Lexical Access , Lexical Representation , and Vowel Production

Previous research (Munson and Solomon 2004; Wright 2004) has shown that both phonological neighborhood density and word frequency influence the size of the acoustic F1/F2 vowel space. This study investigated whether these influences reflect the role of real-time lexical access processes on articulation. Specifically, it examined the influence of word frequency and phonological neighborhood density on vowel acoustics in a condition in which lexical access was stressed (the immediate-response condition) and one in which it was facilitated (the long-delay condition). Frequency and neighborhood density had a large influence on vowelspace dispersion in the immediate-response condition. In contrast, the influence of word frequency was not significant in the long-delay condition. Multiple regressions showed that the reduced influence of frequency in the long-delay condition could be accounted for by response-time differences between the two conditions. The reduced effect of frequency in the long-delay condition suggests that its influence on vowel articulation is mediated by the process of lexical access. The influence of neighborhood density on articulation, however, could not be accounted for by differences in real-time speech production processes.

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