Past Event

The Role of Phonology in Word Recognition

Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble
(Simon Fraser University)

Spoken word recognition is a monumental task; listeners must be able to select the correct word from a large mental lexicon in a matter of milliseconds, and in spite of the massive variation that results from different speakers, dialects, registers, and speaking rates. On top of that, every spoken word a listener hears has been filtered through the language’s phonology, perhaps resulting in neutralized segments or unfaithful forms. This talk explores how listeners recognize words that have undergone phonological processes, and whether those phonological processes are detrimental or beneficial to the word recognition process as a whole. I will discuss the results of three eye-tracking experiments, each of which sought to characterize the interaction between phonological processes and lexical processing. The experiments discussed provide evidence that listeners use what they know about their language’s phonological processes during word recognition. Moreover, they show that different phonological processes can either enhance or suppress word recognition. I will wrap up with a discussion of the benefits of examining theoretical phonology through the lens of real-world language use.

About the Speaker

Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble is an assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University, where she also runs the Phonological Processing Lab. Her research focuses on the interaction between phonology and lexical processing in first and second language acquisition and in monolingual adults.

This event is sponsored by the School of Linguistics and Language Studies