Ernestus, M.

McQueen, J.

Viebahn, M.

English

MPG.PuRe

LabPhon 2014, Tokyo, JapanMax Planck InstituteFor PsycholinguisticsIntroductionMaterialsMethod & Results DiscussionConclusionsReferencesCareful Casual300400500600Speaking styleCareful Casual50100150200250Speaking styleCareful Casual010203040506070Speaking style−200 0 200 400 600 800 10000.20.30.40.50.60.70.8Fixations to target word (past participle)TimeGaze probabilityParticiple onset Analysis windowAuxiliary−first, carefulAuxiliary−first, casualParticiple−first, carefulParticiple−first, casualCarefulspeechCasualspeechReaction times1150120012501300135014001450Auxiliary−firstParticiple−firstgeleund gleuvengelift glimlachtePast participles Auxiliary verbs Schwas in past participlesDurations in millisecondsYes - the influence of word order information is larger in casual speech because listeners use it to compensate for the fact that the past participles are acoustically reduced.Hypothesis 2:Syntactic predictability can facilitate the recognition ofcasually produced words in connected speechMalte C. Viebahn, Mirjam Ernestus, James M. McQueen[1] Johnson, K. (2004). Massive reduction in conversational American English. In K. Yoneyman, & K. Maekawa (Eds.), Spontaneous speech: Data analysis. Proceedings of the 1st Session of the 10th International Symposium (pp. 29-54). Tokyo, Japan: The National International Institute for Japanese Language[2] Arai, M. and Keller, F. (2013). The use of verb-specific information for prediction in sentence processing. Language and Cognitive Processing, 28(4), 525-560.[3] Ernestus, M., Baayen, H., and Schreuder, R. (2002). The recognition of reduced word forms. Brain and Language, 81, 162-173.Past participles easier to recognize when preceded by an auxiliary verb than when followed by an auxiliary verb.⚫Word order information used to predict word classes, which facilitates word recognition.[2]⇒Casually produced participles more difficult to recognize than carefully produced participles.⚫Acoustically reduced words more difficult to recognize than carefully produced words.[3]⇒RTs suggest the additional benefit of word order information for casual speech emerges late during word processing.⚫⚫ Syntactic predictability, in the form of word order, is used during word recognition.⚫ It is used in casual speech although the auxiliary verbs are acoustically reduced.⚫ Support for Hypothesis 2: syntactic information used more in casual than in careful speech, compensating for reduction of past participle.Does syntactic predictability facilitate spoken-word recognition?More specifically: does word-order information facilitate recognition of past participles?If so, is the influence of word order information different for casual and careful speech?Hypothesis 1: Yes - the influence of word order information is smaller in casual speech because the words carrying the syntactic information (i.e. auxiliary verbs) are often acoustically reduced.[1]No - the influence of word order information is the same for careful and casual speech.Hypothesis 3:Ik weet zeker dat hij heeft geleund op de houten tafel.Acoustic measurementsStimuli64 Dutch sentences with pairs of auxiliary verbs and past participles in two word orders - both legal in Dutch.ExampleCasual and careful versions of sentences recorded by female native Dutch speaker.I know for sure that he has leaned against the wooden table.Auxiliary-first(more predictive)Ik weet zeker dat hij geleund heeft  op de houten tafel.Participle-first(less predictive)Word orderExperimental methodExperiment 3: Complete sentences; time pressure to speed up responses.More fixations to the past participle when it occurred in the more predictive word order (i.e. auxiliary-first).Interaction between word order and speaking style:Eye fixations Reaction times⚫⚫⚫Visual world paradigmParticipants listen to spoken sentences and see 4 words on a computer screen while their eye movements are being recorded.Task"Click with the mouse on the word that occurred in the sentence."ExperimentsExperiment 2: Sentence up to target word; no time pressureExperiment 1: Complete sentences; no time pressure.Fewer fixations to the past participle when it was produced in a casual manner.⚫⚫⚫The benefit of the more predictable word order (i.e. auxiliary-first) is larger for casual than for careful speech.⇒Results combined across 3 experimentsTime (ms)Reaction times from participle onset (ms)

Syntactic predictability can facilitate the recognition of casually produced words in connected speech

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

MPG.PuRe