Processing of Orthographic Structure by Adults of Different Reading Ability

Taft, Marcus

doi:10.1177/00238309010440030301

Cited by 36 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This means that all readers, both good and poor, should show a preference for a maximal coda (''Max Coda'') analysis over a maximal onset (''Max Onset'') analysis when the first vowel is short and stressed. However, for all other types of polysyllabic word (e.g., those with long first vowels, like radio, or a medial consonant cluster, like doctor), the preference for Max Coda over Max Onset should only be observed for better readers, as previously shown (Taft, 2001). Thus, the correlation between reading ability and Max Coda preference should emerge only when the word does not have a short, stressed first vowel.…”

Section: Experiments 1: Native English Speakersmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…In support of this possibility, Taft (2001) has recently found in several experiments a significant correlation between reading ability (as measured in terms of an objective comprehension test) and BOSS preference (e.g., response times to cad et relative to response times to ca det). Moreover, in a separate examination of relatively good and relatively poor adult readers, a significant BOSS preference was found for the former and a syllable preference for the latter.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Orthographic Processing of Polysyllabic Words by Native and Nonnative English Speakers

Taft

2002

Brain and Language

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How polysyllabic English words are analyzed in silent reading was examined in three experiments by comparing lexical decision responses to words physically split on the screen. The gap was compatible either with the Maximal Onset Principle or the Maximal Coda Principle. The former corresponds to the spoken syllable (e.g., ca det), except when the word has a stressed short first vowel (e.g., ra dish), while the reverse is true for the latter (giving cad et and rad ish). Native English speakers demonstrated a general preference for the Max Coda analysis and a correlation with reading ability when such an analysis did not correspond with the spoken syllable. Native Japanese speakers, on the other hand, showed a Max Onset preference regardless of the type of word, while native Mandarin Chinese speakers showed no preference at all. It is concluded that a maximization of the coda is the optimal representation of polysyllabic words in English and that poorer native readers are more influenced by phonology than are better readers. The way that nonnative readers mentally represent polysyllabic English words is affected by the way such words are structured in their native language, which may not lead to optimal English processing. Key Words: bilingual reading; Chinese/English bilinguals; Japanese/English bilinguals; lexical processing; orthographic processing; reading ability; reading strategies; syllables; word recognition.There is more to the internal orthographic structure of a visually presented word than just its morphology. While it is the case that a word like gardeners can be broken down into its morphemes garden, er, and s, it is also possible for its stem garden to be analyzed further into syllables. There is then the question of what those syllables are. The spoken syllabic structure appears to place the syllable boundary between the r and the d, but this may not necessarily correspond to the structure relevant to orthographic processing. For example, a division between the d and the e is a possibility.The linguistic definition of the spoken syllable boundary draws upon the principle of Maximal Onset (see, for example, Spencer, 1996). According to this principle, syllabification leads to the greatest possible number of onsets within a word. An ''onset'' refers to the consonants that immediately precede the vowel within any syllable, so that dividing garden between the r and the d produces two onsets (i.e., the g of gar and the d of den), whereas a gard-en division produces only one (i.e.,

show abstract

Section: Experiments 1: Native English Speakersmentioning

confidence: 68%

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Orthographic Processing of Polysyllabic Words by Native and Nonnative English Speakers

Taft

2002

Brain and Language

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The alternative syllabifications of LEMON thus reflect different weightings of the maximum onset principle (favoring LE-MON) and the influence of initial vowel length (favoring LEM-ON). Some reports indicate that preference for different syllabification rules is influenced by learning to read in children and by level of reading ability in adults (Taft, 2001;Treiman, Bowey, & Bourassa, 2002). A full discussion of syllabification rules is outside the scope of the current study, but it is clear that different syllabifications will influence the computation of syllable frequency.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 87%

“…However, the orthographic and phonological definitions will conflict for many words (e.g., FIN vs FI for FINITE). When conflicting words are physically split at the border defined by the BOSS, lexical decision latencies are generally faster than when words are split at the phonologically-defined syllable boundary (Taft, 2001(Taft, , 2002; but see also Rapp, 1992). These results suggest that readers may use sublexical units during English word recognition, but that the units do not correspond to syllables.…”

mentioning

confidence: 84%

Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

Macizo

Petten

2006

Read Writ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The importance of phonological syllables in recognition and pronunciation of visual words has been demonstrated in languages with a high degree of spelling-sound correspondence. In Spanish, multisyllabic words with frequent first syllables are named more quickly than those with less frequent first syllables, but receive slower lexical decisions. The latter effect is attributed to lexical competition from other words beginning with the same syllable. We examined syllable frequency effects on naming and lexical decision for 3,029 visually-presented words in English, a language with a high degree of irregularity in spelling/sound relationships, and in which phonological syllables are less clearly marked in printed words. The results showed facilitative effects of syllable frequency in both tasks, and these were stronger when syllables were defined orthographically than phonologically. The results suggest that activation of lexical candidates based on a syllabic code does not occur rapidly enough to interfere with lexical decision in English.Keywords: Syllable; Syllable frequency; Orthography; Phonology; Neighborhood; Similarity; Orthographic syllable 2 The nature of the sublexical representations that allow people to recognize and name words continue to be debated (e.g., Schiller, 2000), including the possibility that these may differ across languages. Although early studies suggested that phonological syllables were relevant to visual recognition of English words (Spoehr & Smith, 1973, 1975, further research rejected this idea and instead argued for the orthographic and morphological nature of visual lexical access (e.g., Taft, 1979; see Taft, 1991 for review). However, several studies in Spanish -a language with a shallow orthography --have shown that syllables can function as sublexical units in both visual word perception and word production (e.g., Carreiras, Álvarez, & de Vega, 1993;Ferrand, Segui, & Grainger, 1996). Recent studies in French and German support this view Mathey & Zagar, 2002). The basic methodology of the European studies has been to demonstrate influences of syllable frequency independent of whole-word frequency. In contrast, the reliability of syllable-frequency effects has received less attention in languages with a large degree of irregularity in the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, such as English. Before proceeding to the current analyses of syllable frequency in English, we review results from other languages, and then extant data from English. Syllable frequency in word recognition tasks without production demandsThe impact of syllable frequency in Spanish visual word recognition is inhibitory, 1 consisting of slower reaction times and/or higher error rates for words with high-frequency syllables as compared to those with low-frequency syllables, independent of whole-word frequency. One of the earliest reports, using a task of self-paced reading, determined that it was positional frequency of the first syllable that slowed reading time rather than the total fre...

show abstract

“…This proposal was based on the strong ambisyllabicity of the English language, and on the cases of incompatibility between syllabification following phonological principles and the morphemic structure of words (e.g., the word leaking has a morphemic boundary after the letter k while the syllable boundary is after the letter a). Hence, Taft (1979) proposed that the basic orthographic syllabic structure (BOSS) is a functional unit of polysyllabic word processing, the BOSS referring to the first syllable of a word plus as many consonants following its first vowels while not disrupting the morphemic structure (e.g., the BOSS of leaking is leak) (e.g., Rouibah and Taft 2001;Taft 1979Taft , 2001; but see Lima and Pollatsek 1983, in lexical decision tasks). From the point of view of orthographic regularity, Seidenberg (1987) used the illusory conjunction task (i.e., to detect the colour of a letter in a briefly-presented word displayed in two colours) to assess to what extent the syllabic effects in English were subsumed by statistical orthographic regularities.…”

Section: Syllabic Effects and Orthographic Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

InfoSyll: A Syllabary Providing Statistical Information on Phonological and Orthographic Syllables

Chetail

Mathey

2009

J Psycholinguist Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is now a growing body of evidence in various languages supporting the claim that syllables are functional units of visual word processing. In the perspective of modeling the processing of polysyllabic words and the activation of syllables, current studies investigate syllabic effects with subtle manipulations. We present here a syllabary of the French language aiming at answering new constraints when designing experiments on the syllable issue. The InfoSyll syllabary provides exhaustive characteristics and statistical information for each phonological syllable (e.g., /fi/) and for its corresponding orthographic syllables (e.g., fi, phi, phy, fee, fix, fis). Variables such as the type and token positional frequencies, the number and frequencies of the correspondences between orthographic and phonological syllables are provided. As discussed, such computations should allow precise controls, manipulations and quantitative descriptions of syllabic variables in the field of psycholinguistic research.

show abstract

Processing of Orthographic Structure by Adults of Different Reading Ability

Cited by 36 publications

References 34 publications

Orthographic Processing of Polysyllabic Words by Native and Nonnative English Speakers

Orthographic Processing of Polysyllabic Words by Native and Nonnative English Speakers

Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

InfoSyll: A Syllabary Providing Statistical Information on Phonological and Orthographic Syllables

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About