Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Converging, albeit inconsistent, empirical evidence \nsuggests that the morphological structure of a word \ninfluences its pronunciation. We investigated this \nissue using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging in the \ncontext of an experimental cognitive psychology \nparadigm. Scottish speakers were trained on \napparently homophonous monomorphemic and \nbimorphemic novel words (e.g. zord, zorred), and \ntested on speech production tasks. Monomorphemic \nitems were realised acoustically with shorter \ndurations than bimorphemic items; however, this \ndifference was not statistically significant. \nProgressive coarticulatory effects were also \nobserved in the monomorphemic condition for some \nspeakers. A dynamic analysis of the articulatory data \nrevealed that the observed differences in the \npronunciations of the two types of items could be \ndue to factors other than morphological structure. \nOur results, albeit inconclusive, make a significant \ncontribution to the literature in this research domain \ninsofar as the presence or absence of morphological \neffects on pronunciation has important implications \nfor extant theories of speech production.
Institution: Queen Margaret University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1440809516