Abstract
In three picture-naming experiments, we examined the effect of prosodic context on the synonyms people use to name pictures in Mandarin Chinese. This was done without time pressure. The results showed that when monosyllabic and bisyllabic synonyms (e.g.,hen/chicken) were embedded in a context of pictures with either bisyllabic or trisyllabic names, participants gave bisyllabic responses to the synonyms more often than they did in a condition without such a context. The difference was very similar in magnitude in both the bisyllabic and trisyllabic contextual conditions. These results suggest that people are biased toward using synonyms that have numbers of syllables equal or similar to those of the prosodic context. If it is assumed that prosodic effects originate at a stage of processing beyond the lemma level, then this suggests either that multiple phonological forms of synonyms can be activated or that there is feedback from prosodic processing that influences lemma selection.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Beijing Language Institute (1986).Xian dai han yu pin lu ci dian [Word frequency dictionary of Modern Chinese]. Beijing: Beijing Language Institute Press.
Caramazza, A. (1997). How many levels of processing are there in lexical access?Cognitive Neuropsychology,14, 177–208.
Caramazza, A., Costa, A., Miozzo, M., &Bi, Y. (2001). The specific-word frequency effect: Implications for the representation of homophones in speech production.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,27, 1430–1450.
Cutting, J. C., &Ferreira, V. S. (1999). Semantic and phonological information flow in the production lexicon.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,25, 318–344.
Dell, G. S., Schwartz, M. F., Martin, N., Saffran, E. M., &Gagnon, D. A. (1997). Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers.Psychological Review,104, 801–838.
Duanmu, S. (1999). Stress and the development of disyllabic words in Chinese.Diachronica,16, 1–35.
Feng, S. (1998). Prosodic structure and compound words in Classical Chinese. In J. L. Packard (Ed.),New approaches to Chinese word formation: Morphology, phonology and the lexicon in modern and ancient Chinese (pp. 197–260). Berlin: Mouton.
Feng, S. (2002).The prosodic syntax of Chinese (Lincom Studies in Asian Linguistics 44). Munich: Lincom Europa.
Feng, S. (2003). Prosodically constrained postverbal PPs in Mandarin Chinese.Journal of Linguistics,41, 1085–1122.
Ferreira, F. (1993). Creation of prosody during sentence production.Psychological Review,100, 233–253.
Hayes, B. (1995).Metrical stress theory: Principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jescheniak, J. D., &Schriefers, H. (1998). Discrete serial versus cascaded processing in lexical access in speech production: Further evidence from the coactivation of near-synonyms.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 1256–1274.
Levelt, W. J. M., Roelofs, A., &Meyer, A. S. (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,22, 1–75.
Meyer, A. S. (1994). Timing in sentence production.Journal of Memory & Language,33, 471–492.
Miller, P. H., Pullum, G. K., &Zwicky, A. M. (1997). The principle of phonology-free syntax: Four apparent counterexamples in French.Journal of Linguistics,33, 67–90.
Packard, J. L. (2000).The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, R. R., &Savoy, P. (1998). Lexical selection and phonological encoding during language production: Evidence for cascaded processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 539–557.
Rapp, D. N., &Samuel, A. G. (2002). A reason to rhyme: Phonological and semantic influences on lexical access.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,28, 564–571.
Roelofs, A., &Meyer, A. S. (1998). Metrical structure in planning the production of spoken words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 922–939.
Taft, M., &Forster, K. I. (1976). Lexical storage and retrieval of polymorphemic and polysyllabic words.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,15, 607–620.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
C.P. was supported by a UDF grant from the University of Hong Kong.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perry, C., Zhuang, J. Prosody and lemma selection. Memory & Cognition 33, 862–870 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193081
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193081