TY  - GEN
ID  - cogprints744
UR  - http://cogprints.org/744/
A1  - Emmanuel, Dupoux
A1  - Kazohiko, Kakehi
A1  - Yuki, Hirose
A1  - Christophe, Pallier
A1  - Jacques, Mehler
TI  - Epenthetic vowels in Japanese: A perceptual illusion?
Y1  - 1998///
N2  - In four cross-linguistic experiments comparing French and Japanese hearers, we found that the phonotactic properties of Japanese (very reduced set of syllable types) induce Japanese listeners to perceive ``illusory'' vowels inside consonant clusters in VCCV stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used a continuum of stimuli ranging from no vowel (e.g. ebzo) to a full vowel between the consonants (e.g. ebuzo). Japanese, but not French participants, reported the presence of a vowel [u] between consonants, even in stimuli with no vowel. A speeded ABX discrimination paradigm was used in Experiments 3 and 4, and revealed that Japanese participants had trouble discriminating between VCCV and VCuCV stimuli. French participants, in contrast had problems discriminating items that differ in vowel length (ebuzo vs. ebuuzo), a distinctive contrast in Japanese but not in French. We conclude that models of speech perception have to be revised to account for phonotactically-based assimilations.
AV  - public
KW  - phonotactic constraints
KW  -  speech perception
KW  -  perceptual assimilation
KW  -  phonology
KW  -  psycholinguistics
KW  -  ABX
KW  -  discrimination
KW  -  epenthesis
KW  -  loan words
ER  -

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