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Processing Swedish Word Accents - evidence from response and reaction times

Söderström, Pelle LU (2012) SPVR01 20112
General Linguistics
Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
Abstract
The effects of Central Swedish word accents on morphological and semantic processing were investigated. It was found that Accent 2-inducing suffixes preceded by an Accent 1 tone were more difficult to process compared to Accent 1-inducing suffixes preceded by Accent 2. This effect was relatively task-independent, i.e. found both when participants judged the tense or number of the word and when they simply listened to the word and pushed a button at word offset. The effect was absent when de-lexicalised stimuli that lacked lexical information were presented. This suggests that there is a stronger association in the mental lexicon between suffixes and Accent 2 compared to Accent 1. Also, correct Accent 2 words took longer to process compared... (More)
The effects of Central Swedish word accents on morphological and semantic processing were investigated. It was found that Accent 2-inducing suffixes preceded by an Accent 1 tone were more difficult to process compared to Accent 1-inducing suffixes preceded by Accent 2. This effect was relatively task-independent, i.e. found both when participants judged the tense or number of the word and when they simply listened to the word and pushed a button at word offset. The effect was absent when de-lexicalised stimuli that lacked lexical information were presented. This suggests that there is a stronger association in the mental lexicon between suffixes and Accent 2 compared to Accent 1. Also, correct Accent 2 words took longer to process compared to correct Accent 1 words. It was suggested that this is due to the extra lexical information that is activated upon hearing the Accent 2 tone. When e.g. a suffix is heard, the competing lexical candidates need to be de-activated. In addition, correlation analyses showed that shorter auditory stimuli elicit longer response and reaction times. This will have important implications for improving future response/reaction time experiments. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Söderström, Pelle LU
supervisor
organization
course
SPVR01 20112
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
word accents, swedish, accent 2, language processing, speech processing
language
English
id
2438486
date added to LUP
2012-04-13 11:35:15
date last changed
2012-04-13 11:35:15
@misc{2438486,
  abstract     = {{The effects of Central Swedish word accents on morphological and semantic processing were investigated. It was found that Accent 2-inducing suffixes preceded by an Accent 1 tone were more difficult to process compared to Accent 1-inducing suffixes preceded by Accent 2. This effect was relatively task-independent, i.e. found both when participants judged the tense or number of the word and when they simply listened to the word and pushed a button at word offset. The effect was absent when de-lexicalised stimuli that lacked lexical information were presented. This suggests that there is a stronger association in the mental lexicon between suffixes and Accent 2 compared to Accent 1. Also, correct Accent 2 words took longer to process compared to correct Accent 1 words. It was suggested that this is due to the extra lexical information that is activated upon hearing the Accent 2 tone. When e.g. a suffix is heard, the competing lexical candidates need to be de-activated. In addition, correlation analyses showed that shorter auditory stimuli elicit longer response and reaction times. This will have important implications for improving future response/reaction time experiments.}},
  author       = {{Söderström, Pelle}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Processing Swedish Word Accents - evidence from response and reaction times}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}