For discourse transcription and word feature analysis, we used the Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN) program, Stanford Core Natural Language Processing, Irvine Phonotactic Online Dictionary, Lexical Complexity Analyzer, and Gramulator. Lesions involving the left posterior insula and supramarginal gyri and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus were significant predictors of utterances with, on average, lower lexical diversity. Low lexical sophistication was associated with damage to the left pole of the superior temporal gyrus. Production of words with lower phonological complexity (fewer phonemes, higher phonological similarity) was associated with damage to the left supramarginal gyrus. Our findings indicate that discourse-extracted features of lexical retrieval depend on the integrity of specific brain regions involving insular and peri-Sylvian areas. The identified regions provide insight into potentially underlying mechanisms of lexically diverse, sophisticated and phonologically complex words produced during discourse.

Emphasis spread in the Djelfa dialect of Algerian Arabic

Abstract The paper documents Emphasis spread in the Djelfa dialect (DJ) of Algerian Arabic with a special examination of the emphatic segments /sˤ/, /tˤ/ and /ðˤ/. If a given word contains an underlying emphatic segment, the nearby segments are also realized with emphasis. The dialect, however, differentiates two types of emphasis spread: unbounded leftward spread that propagates from the emphatic segment till the beginning of the phonological word; and bounded rightward spread that is blocked by a set of segments /i/, /j/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. Of particular interest in the current investigation is the behavior of emphasis spread (ES) with respect to morpheme boundaries. While the left morpheme edge is realized with ES, the right morpheme boundary is deemed resistant to ES unless an underlying emphatic segment falls prior to a -V(C) suffix. This is well captured by the interplay between the markedness constraints FAITH [RTR] SUFFIX and SHARE (RTR).

To Meet or Meat? Homophones in Advertising Encourage Judgments and Behaviors in Children

Despite research on the influence of homophone priming on consumer judgments and behaviors in adults (e.g., the homophone bye primes purchase; target: buy), there is no research to date on the effectiveness of homophone priming on children’s judgments and behaviors. We examine the priming effect of homophonous devices in advertising on children’s (aged six to 13) judgments and behaviors (i.e., the use of the word meet in advertising primes children’s desire to eat chicken; target: meat). Across three studies we provide evidence that homophonous priming effects decrease with age, whereby younger and less skilled child readers focus on the phonology of words, which results in homophone priming. We show that older and more skilled child readers are better able to process the orthography (spelling) of a word and the meaning of the prime, resulting in homophone priming suppression. We illustrate that facilitating, or prompting, spelling verification in younger children results in their ability to disambiguate the word’s meaning and, subsequently, suppress the irrelevant homophone. This research has implications for advertisers in terms of the execution of their advertisements to influence young children’s judgments and behaviors.

음운규칙 적용도와 단어빈도에 따른 단어 규칙성 효과의 차이

음운규칙 적용도와 단어빈도에 따른 단어 규칙성 효과의 차이

Plural dominance and the production of determiner-noun phrases in French.

In two experiments, we examined the functional locus of plural dominance in the French spoken word production system, where singulars and plurals share the same phonological word form. The materials included singular-dominant (singular more frequent than plural) and plural-dominant nouns (plural more frequent than singular). In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in response to singular and plural depictions of objects. In contrast to the dominance-by-number interaction that is typically observed in English, Dutch and German, the French picture-naming data revealed a main effect of number, but no effect of plural dominance. When participants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in a reading aloud task (Experiment 2), where number is orthographically marked, a number-by-dominance interaction emerged. Our data suggest that plural dominance is encoded at the word form level within the context of recent theories of spoken word production.

P108. Effects of 10 Hz tACS on phonological language processing

Introduction A previous study ( Hartwigsen et al., 2010 ) has shown that 10 Hz rTMS of the left or right posterior inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) impaired performance in a phonological decision-making task. However, it is unclear whether the neurodisruptive effect of 10 Hz-rTMS is caused by entrainment of alpha-oscillations. To address this issue, the present study investigated the following questions: (1) Are alpha-oscillations in the IFG functionally relevant for phonological processing? (2) Can we enhance alpha activity in the IFG using 10 Hz tACS? and (3) Does enhancement of alpha activity cause behavioral disruption? Methods 24 right-handed, healthy participants (12 male, age range: 18–30 years, mean = 21.96, SD = 3.36) participated in the study. 9 mm2 circular sponge electrodes were placed over the bilateral IFG. In three separate sessions, 1 mA tACS at 10 Hz or 16.18 Hz or sham stimulation were applied for 20 min. Before and after stimulation, 5 min of resting state EEG was recorded. The phonological task required the subjects to indicate via button press whether highly frequent German nouns like ‘Zebra’ consisted of two or three syllables. In a simple control task, participants had to indicate whether an arrow pointed left or right to control for unspecific effects. Results (1) Stimulation was a significant predictor for decision speed in the phonological task (p = .02). Specifically, participants responded faster after 10 Hz relative to sham stimulation, but not after 16.18 Hz. (2) This effect was task specific as tACS did not significantly affect the control task (p = 0.43). (3) Participants had an increase in resting state alpha power (p = .004), which wasn’t modulated by stimulation (p = .70). (4) We found a significant event related desynchronization in the alpha band (p Conclusion The results show an improvement in a phonological word task after applying 10 Hz tACS over the bilateral IFG but not in simple motoric control task. This might be explained by a paradoxical facilitation effect, resulting in an ‘optimal’ level of noise for task processing ( Miniussi et al., 2013 ) or by inhibition of surrounding areas that might be competing for task resources. Since no specific effect on alpha oscillations could be found, further studies will therefore investigate effects of focal online stimulation.

The phonology and morphology of foreign words in Gothic revisited

Abstract The present paper focuses on foreign names and loan words in the Gothic text corpus. The names are mostly Hebrew in origin but were transferred to Gothic through Greek. Their phonetic, phonological and graphemic adaption will be discussed in light of the close connection between the Wulfilian and Greek alphabets. In addition, we will raise the question and discuss whether some names are not fully adapted to the Gothic inflection but remain Greek in form, as well as why foreign words are sometimes not assigned to the inflectional class which would appear to be the most natural one.

Phonology, Orthography, and Decoding Skills Within and Across English and Chinese

ABSTRACTThe current study examined the construct of word-reading skills within and across English and Chinese. One hundred forty-three 5th graders who were native Chinese (Mandarin) speakers learning English as a second language completed 19 tasks representing phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and word decoding in both English and Chinese. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted within each language, and the results showed that the best-fitting model for both languages was the 3-factor model involving phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and word decoding. Across the 2 languages, the language-specific model fit better than other models with 1 or 2 language-general factors. These results suggest that word reading is not a unified, language-general ability within and across English and Chinese among Chinese children learning English as a second language. Instruction and intervention may need to target phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and word decoding in each language.

The prosodic domain of phonological encoding: Evidence from speech errors

Phonological encoding of segments is thought to occur within a prosodically-defined frame, but it is not clear which of the constituent/s within the prosodic hierarchy (syllables, phonological words, intonational phrases and utterances) serve/s as the domain of phonological encoding. This experiment investigated whether segmental speech errors elicited in tongue-twisters were influenced by position within prosodic constituents above the level of the phonological word. Forty-four participants produced six repetitions each of 40 two-intonational phrase tongue-twisters with error-prone word-initial “target” segments in phrase-initial and phrase-final words. If the domain of phonological encoding is the intonational phrase, we hypothesised that segments within a current intonational phrase would interact in more errors than would segments across intonational phrase boundaries. Participants made more anticipatory than perseveratory errors on target segments in phrase-initial words as predicted. They also made more perseveratory than anticipatory errors on targets in phrase-final words, but only in utterance-final phrases. These results suggest that the intonational phrase is one domain of phonological encoding, and that segments for upcoming phrases are activated while current phrases are being articulated.

Links Between Short-Term Memory and Word Retrieval in Aphasia.

This study explored the relationship between anomia and verbal short-term memory (STM) in the context of an interactive activation language processing model. Twenty-four individuals with aphasia and reduced STM spans (i.e., impaired immediate serial recall of words) completed a picture-naming task and a word pair repetition task (a measure of verbal STM). Correlations between verbal STM and word retrieval errors made on the picture-naming task were examined. A significant positive correlation between naming accuracy and verbal span length was found. More intricate verbal STM analyses examined the relationship between picture-naming error types (i.e., semantic vs. phonological) and 2 measures of verbal STM: (a) location of errors on the word pair repetition task and (b) imageability and frequency effects on the word pair repetition task. Results indicated that, as phonological word retrieval errors (relative to semantic) increase, bias toward correct repetition of high-imageability words increases. Results suggest that word retrieval and verbal STM tasks likely rely on a partially shared temporary linguistic activation process.

The prosodic representation of composite structures in Brazilian Portuguese

In previous research, word–word compounds and stressed affix + word structures have been assigned to the same prosodic domain in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), on account of certain similarities in phonological behaviour (Silva 2010, Toneli 2014): both types of composite structures undergo vowel raising at the right edge of each element in the construction, and vowel sandhi processes between their elements. In this paper, I show that word–word compounds and stressed affix + word structures exhibit significant differences in stress patterns in BP, which supports their prosodization in two separate domains. While stressed affix + word structures are assigned secondary stress following the phonological word (PWd) stress algorithm, each element in word–word compounds behaves as an independent PWd with regard to the stress pattern that it exhibits. I thus propose that while stressed affix + word structures are recursively prosodized in the PWd domain, word–word compounds are prosodized in the composite group, the domain proposed by Vogel (2008, 2009) that immediately dominates the PWd and accounts for the prosodization of structures with compositional characteristics. The analysis reconciles two views on prosodic structure that are traditionally assumed to be mutually exclusive: the view that prosodic domains can be recursive (e.g. Inkelas 1990, Selkirk 1996) and the view that the prosodic hierarchy includes an additional domain specific to composite structures above the PWd (e.g. Vogel 2009, Vigário 2010).

Transparadigmatic Output-Output Correspondence: A Case Study from Ese Ejja

One prominent theory capturing unexpected phonological similarity across morphologically-related forms is Output-Output Correspondence (OO-Corr – Benua 1997; Burzio 1998; a.o.). Classic OO-Corr involves correspondence between an output [x-y] and a subconstituent base [x], e.g. a derived stem with a bare root [√-deriv]x↔ [√]x (párent-hood ↔ párent). Further, Paradigmatic OO-Corr (Pa-OO-C) involves correspondence between an output [x-a] and a base [x-b], where the affixes [a] and [b] share a morphosyntactic feature [+f] which places them together in a morphological paradigm (McCarthy 2005, Hall & Scott 2007), e.g. [√-infl[1sg past]]x↔ [√-infl[1sg pres]]x. In contrast, this paper proposes a novel type of OO-Corr termed Transparadigmatic Output-Output Correspondence (Tr-OO-C), involving correspondence between an output [x-y-z] and a base [x-z]. Under Tr-OO-C, morphologically-related forms share the same root as well as share the same outer morphology, but differ in terms of an inner morphology, e.g. [√-deriv-infl]x↔ [√-infl]x. I argue that Ese Ejja (Takanan: Bolivia) is an example of Tr-OO-C, wherein there is unexpected stress uniformity between inflectional and derivational verbal forms. I argue that derivational forms are in correspondence with an inflectional base enforced by highly ranked constraints Id-BO(stress), Corr-BO(root), and Corr-BO(infl), modeled after Agreement-By-Correspondence (Rose & Walker 2004). In total, Ese Ejja prosody is a crucial case study for OO-C and adds to the body of evidence showing how the phonology of words can be shaped by morphologically-related forms.

The Effects of Phonological Awareness Intervention Program on The Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition Ability in Children With Intellectual Disabilities

The Effects of Phonological Awareness Intervention Program on The Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition Ability in Children With Intellectual Disabilities

Strength of Temporal White Matter Pathways Predicts Semantic Learning.

Learning the associations between words and meanings is a fundamental human ability. Although the language network is cortically well defined, the role of the white matter pathways supporting novel word-to-meaning mappings remains unclear. Here, by using contextual and cross-situational word learning, we tested whether learning the meaning of a new word is related to the integrity of the language-related white matter pathways in 40 adults (18 women). The arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital and inferior-longitudinal fasciculi were virtually dissected using manual and automatic deterministic fiber tracking. Critically, the automatic method allowed assessing the white matter microstructure along the tract. Results demonstrate that the microstructural properties of the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus predict contextual learning, whereas the left uncinate was associated with cross-situational learning. In addition, we identified regions of special importance within these pathways: the posterior middle temporal gyrus, thought to serve as a lexical interface and specifically related to contextual learning; the anterior temporal lobe, known to be an amodal hub for semantic processing and related to cross-situational learning; and the white matter near the hippocampus, a structure fundamental for the initial stages of new-word learning and, remarkably, related to both types of word learning. No significant associations were found for the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus or the arcuate. While previous results suggest that learning new phonological word forms is mediated by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings show that the temporal pathways are the crucial neural substrate supporting one of the most striking human abilities: our capacity to identify correct associations between words and meanings under referential indeterminacy.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The language-processing network is cortically (i.e., gray matter) well defined. However, the role of the white matter pathways that support novel word learning within this network remains unclear. In this work, we dissected language-related (arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital, and inferior-longitudinal) fasciculi using manual and automatic tracking. We found the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus to be predictive of word-learning success in two word-to-meaning tasks: contextual and cross-situational learning paradigms. The left uncinate was predictive of cross-situational word learning. No significant correlations were found for the arcuate or the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus. While previous results showed that learning new phonological word forms is supported by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings demonstrate that learning new word-to-meaning associations is mainly dependent on temporal white matter pathways.

Flapping before a stressed vowel: The case of whatever

In English, word-internal intervocalic alveolar stops are predominantly flapped when preceding an unstressed vowel (water, charity) and optionally flapped at word boundaries preceding unstressed and stressed vowels (that is, private airplane). In this study, we show that /t/ is flapped in whatever although it is word-internal and precedes a stressed vowel. The data were elicited in a sentence reading task, with four speakers of Appalachian English. The duration of /t/ and the acoustic correlates of stress were examined. A comparison of vowel duration and amplitude patterns in whatever versus everwhat (both words are relative pronouns in free relative clauses in this dialect, N = 699) showed that the second syllable is stressed in whatever. A comparison of /t/ durations showed no significant differences among whatever, watermelons, waterlilies, water buffalo (N = 533, M = 30.1 ms). These results may be interpreted as: (a) whatever is an exception to the word-internal flapping environment, or (b) the word-internal flapping environment must be modified to include preceding stressed vowels at morpheme boundaries, or (c) whatever consists of two phonological words and falls within the word-final flapping environment. Prosodic and syntactic analyses of free relative clauses consistent with the last interpretation are discussed.