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Syllable processing in English
Authors:
Kearns, R.K., NORRIS, D., & Cutler, A
Reference:
Processing of the Seventh international conference on Spoken Language Processing, Denver, September (pp1657-1660)
Year of publication:
2002
CBU number:
5475
Abstract:
Reference Kearns, R.K., Norris, D., & Cutler, A. (2002). Syllable processing in English. In Proceedings of the Seventh Internalional Conference on Spoken Language Processing (pp. 1657-1660). Denver. Abstract We describe a reaction time study in which listeners detected word or nonword syllable targets (e.g. zoo, trel) in sequences consisting of the target plus a consonant or syllable residue (trelsh, trelshek). The pattern of responses differed from an earlier word-spotting study with the same material, in which words were always harder to find if only a consonant residue remained. The earlier results should thus not be viewed in terms of syllabic parsing, but in terms of a universal role for syllables in speech perception; words which are accidentally present in spoken input (e.g. sell in self) can be rejected when they leave a residue of the input which could not itself be a word.
