Recent evidence indicates that a word’s paradigmatic neighbors affect production. However, these findings have mostly been obtained in careful laboratory settings using words in isolation, and thus ...ignoring potential effects that may arise from the syntagmatic context, which is typically present in spontaneous speech. The current corpus analysis investigates paradigmatic and syntagmatic effects in Estonian spontaneous speech. Following work on English, we focus on the duration of inflected and uninflected word-final /-s/ in content words, while simultaneously investigating whole words. Our analyses reveal three points. First, we find an effect of realized inflectional paradigm size, such that smaller paradigms actively used by the speakers lead to longer durations. Second, higher conditional probability is associated with shorter word forms and shorter segments. Finally, we do not directly replicate previous work on effects of inflectional status as in English word-final /-s/. Instead, we find that inflectional status interacts with conditional probability. We discuss the results in light of models of speech production and how they account for morphologically complex words and their paradigmatic neighbors.
Estonian is a morphologically rich Finno-Ugric language with nominal paradigms that have at least 28 different inflected forms but sometimes more than 40. For languages with rich inflection, it has ...been argued that whole-word frequency, as a diagnostic of whole-word representations, should not be predictive for lexical processing. We report a lexical decision experiment, showing that response latencies decrease both with frequency of the inflected form and its inflectional paradigm size. Inflectional paradigm size was also predictive of semantic categorization, indicating it is a semantic effect, similar to the morphological family size effect. These findings fit well with the evidence for frequency effects of word n-grams in languages with little inflectional morphology, such as English. Apparently, the amount of information on word use in the mental lexicon is substantially larger than was previously thought.
Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form ...meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading behavior that are shared and those that vary systematically across languages through an investigation of eye-tracking data from 13 languages recorded during text reading. We begin with reporting a bibliometric analysis of eye-tracking studies showing that the current empirical base is insufficient for cross-linguistic comparisons. We respond to this empirical lacuna by presenting the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO), the product of an international multi-lab collaboration. We examine which behavioral indices differentiate between reading in written languages, and which measures are stable across languages. One of the findings is that readers of different languages vary considerably in their skipping rate (i.e., the likelihood of not fixating on a word even once) and that this variability is explained by cross-linguistic differences in word length distributions. In contrast, if readers do not skip a word, they tend to spend a similar average time viewing it. We outline the implications of these findings for theories of reading. We also describe prospective uses of the publicly available MECO data, and its further development plans.
Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of ...first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants’ reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.
Kõne on isikuti varieeruv ja suur osa sellest, kui jutukas keegi on või kui kiiresti ta räägib, sõltub tema isikuomadustest. Individuaalse varieeruvuse kõrval on aga leitud ka sotsiodemograafilisi ...mustreid, näiteks et vananedes kõnetempo aeglustub, aga ka et naised räägivad meestega võrreldes aeglasemalt, selgemalt ja ilmekamalt. Artiklis vaatame kahe eesti keele spontaanse kõne korpuse põhjal, kuidas suhtlussituatsioonis kõnetempo sõltuvalt vanusest, soost ja vestluspartnerist muutub, ning kõrvutame tulemusi loetud kõne andmetega. Kuna kõnetempot on seostatud ilmekusega, siis vaatame ka kõnelejate soravust, mõõtes takerdumiste, venituste ja sõnakorduste esinemist. Tulemused näitavad, et spontaankõnes on kõnetempo loetuga võrreldes oluliselt kiirem ning vanusest tingitud erinevused väiksemad. Kõige olulisem kõnetempo mõjutaja suhtluses on vestluspartneri kõnetempo. Soravusel ei avaldunud seost kõnetempoga. Teismelised arenevad vanusega soravamaks, kuid täiskasvanutel soravuses muutusi ei ilmnenud. *** "Variation of speech rate and fluency in Estonian" Speech varies from person to person, and much of how talkative someone is or how fast they speak depends on their personal characteristics. However, along with individual variability, sociodemographic patterns have also been found, for example, that the speech rate slows down with age, but also that women speak slower, clearer and more vividly than men. In the article we look at how the speech rate changes depending on age, gender and the interlocutor in a spontaneous communication situation based on the two Estonian speech corpora, Teen Speak in Estonia and the Phonetic Corpus of Estonian Spontaneous Speech. In order to account for the effect of the speaking situation, we compare the spontaneous data of the adult speakers with the read speech data from the Estonian Northwind and tSun corpora. Since speech rate has been associated with expressiveness, we also look at the fluency of speakers by counting the occurrences of segmental lengthening, restarts, and word repetitions. The results show that the speech rate in spontaneous speech is significantly faster and age-related differences are smaller compared to read speech. In spontaneous interaction the speaker’s speech rate is the most influenced by the speech rate of the interlocutor. Speech fluency was not correlated with speech rate. Teenagers become more fluent with age, but adults showed no change in fluency.
Detecting Spelling Errors in Compound and Pseudocompound Words Chamberlain, Jenna M.; Gagné, Christina L.; Spalding, Thomas L. ...
Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition,
03/2020, Letnik:
46, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Three experiments using a spelling error detection task investigated the extent to which morphemes and pseudomorphemes affect word processing. We compared the processing of transparent compound words ...(e.g., doorbell), pseudocompound words (e.g., carpet), and matched control words (e.g., tomato). In half of the compound and pseudocompound words, spelling errors were created by transposing adjacent letters and in half of the control words, errors were created by transposing letters at the same location as the matched compound or pseudocompound words. Correctly spelled compound words were more easily processed than matched control words, but this advantage was removed when letter transpositions were introduced at the morpheme boundary. In contrast, misspelled pseudocompound words showed a processing deficit relative to their matched control words when letter transpositions were introduced at the (pseudo)morpheme boundary. The results strongly suggest that morphological processing is attempted obligatorily when the orthography indicates that morphological structure is present. However, the outcomes of the morphological processing attempts are different for compounds and pseudocompounds, as might be expected, given that only the compounds have a morphological structure that matches the structure suggested by the orthography. The findings reflect 2 effects: an orthographic effect that is facilitatory and not sensitive to morphological structure of the whole word, and a morphemic effect that is facilitatory for compounds but inhibitory for pseudocompounds.
Abstract
In recent years, evidence has emerged that readers may have access to the meaning of complex words even in the
early stages of processing, suggesting that phenomena previously attributed to ...morphological decomposition may actually emerge
from an interplay between formal and semantic effects. The present study adds to this line of work by deploying a forward masked
priming experiment with both L1 (Experiment 1) and L2 (Experiment 2) speakers of English. Following recent research trends, we
view morphological processing as a gradient process emerging over time. In order to model this, we used a large within-item
stimulus design combined with advanced statistical methods such as generalised mixed models (GAMM) and quantile regression (QGAM).
L1 GAMM analyses only showed priming for true morpho-semantic relations (the identity ‘bull’, inflected ‘bulls’ and derived
conditions ‘bullish’), with no priming observed in the case of other relations (the pseudo-complex ‘bully’ or the stem-embedded
‘bullet’ conditions). Furthermore, with respect to the time-course of effects, we found significant differences between conditions
were present from very early on as revealed by the QGAM analyses. In contrast, L2 speakers showed significant facilitation across
all five conditions compared to the baseline condition, including the stem-embedded condition, suggesting early L2 processing is
only dependant on the form.
Most psycholinguistic models of lexical processing assume that the comprehension and production of inflected forms is mediated by morphemic constituents. Several more recent studies, however, have ...challenged this assumption by providing empirical evidence that information about individual inflected forms and their paradigmatic relations is available in long-term memory (Baayen et al.
1997
; Milin et al.
2009a
,
2009b
). Here, we investigate how whole-word frequency, inflectional paradigm size and morphological family size affect production latencies and articulation durations when subjects are asked to read aloud isolated Estonian case-inflected nouns. In Experiment 1, we observed that words with a larger morphological family elicited shorter speech onset latencies, and that forms with higher whole-word frequency had shorter acoustic durations. Experiment 2, for which we increased statistical power by using 2,800 words, revealed that higher whole-word frequency, inflectional paradigm size, and morphological family size reduced both speech onset times and acoustic durations. These results extend our knowledge of morphological processing in three ways. First, whole-word frequency effects of inflected forms in morphologically rich languages are not restricted to a small number of very high-frequency forms, contrary to previous claims (Niemi et al.
1994
; Hankamer
1989
; Yang
2016
). Second, we replicated the morphological family size effect in a new domain, the acoustic durations of inflected forms. Third, we showed that a novel paradigmatic measure, inflectional paradigm size, predicts word naming latencies and acoustic durations. These results fit well with Word-and-Paradigm morphology (Blevins
2016
) and argue against strictly (de)compositional models of lexical processing.
Abstract
Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a ...variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants’ reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.
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