Middleton Erica L, Chen Qi, Verkuilen Jay
Research Department, Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute.
Educational Psychology Program and Center for Advanced Study in Education, City University of New York.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2015 Jan;41(1):77-94. doi: 10.1037/a0037778. Epub 2014 Oct 20.
The study of homophones--words with different meanings that sound the same--has great potential to inform models of language production. Of particular relevance is a phenomenon termed frequency inheritance, where a low-frequency word (e.g., deer) is produced more fluently than would be expected based on its frequency characteristics, presumably because of shared phonology with a high-frequency homophone counterpart (e.g., dear). However, prior studies have been inconsistent in showing frequency inheritance. To explain this inconsistency, we propose a dual nature account of homophony: a high-frequency counterpart exerts 2 counterposing effects on a low-frequency homophone target during the 2 main stages of naming: (a) a detrimental impact during semantically driven lexical retrieval; (b) a beneficial impact during phonological retrieval. In a study of naming in participants with chronic aphasia followed by computational investigations, we find strong evidence for the dual nature account of homophony.
对同音异形词（即发音相同但意义不同的词）的研究，在为语言生成模型提供信息方面具有巨大潜力。与这一研究特别相关的是一种被称为频率继承的现象，即一个低频词（如deer，鹿）的产出流畅度高于基于其频率特征所预期的水平，推测这是因为它与高频同音异形对应词（如dear，亲爱的）共享音系。然而，先前的研究在显示频率继承方面并不一致。为了解释这种不一致，我们提出了同音异形词的双重性质理论：在命名的两个主要阶段，高频对应词对低频同音异形目标词产生两种相反的影响：（a）在语义驱动的词汇检索过程中产生不利影响；（b）在语音检索过程中产生有益影响。在一项针对慢性失语症患者命名的研究以及后续的计算研究中，我们发现了支持同音异形词双重性质理论的有力证据。
