Title English Bisyllable Word Recognition Process of JapaneseListeners

Author(s) Nakamura, Jinsei; Fewell, Norman

Citation 沖縄大学紀要 = OKINAWA DAIGAKU KIYO(15): 161-180

Issue Date 1998-03-01

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/5845

Rights 沖縄大学教養部

(1998^)

English Bisyllable Word Recognition Process

of Japanese Listeners

Jinsei Nakamura

Norman Fewell

This paper deals with the recognition of English bisyllable words by

Japanese listeners at the low intermediate level of English. Our hypothesis

is that English bisyllable words beginning with a strong stress are much

easier to recognize than those beginning with a weak stress for these

Japanese listeners of English. This assumption is based upon an analysis

of statistical studies of English vocabulary and experiments performed by

the authors of this paper and other researchers.

Our experiment supported the hypotheses. In addition, it was discovered

in the experiment that a relative frequency of occurrence of the words

affected identification of the words beginning with a weak syllable. These

observed variations may have been the result of a recognition processing

need to obtain alternative cues of information in situations that lacked a

suitable amount of information cues necessary for word identification.

English bisyllable words beginning with a strong stress may require less

information for identification, whereas English bisyllable words beginning

with a weak stress may require alternative cues of information for

identification, i.e. word frequency.

1. Introduction

Before discussing the results of our experiment, we will review the

structure of a syllable and the effects of a strong stress in English words

which might influence the recognition of bisyllable vocabulary items in the

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language. Furthermore, phonological expectation and a relative frequency

of occurrence of English bisyllable words will also be discussed.

1.1. Syllable Structure of English

According to one perspective on word recognition, a listener's utilization

of syllables would be an effective means to rely on. Stored representations

in syllabic form would allow one to construct a prelexical representation

of the signal as a sequence of specific syllables, and lexical access could be

accessed from input beginning with each syllable. This process would be

effective since a comparatively low proportion of wasted access attempts

would result. (Cutler, Anne and Norris, Dennis, p. 113)

In addition, there is conclusive evidence indicating that human listeners

divide speech input into syllables. Experimentation conducted by Mehler

and others (1981) on word recognition revealed that detection of syllable-

sized targets were significantly faster in the instance the target matched

the actual syllabification of the speech input, (p. 113)

Several other researchers stress the importance for a detailed knowledge

of the syllable's internal structure since syllable structure may provide a

critical function in several domains; one of which is speech perception.

Some have suggested that spoken words are segmented into syllables and

that these syllable units are utilized in lexical access (e.g., Mehler,

Dommergues, Frauenfelder, & Segui, 1981; Segui, 1984). (Treiman,

Rebecca, p. 490)

In order to more clearly understand the function that a syllable may

have in the listener's word recognition process, we shall more precisely

examine and identify phonemes within an English syllable exhibiting

related yet distinct qualities. In the examination of the organization of

phonemes within an English syllable, one may categorize these phonemes at

one level into three distinct groups-an onset, a peak (also called a

nucleus), and a coda. The peak is given its name because it is the peak

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of sonority within the syllable. The onset is referred to the consonant or

consonants that precede(s) the peak and the coda is referred to the

consonant or consonants that follow(s) it. An example may include the

following: the onset of state is/st/, the peak is/e/, and the coda is/t/. (p.

221)

Although the vast majority of theories tend to agree that the peak

contains the vowel or syllabic consonant of a syllable, there is some

disagreement between scholars on whether other consonants can belong to

the peak. Clemants and Keyser(1983) define a peak with the potential of

consisting of a long vowel alone, or a short vowel, and any following

consonant.

In the French language, the syllable structure is relatively regular, and

the speakers'intuitions about syllable boundaries are clear. In the English

language, in comparison, a stress language, there is an enormous range of

syllable structures (the words a and scrounged, for example, are both

monosyllables), a large difference in perceptibility between stressed and

unstressed syllables, and speakers are often unclear about where to place

boundaries between syllables. These various factors combine to make the

syllable per se an unsatisfactory segmentation unit for the English

language. (Cutler, Anne and Dennis, Norris, p. 113)

The syllabification of the English language is relatively ambiguous in

comparison to that of several other languages, (p. 119)

1.2. Lexical Access from a Stressed Syllable

Since English is a stress language, the most obvious structural

characteristic is that it has two extremely different categories of a

syllable: strong and weak. Strong syllables include full vowels; such as,

the words 6^0, pill, crypt, and scrounge which are all strong monosyllables.

Weak syllables consist of "reduced" vowels. In most cases this is the

vowel schwa, as in the second syllable of ion; but it may also refer to a

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very short form of another vowel, as in the second syllable of pillow or

cryptic (p. 114 )

Cutler and Dennis present a model of speech segmentation in their

attempt to gain further understanding of the influence of speech

segmentation in a stress language. Their model suggests that a strong

syllable stimulates segmentation of the speech signal, as opposed to the

occurrence of a weak syllable which does not stimulate segmentation, (p.

113)

According to this proposed model, these results are due to the effect of

segmentation. In the instance a second syllable is strong, it is segmented

from the first syllable, and detection of the embedded word therefore

relies on the assembly of speech material across a segmentation position.

Segmentation at strong syllables in continuous speech recognition assists

detection of the most efficient locations to initiate lexical access, (p. 113)

In the instance a division has been made in the speech signal, detection

of a word that occurs partly on either side of this division may be

rendered difficult by the necessity of reassembling speech material that

has been divided. However, the primary motivation for postulating

divisions in a continuous speech signal is the search for suitable points to

initiate lexical access, (p. 120)

In the experiment conducted by Cutler and Dennis, listeners were

presented with mint embedded either in mintayve or mintesh In the word

mintayve, the second syllable, tayve, is strong.

According to the strong syllable segmentation hypothesis, the string will

be segmented and a lexical access retrieval would be initiated at tayva

Detection of the word mint, which belongs partly to both syllables, would

be affected by this inappropriate intersyllabic segmentation because

detection should require assembly of material across a point at which the

signal has been segmented. However, in the event the second syllable is

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weak (as in mmtesh), the hypothesis predicts no segmentation and hence

no interference. In short, mint should be detected faster in mmtesh than

in mintayva (p. 114)

The data from the experiment of Cutler and Dennis supports their

assumption that speech recognition involves a process of segmentation

that is stimulated by the occurrence of a strong syllable. This form of

segmentation is motivated by the need to find the most efficient starting

points for lexical access retrieval, (p. 120)

1.3. Relative Frequency of Occurrence and Expectancy

1.3.1. Phonological Patterns

The processing of the phonological structure of a word must take place

before lexical access can occur. During this early stage, facilitation could

occur and promote faster responses even if those responses may be delayed

until lexical access has already taken place, (p. 481)

It has been suggested that some phonological patterns may be easier to

process than others. Alternating sequences of vowels and consonants may

be easier to recognize according to research that has revealed that vowels

are more easily identified if they are bounded by consonants (Strange,

Verbrugge, Shankweiler & Edman, 1976), and consonants are more easily

identified if they are bounded by vowels (Liberman, Delattre, Cooper &

Gerstman, 1954). Therefore, words beginning with a pattern of CVCV-,

such as talon, would be more easily identified than words beginning with

a pattern of CVCC-, such as talcum, (Cutler A.,Norris D., and Willliams,

J.N., p. 481)

Observation of monolingual English listeners revealed a response time

advantage for CVCV- patterns over CVCC- patterns even when the stimuli

were French words, or nonsense words, (p. 55)

In another experiment, it was revealed that listeners that anticipated

clusters detected phonemes faster in clusters, as listeners that expected CV

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patterns detected phonemes faster in CV sequences, (p. 418)

In syllable detection experiments, listeners that form expectations on the

phonological structure of the stimuli should more easily find stimuli which

conform to those expectations than stimuli which do not. Therefore, one

perspective of the Cutler, Mehler, Norris, and Segui proposal would view

words beginning with a CVCV- pattern as easier to detect than words

beginning with a CVCC- pattern because words beginning with a CVCV-

pattern are what the listener is expecting to hear. (p. 481)

Cutler, Mehler, Norris, and Segui found that subjects tended to think of

CVCV- word patterns rather than CVCC- word patterns when they were

presented with syllable targets, (p. 486) The higher level of expectation

of CVCV- word patterns may be due to the higher probability of frequency

of occurrence. There are more words in the English language with a

CVCV- word pattern than a CVCC- word pattern. A researcher at the

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory examined a computerized

dictionary of 38,400 English words. The results of this examination

concluded that there were 11,026 polysyllables beginning with a CVCV-

word pattern, compared to 8,330 polysyllables beginning with a CVCC-

word pattern. Further examination revealed that there was a higher

frequency of occurrence for words with a CVCV- word pattern, (p. 486)

The phonological expectations which the subjects construct on the basis

of their experience with the language result in increased perceptibility, (p.

487)

Listeners utilized their knowledge of the language to construct

expectations about the phonological structure of the stimuli in target

detection experiments. These expectations must be considered in evaluation

of the prediction and explanation of experimental effects, (p. 487)

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1.3.2. Syllables Beginning with a Strong Stress

Statistical studies of vocabulary in the English language have revealed

that the number of lexical words (i.e., content words, excluding functors)

beginning with strong syllables is approximately three times the number as

those beginning with weak syllables. In addition, lexical words beginning

with strong syllables occur twice as frequent as those beginning with weak

syllables (Cutler & Carter). Therefore, on average, we hear six times as

many lexical items beginning with strong syllables than weak syllables.

This may imply that a listener starting with strong syllables would have

a high rate of accuracy in the recognition of word beginnings, (p. 114)

1.3.3. Number of Bisyliable Words in New Horizon I & II

An examination of the standard English textbooks (New Horizon I & II)

used in Japanese high schools provided vital information on specific words

that our subjects, sophomore college students enrolled in the Junior College

Division of the University of Okinawa, have been exposed to. Out of the

total number of 2,101 words, 704 English bisyliable words are included in

the textbook. An analysis of the vocabulary in the textbook revealed that

bisyliable words beginning with strong stress syllables consisted of 516

words (73.30%), including function words. This implies that our subjects

have learned approximately three times as many bisyllable words beginning

with a strong stress syllable as those beginning with a weak syllable.

Table 1 Number and Rate of Bisyllable Words in the Total of 2,101 Words

Total Number of Words

2,101

# of Bisyllable Words

704

%

33.5

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(1998*)

Table 2 Number and Rate of Bisyllable Words by the Stress

Bisyllable Words

Beginning with Strong Stress

Beginning with Weak Stress

Total Number and Percentage

Number

516

188

704

%

73.30

26.70

100.00

1.4. Detectability

We shall attempt to add insight into the array of possible influential

factors that affect the identification of words through the examination of

research data and analysis collected from experiments on the detectability

of mispronunciation of stressed and unstressed syllables along with first

and second syllable variables.

The results of an experiment conducted by R.A. Cole and J. Jakimik

indicate two main points. First, mispronunciation is detected more often

in stressed than in unstressed syllables. Secondly, mispronunciation present

in the second syllable of a word is detected faster than mispronunciation

in the first syllable of a word. (Cole and Jakimik, p. 967)

In cases of either stressed or unstressed syllables, detection of

mispronunciation was faster in the second syllable of a word. This

occurrence supports the hypothesis that word candidates are accessed from

the sounds which begin a word. According to this perspective, the increased

reaction time for mispronounced second syllables occurred because the

intended word has been accessed as one of a set of word candidates from

information revealed from its (correct) first syllable. In this situation,

mispronunciation is detected as a phonetic mismatch between an expected

second syllable and its mispronunciation, (p. 968)

Accordingly, a mispronounced first syllable provides misleading

information because the listener will access word candidates beginning with

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the mispronounced syllable. Moreover, the second syllable will not confirm

any of the word candidates suggested by the mispronounced first syllable.

The subject will therefore initiate a detection response when the second

syllable fails to confirm any of the word candidates inferred by the first

syllable, (p. 968)

Considerable research has yielded evidence that suggests that acoustic

features are more prominent in stressed syllables (Umeda, 1977), and that

listeners detect target phonemes faster in stressed syllables than in

unstressed syllables (Shields, McHugh, and Martin, 1974; Cutler and Foss,

1977), and in syllables in which emphatic stress is predicted by the

prosodic structure of a sentence, (p. 965)

Mispronunciation is more often detected in stressed syllables, rather

than unstressed syllables. The process of detection of a mispronunciation

requires the listener to make a decision about the phonetic structure of a

syllable. As mentioned earlier, acoutic features are more prominent in

stressed syllables than in unstressed syllables. (Lisker and Abramson,

1967; Umeda, 1977; Klatt, 1975). (p. 968)

2. Experiment

The subjects were tested in an experiment that attempted to measure

their aural recognition of a selected group of words that consisted of two

sets of bisyllable words in context, each of which included 20 words, thus

totaling 40. One set consisted of a group of 20 words beginning with a

strong stress in the first syllable, and the another set consisted of a group

of 20 words beginning with a weak stress in the first syllable. The

reading speed of the sentences used in the experiment was at a speed of

197 words per minute. In addition, sentence content had a normal level of

semantic constraints.

Of interest was whether bisyllable words beginning with a strong stress

would be easier to recognize than those with a weak stress.

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2.1. Method

2.1.1. Stimuli

The two sets of bisyllable vocabulary items in Table 3 and Table 2 were

selected from a word list in Japanese high school textbooks, New Horizon

I and II. Compound words were excluded in this experiment.

Word frequency of each of the bisyllable words used in the experiment

is included in Tables 3 and 4. The source of information cited for word

frequency included the Computational Analysis of Present-Day American

English (Kucera and Francis, 1967), and the Konpyuta No Mita Gendai

Eigo (Takefuta, Yukio, 1981). Both of these statistical word frequency

lists are considered authoritative guides in their respective fields. Word

frequency of all the words tested in the experiment was cited and analyzed

from both sources. All of the bisyllable words used in the experiment had

a relatively high frequency rating in both statistical word frequency lists.

The bisyllable words used in the experiment had a high correlation in both

statistical word frequency lists at 0.92 for the group of words in Table 3

and 0.88 for those in Table 4.

The tape of the aural recognition test was recorded by an native speaker

of American English. A professional microphone and tape recorder were

used for recording.

2.1.2. Procedure

Listening tests for the bisyllable vocabulary items in Tables 3 and 4

were administered to the subjects who were instructed to fill in the blanks

of a sentence with the correct words as they listened. The average number

of words was 6.70 for each sentence with normal semantic constraints in

Test 1 for which the words in Table 3 were utilized. The average number

of words utilized for Test 2 was 5.85 for each sentence with normal

semantic constraint.

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2.1.3. Subjects

Seventeen sophomores from the Department of English, Junior College

Division, University of Okinawa, served as subjects in the experiment.

Among the total of 17 subjects that participated in the experiment,

individual English level proficiency was determined by their score on a test

given by Nihon Eigo Kentei Kyokai. Nine of the subjects held the third

grade level certification of English proficiency, five of the subjects held

the pre-second grade level certification of English proficiency, and three of

the subjects held the fourth grade level certification of the Standard Test

of English Proficiency (STEP).

3. Results

As shown in Table 3, an average of 10.54 subjects or 62.05% out of 17

subjects were able to recognize each vocabulary item in the table, whereas

an average of 8.99 subjects or 52.94% of the same number of subjects

were able to recognize each vocabulary item in Table 4. The difference is

9.11% between the two figures.

Afterwards a post-listening written examination was conducted on the

words marked with boldface in Tables 3 and 4. These words were

recognized only by a limited number of the subjects, 8.50 in average (less

than 50% of the 17 subjects); however, it was discovered that the word,

mention, in Table 3 was recognized by only 3 subjects or 18.75% of the 16

subjects who took the written examination, whereas only 3 other subjects

recognized the words, amount and promote, 4 or 25.00% of them

recognized the word, ignored, and 7 or 43.75% recognized the words,

suggests and announced in Table 4. In short, those words were unfamiliar

to a large number of the subjects. Therefore, those six vocabulary items

marked in both boldface and italics in Tables 3 and 4, were finally deleted

from the two tables since one will be less likely to recognize a word that

he or she is unfamiliar with.

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The words, daily, damage, and dentist in Table 3, on the other hand,

were recognized by relatively a large number of the subjects: 9 subjects

for daily, 12 for damage, and 14 for dentist Therefore, these words

would remain on the list. However, the words, butter and modern, were

recognized by a very small number of the subjects as shown in the table.

This is probably because the subjects have been exposed to the Japanese

pronunciation of English loan words which is different. The two

vocabulary items were also left in the table. On the other hand, 16

subjects recognized produced, 13 recognized agreed, and 10 recognized

connects in Table 4. Those words were left in the table, too.

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(1998*)

Table 3 Test Results of English Bisyllable Words Beginning with a Strong

Stress & the Relative Frequency of Occurrence for Individual Items

No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Words Tested

blankets

broken

butter

daily

damage

dentist's

goodness

village

visit

joyful

market

mention

middle

modern

narrow

nature

nothing

language

later

lucky

*JE-B

1

7

2

13

3

0

0

26

24

0

7

5

18

15

15

19

59

26

59

10

15.45

* * Entry Number

11-06-009

63-12-052

27-06-012

122-13-059

33-10-022

12-04-066

16-08-010

72-13-045

109-15-078

40-12-032

155-12-057

50-12-045

118-14-082

198-15-116

63-12-049

191-15-125

412-15-219

109-13-068

397-15-234

21-09-019

Recognition

Accuracy(%)

88.23

100.00

11.76

35.29

23.52

35.29

70.58

64.70

76.47

88.23

100.00

23.52

64.70

5.88

52.94

64.70

70.58

88.23

76.47

100.00

62.05

*See page 8 (Yukio, Takefuta,

* * The entry number categorizes

and Francis, 1967)

1981)

word frequency. (See page 3, Kucera

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(1998^)

Table 4 Test Results of English Bisyllable Words Beginning with a Strong

Stress & the Relative Frequency of Occurrence for Individual Items

No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Words Tested

abroad

idea

produced

today

again

agreed

advice

forget

suggests

although

along

alike

police

amount

promote

announced

enough

hello

connects

ignored

JE-B

2

35

7

40

84

10

9

16

2

22

32

2

10

10

0

1

61

18

0

0

18.05

Entry Number

51-10-031

195-15-127

90-12-066

284-14-161

578-15-287

81-13-056

51-14-040

54-14-042

29-06-027

319-15-194

355-15-222

20-10-020

155-12-056

172-15-099

32-08-023

88-15-068

430-15-256

10-08-010

33-13-032

29-13-028

Recognition

Accuracy(%)

52.94

94.11

35.29

100.00

100.00

47.05

76.47

100.00

17.64

29.41

58.82

52.94

94.11

11.76

0.00

11.76

58.82

100.00

5.88

11.76

52.94

In comparison of the two revised tables, the average number of subjects

correctly identifying the bisyllable words in Table 5 revised from Table 3

was 10.89 subjects in average or 64.08% out of 17, whereas that for Table

6 revised from Table 4 was 11.40 subjects in average or 67.06%. The

difference is only 0.51 subjects in average or 2.98% between the two

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figures.

Table 5 Revised List of the English Bisyllable Words Beginning with a

Strong Stress

No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Words Tested

blankets

broken

butter

daily-

damage

dentist's

goodness

village

visit

joyful

market

middle

modern

narrow

nature

nothing

language

later

lucky

*JE-B

1

7

2

13

3

0

0

26

24

0

7

18

15

15

19

59

26

59

10

16.00

* * Entry Number

11-06-009

63-12-052

27-06-012

122-13-059

33-10-022

12-04-066

16-08-010

72-13-045

109-15-078

40-12-032

155-12-057

118-14-082

198-15-116

63-12-049

191-15-125

412-15-219

109-13-068

397-15-234

21-09-019

Recognition

Accuracy(%)

88.23

100.00

11.76

35.29

23.52

35.29

70.58

64.70

76.47

88.23

100.00

64.70

5.88

52.94

64.70

70.58

88.23

76.47

100.00

64.08

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(1998*0

Table 6 Revised List of English Bisyllable Words Beginning with a Strong

2nd Syllable

No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

16

17

18

19

Words Tested

abroad

idea

produced

today

again

agreed

advice

forget

suggests

although

along

alike

police

announced

enough

hello

connects

JE-B

2

35

7

40

84

10

9

16

2

22

32

2

10

1

61

18

0

20.64

Entry Number

51-10-031

195-15-127

90-12-066

284-14-161

578-15-287

81-13-056

51-14-040

54-14-042

29-06-027

319-15-194

355-15-222

20-10-020

155-12-056

88-15-068

430-15-256

10-08-010

33-13-032

Recognition

Accuracy(%)

52.94

94.11

35.29

100.00

100.00

47.05

76.47

100.00

17.64

29.41

58.82

52.94

94.11

11.76

58.82

100.00

5.88

60.90

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The same tendency was observed between the results of the other two

sets of bisyliable vocabulary items (0.20 points for vocabulary items

beginning with a strong stress and 0.46 points for those beginning with a

weak stress). This particular test was conducted for another experiment,

however.

4. Discussion

Our assumption was that bisyllable words beginning with a strong stress

should be easier for the low-intermediate Japanese listeners to understand

than those beginning with a weak stress.

As shown in Tables 5 and 6, however, no significant difference was

observed between the results of the tests for both types of bisyllable

vocabulary item.

Accordingly, we have been tempted to believe that our assumption was

not supported by the present experiment.

Nevertheless, it was discovered that there was only a slight correlation

between the relative frequency of occurrence of the vocabulary items and

the recognition rate for the two sets of vocabulary items in Table 3,

whereas a moderate correlation of the relative frequency of occurrence of

the vocabulary items and the recognition rate for the two sets of

vocabulary items in Table 4 was observed.

The coefficient of correlation was approximately 0.20 for Table 3 and

0.57 for Table 4. This tendency was also observed in the results of other

tests, in the coefficient of correlation of Table 5 at 0.20 and that of Table

6 at 0.46.

Incidentally, the average relative frequency of occurrence of the

vocabulary items was 15 for Table 3 and 18 for Table 4. That of the

vocabulary items for the results of other tests was 13 and 14 respectively.

As far as the relative frequency of occurrence was concerned, there was no

significant difference between the types of bisyllable words utilized in the

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experiment, the first syllable beginning with a strong stress and the first

syllable beginning with a weak stress in Tables 3 and 4.

We will try to analyze below the difference in the coefficient of

correlation revealed in the experiment.

Researchers have argued that the aural retrieval of words is considerably

more effective in the initial portion of the word including a syllable as

opposed to the final portion of the word. The advantage of word retrieval

in lexical items exist due to factors such as: (1) in the initial portion of

a word, more relevant information exists, (2) there is a smaller selection

of compatible words in the initial fragment in comparison to the final

fragment, (3) the word-initial consonants are substantially longer than the

consonants in the word-medial and word-final positions of equivalent

proportion, (4) assimilation and coarticulation rules have a greater effect

on the final phonemes than the word initial phonemes, and (5) the

activation level of the initial fragment is higher than that of the final

fragment. (Nakamura, Jinsei, p. 22)

However, the advantage of word retrieval discussed above would be lost

without a clear perception of the first syllable which the strong stress

affects. In other word, the strong stress placed on the first syllable in the

bisyllable vocabulary item would increase perceptibility of the first

syllable with which the factors listed above would function in its fullness,

stimulating faster and easier retrieval of bisyllable vocabulary items

questioned. In this case, less information would be necessary and a relative

frequency of occurrence might not be employed in the identification of the

word.

On the other hand, the first syllable beginning with a weak stress in the

bisyllable vocabulary items is less perceptible and the subjects might try

to rely on the second syllable beginning with a strong stress in the

bisyllable vocabulary items for the recognition of the word. In this case,

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however, we assume that the subjects might have relied on some other

cues such as a relative frequency of occurrence of each vocabulary item

which might have been effective as one of implements for the retrieval of

the bisyllable vocabulary items under such relatively difficult conditions.

In conclusion, the relative frequency of occurrence of the words affected

the identification of the words beginning with a weak syllable. Vocabulary

items displaying this characteristic may have required more information in

the identification of the words, such as a relative frequency of occurrence

of the words, which has been argued to be less effective in the recognition

of words in context, as opposed to those in isolation.

It seems that such deference existing in the two types of bisyllable

vocabulary items might affect the coefficient of correlation.

As a consequence, our assumption was supported by the present

experiment. In addition, it was fruitful to have been able to make a

hypothetical assumption in the process of identification of the two types

of bisyllable vocabulary items. More studies are needed to verify our

tentative assumption.

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