Looking for exemplar effects: testing the comprehension and memory ry representations of f r' r'duced words in in Dutch le learners of f French LISA MORANO, LOUIS TEN BOSCH, MIRJAM ERNESTUS (2019) 1 LILAS MAUBORGNE EXEMPLAR THEORY IN LANGUAGE AND SPEECH SCIENCE 01.07.2020
Table of contents Introduction 1. Method 2. Results 3. General Discussion 4. Conclusion 5. 2
Introduction Most experiments investigating exemplars Native listeners (L1) Almost never second language learners (L2) Reason for an investigation on exemplars in L2: If exemplars important in speech comprehension → findings for L1 listeners should be the same for L2 listeners Provide information about which acoustic details are stored in exemplars Are exemplars true representation of the acoustic signal? Are they affected by the listener’s knowledge? 3
Introduction L1 phonological filter: L2 learners perform well in a phoneme categorization task but not always in lexical decision tasks L2 listeners can perform simple low-level tasks in phonetic mode As soon as linguistic processing is needed their L1 phonological filter keeps them from processing the stimuli like L1 listeners Exemplars formed before phonological filter applies: L2 exemplars can encode L1 irrelevant variation Exemplars formed after phonological filter applies: L2 exemplars encode less L1 irrelevant variation 4
Introduction Existing exemplar research in L2 provides evidence that L2 listeners can store exemplars Main questions: Are e L2 L2 intermediate lea earners ab able le to to en encode, in n the form orm of of exempla lars, fin fine lin inguis istic de details s that ar are e no not t rele elevant to to their L1 L1 an and to to use use them for or spe speech com omprehension? Can Can exemplar effects s in L2 L2 listeners al also so be be fou ound whe hen manipulating reg egular pho phonetic vari ariation ins nstead of of indexical vari ariation? 5
Introduction Red eduction = the weakening or deletion of phonemes or even whole syllables Occurs in informal speech Most other experiments: replaced one allophone with another allophone Listeners could have stored several abstract representations rather than different exemplars Categorial variation: more difficult to attest for the role of exemplars Reduction: can’t be stored abstractly May result in an infinite number of realization All activate same abstract pronunciation variant of the word 6
Introduction Red eduction = the weakening or deletion of phonemes or even whole syllables Here: Reduction phenomenon of phrase-medial high vowel devoicing in French “la cité ” ( the city ) /i/: more or less devoiced → voicing fails to be re-established in time after devoiced consonant /s/ Phrase-medial high vowel devoicing has never been reported in Dutch Part of sound pattern of French but not of Dutch 7
Method Lexical decision task in French for Dutch intermediate French learners Experimental words: High vowel + voiceless consonant Pronunciation match: prime and target both reduced or not reduced Pronunciation mismatch: prime is reduced, target is not or vice-versa Expectations: Faster reaction to a target when it matches with prime L2 participants show exemplar effect Are able to store phonetic information that doesn’t happen in L1 8
Method: Participants 120 Dutch students Studied French in high school (4 to 7 years) 18-29 years old One of the 3 conditions randomly assigned 9
Method: Materials Ex Experim imental l wor ords ds: 24 most frequent from vocabulary of beginners’ textbook in French for Dutch learners Bisyllabic 1 st syllable: High vowel: /i/, /y/, /u/ followed by voiceless consonant “la cité ” ( the city ) “le f u ture” ( the future ) “la pou oubelle ” ( the garbage ) Frequency of occurrence: 0.71 per million words to 107.92 10
Method: Materials Ex Exis istin ing-word fi fill llers 78 bisyllabic frequent words form the Stimuli same textbook No restriction Pseu eudo-word fille fillers Experimental Existing-word Pseudo-word words fillers fillers 102 created Phonotactically legal syllable added to 1 st syllable of all experimental and existing- word fillers Voiced Devoiced 11
Method: Materials Devoiced Voiced Stimuli recorded with their definite determiners by first author of the paper Devoiced stimuli: word’s 1 st syllable = completely devoiced high syllable Voiced stimuli: word’s 1 st syllable = fully voiced high syllable /i/ /i/ Waveforms and spectrograms of target “le silence” ( the silence ) 12
Method: Materials Two Tokens for each voicing type: Stimuli Voiced and devoiced token A: On average 805 ms long Voiced and devoiced token B: Experimental Existing-word Pseudo-word On average 811 ms long words fillers fillers Voiced Devoiced A B A B 13
Method: Materials Lexical decision task: Two blocks of 132 trials Block x2 One block = 12 experimental words Experimental words repeated Experimental Real-word fillers Pseudo-word words x12 x36 fillers x48 Variant match = both prime and target have (de)voiced vowels Variant mismatch = prime is devoiced and target is voiced or vice-versa Match Mismatch Prime-targets separated by 7-97 trials Remainder of the trials: Prime = voiced Prime = devoiced Prime = voiced Prime = devoiced 36 bisyllabic real-word fillers Target = voiced Target = devoiced Target = devoiced Target = voiced 48 bisyllabic pseudo-word fillers 14
Method: Materials Lexical decision task: Practice trials: 6 real-word fillers 6 pseudo-word fillers Same for all participants Similar in frequency of occurrence and phonological structure to stimuli of experiment 5 pseudo-randomization of trials Four different stimulus lists in each Each experimental word tested for each of four possible matching and mismatching combinations 15
Method: Materials Con Condit ition AB: B: Co Condit itions AA an and BB BB: AA: only tokens A Different tokens for the primes and the targets BB: only tokens B Match: prime A and target B are different Match: same token and same duration recordings Primes and targets: Same pronunciation variant Different durations Average absolute temporal differences 16 between primes and targets per condition
Method: Materials Stimuli Experimental Existing-word Pseudo-word words fillers fillers AB AA BB Voiced Devoiced A B A B 17
Method: Procedure Participants: Listened to the words Push a yes or no button Say as fast as possible whether the words were real in French or not Participants did not need to know the meaning of the words Experiment lasted less than 30 minutes “la cité ” 18
Results Accuracies: Linear mixed effects model for logistic regression Dependent variable = probability of a correct response Reaction times = RTs Measured from noun onset Mixed effects regression models Before analysis: all RTs and stimulus log-transformed Dependent variable for linear mixed effect model = log-transformed RT Crossed random effect factors = item and participant 19
Results Predictors of interest: Voic oicin ing: categorical predictor indicating whether the first vowel of the stimulus was voiced or devoiced Con Condit ition: AB, AA or BB Tok oken: A or B Repetitio ion match: whether the prime and target of the experimental word were of the same pronunciation variant 20
Results Control predictors: Log Log Sti Stimulus du duration Tria ial nu number: position of the trial in the experiment Control for learning or fatigue effects Prim rime/target Di Distance (in number of intervening trial) Log Log RT to to the pr previous tria ial Control local speed effects Log Log RT on on the pr prim ime 21
Results: Accuracy data Participant’s accuracy: relatively high Overall: 83.92% Pseudo-word fillers: 85.52% Real-word fillers: 75.70% Lower accuracy on experimental words Experimental words less frequent than real-word fillers 22
Results: Accuracy data Fir irst occ occurrences: Sensitivity to devoicing manipulation on primes only: Participants more accurate on the voiced than the devoiced tokens A Simple effect of Voicing → Participants sensitive to devoicing for tokens A No statistical difference for tokens B Significant interaction between Voicing and Token → Participants not sensible to devoicing for tokens B Significant random slope of Voicing on Item Voicing significantly larger for some items than others 23
Results: Accuracy data Second occ occurrences: Participants sensitive to devoicing manipulation (for tokens A) Investigate whether they were more accurate on matching than on mismatching targets For targets with correctly answered primes: No effect of Repetition match on accuracy Not as main effect Not in interaction with Condition or Token 24
Recommend
More recommend
