Carter Allyson K, Clopper Cynthia G
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, USA.
Lang Speech. 2002 Dec;45(Pt 4):321-53. doi: 10.1177/00238309020450040201.
It is widely known that English-speaking children reduce words by omitting syllables in certain predictable patterns (e.g., banána --> nána). One way to better understand the nature of phonological reductions in children is to examine adults' word reduction behavior. This study explored whether adults produce predictable output patterns when reducing words. Undergraduate participants heard a list of polysyllabic words varying systematically across syllable number and primary stress location and were asked to generate a "reduced" form, similar to common English reductions (e.g., rhinóceros --> rhino). Regardless of stress and syllable number, participants reduced the stimulus words significantly more often to left-headed disyllabic or monosyllabic feet, retaining stressed syllables and omitting unstressed syllables. The general bias found was similar to that which children exhibit in natural speech, namely, to maintain well-formed prosodic patterns and preserve salient syllables. On the other hand, a tendency to preserve word-initial instead of word-final syllables was also found, suggesting subtle differences in language processing between children and adults. The current study contributes to the psycholinguistic literature on adults' syllable omissions in abbreviations and fast-speech registers by examining the processing strategies that adults may use when reducing words.
众所周知，说英语的儿童会按照某些可预测的模式省略音节来简化单词（例如，banána --> nána）。更好地理解儿童语音简化本质的一种方法是研究成年人的单词简化行为。本研究探讨了成年人在简化单词时是否会产生可预测的输出模式。本科参与者听了一系列多音节单词，这些单词在音节数量和主重音位置上系统变化，并被要求生成一个“简化”形式，类似于常见的英语简化形式（例如，rhinóceros --> rhino）。无论重音和音节数量如何，参与者将刺激词简化为左重双音节或单音节音步的频率显著更高，保留重读音节并省略非重读音节。发现的一般倾向与儿童在自然言语中表现出的倾向相似，即保持韵律模式良好并保留突出音节。另一方面，还发现了保留词首而非词尾音节的倾向，这表明儿童和成年人在语言处理上存在细微差异。本研究通过研究成年人在简化单词时可能使用的处理策略，为心理语言学文献中关于成年人在缩写和快速言语记录中的音节省略做出了贡献。
