Lecture: Isabelle Darcy

Please join us for the Speech Research Lab's first summer lab meeting.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Psychology 128
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.

"Category formation and lexical encoding of a new contrast" will be presented by Professor Isabelle Darcy, Department of Second Language Studies, Indiana University.

With: Laurent Dekydtspotter, Rex A. Sprouse (Dept. of Second Language Studies); Christiane Kaden, John H. G. Scott (Dept. of Germanic Studies); Vance Schaefer (Dept. of Second Language Studies), Michael McGuire (Dept. of Linguistics).

Abstract:
The question whether category formation is a prerequisite for U.S.-English learners of French to encode a non-native contrast in lexical representations is investigated, looking at front [y-oe] and back [u-o] rounded vowels. An ABX categorization experiment revealed no group difference between advanced and inexperienced learners. Both made significantly more errors than French controls (p<.01) on the [u-y] contrast, despite a good global discrimination (15% error). The possibility that minimal pairs of difficult contrasts (e.g. sourd [sur] deaf vs. sur [syr] sure) are stored as homophones was tested in a lexical decision task with repetition priming. French words and non-words were paired with either themselves (repetition) or a minimal-pair-counterpart (minimal pair) in a 260 item list. Correct RTs were measured for each item. Given a comparable RT-advantage on the repetition and the minimal pair condition, merged lexical representations were assumed. Advanced learners, like native speakers, showed no RT-advantage for minimal pair conditions; inexperienced learners displayed significant facilitation for [u-y] minimal pair (but not [i-y] control condition). This suggests that successful lexical contrast is possible for advanced English-French users despite persistent perception errors-the hallmark of an insecure category establishment-presenting an argument for the dissociation of both mechanisms.