Coping with phonological assimilation in speech perception: evidence for early compensation.
The pronunciation of the same word may vary considerably as a consequence of its context. The Dutch word tuin (English, garden) may be pronounced tuim if followed by bank (English, bench), but not if followed by stoel (English, chair). In a series of four experiments, we examined how Dutch listeners cope with this context sensitivity in their native language. A first word identification experiment showed that the perception of a word-final nasal depends on the subsequent context. Viable assimilations, but not unviable assimilations, were often confused perceptually with canonical word forms in a word identification task. Two control experiments ruled out the possibility that this effect was caused by perceptual masking or was influenced by lexical top-down effects. A passive-listening study in which electrophysiological measurements were used showed that only unviable, but not viable, phonological changes elicited a significant mismatch negativity. The results indicate that phonological assimilations are dealt with by an early prelexical mechanism.
Mitterer
Holger
H
Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Blomert
Leo
L
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception