Subsyllabic units in written word production

Author: Weingarten, Ruediger

Source: Written Language & Literacy, Volume 8, Number 1, 2005 , pp. 43-61(19)

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

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Abstract:

In previous studies we have found that the writing of words (typing) is made up of a highly structured time course. Words are written using a course of accelerations and decelerations at certain points within the words. These points correlate highly with the syllabic word structure and also with the morphological structure. At the beginning of these subword units we find significantly higher latencies than within units. We therefore assume that written word production starts with a frame of the whole word, certain subword frames (according to the syllabic and morphological structure) and subsequent filling of the frames with segmental information. So the segmental information is not completely available at the beginning of a word or syllable but is delivered during motor execution. In the present study we try to find out if there are also subsyllabic units that are produced in a frame and content mode. As a candidate for such a unit we choose polygraphemes (e.g. in engl. <th> in “think“, in german <sch> in “schon“). If they are produced in this way we expect an increased delay at their onset and an accelaration within the unit. The results suggest that because of their grapho-phonological structure some types of complex graphemes are produced in a frame and content mode.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/wll.8.1.03wei

Affiliations: 1: Department of Linguistics and Literature, University of Bielefeld

Publication date: 2005-01-01