Progressive Use of Metrical Cues: A Cross-linguistic Study

Sandrien van Ommen, René Kager

2012

Abstract

Within the framework of a larger project on metrical segmentation this study presents the first results of a cross-linguistic experiment with Dutch (penultimate word stress) and Turkish (word final stress) listeners. Previous studies have shown that listeners interpret stressed or strong (non-reduced) syllables as potential beginnings of words in a.o. English [4], and Dutch [13], [22]. This is interpreted as evidence for the Metrical Segmentation Hypothesis, which predicts that listeners have and use a parsing ability based on edgealigned stress. However, evidence for a facilitatory effect of right-edge aligned stress is sparse (but see [6]). The current non-word spotting experiment was designed to find out whether listeners can anticipate a word boundary using language-specific stress patterns. The results show that this is partly the case: Dutch listeners are quicker to spot the ‘word’ when it is preceded by their native penultimate pattern; Turkish listeners are aided by their native final stress pattern as well as by penultimate stress. Turkish listeners, furthermore, make regressive use of metrical cues.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

van Ommen S. and Kager R. (2012). Progressive Use of Metrical Cues: A Cross-linguistic Study . In Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science - Volume 1: NLPCS, (ICEIS 2012) ISBN 978-989-8565-16-7, pages 74-84. DOI: 10.5220/0004097400740084


in Bibtex Style

@conference{nlpcs12,
author={Sandrien van Ommen and René Kager},
title={Progressive Use of Metrical Cues: A Cross-linguistic Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science - Volume 1: NLPCS, (ICEIS 2012)},
year={2012},
pages={74-84},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004097400740084},
isbn={978-989-8565-16-7},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science - Volume 1: NLPCS, (ICEIS 2012)
TI - Progressive Use of Metrical Cues: A Cross-linguistic Study
SN - 978-989-8565-16-7
AU - van Ommen S.
AU - Kager R.
PY - 2012
SP - 74
EP - 84
DO - 10.5220/0004097400740084