The role of predictability and structure in word stress processing: an ERP study on Cairene Arabic and a cross-linguistic comparison.
This article presents neurolinguistic data on word stress perception in Cairene Arabic, in comparison to previous results on German and Turkish. The main goal is to investigate how central properties of stress systems such as predictability of stress and metrical structure are reflected in the prosodic processing of words. Cairene Arabic is a language with a regular foot-based word stress system, leading to highly predictable placement of word stress. An ERP study on Cairene Arabic is reported, in which a stress violation paradigm is used to investigate the factors predictability of stress and foot structure. The results of the experiment show that for Cairene Arabic the internal structure of prosodic words in terms of feet determines prosodic processing. This structure effect is complemented by a frequency effect for stress patterns.
Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Literatur, University of Cologne Cologne, Germany.
Ulrike
U
Domahs
Department of Linguistics, Languages and Cultures, University of Calgary Calgary, AB, Canada.
Johannes A
JA
Knaus
Department of German, Menoufiya University Menoufiya, Egypt.
Heba
H
El Shanawany
Institut für Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft, University of Marburg Marburg, Germany.
Richard
R
Wiese
Cairene Arabic; German; P300 effect; Turkish; metrical structure; predictability; word stress perception