Lexical frequency as a scalar variable in explaining variation

Author(s):  
Richard J. File-Muriel

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between lexical frequency and s-lenition in Barranquillero Spanish, looking at lexical frequency as a scalar variable. A quantitative analysis of /s/ in words of different lexical frequencies, in which productions from a reading task were submitted to auditory acoustical analysis, reveals that the single most important factor in s-lenition is lexical frequency. Speakers tend towards a full articulation of /s/ in low-frequency words, while weakening it in high-frequency words. This study addresses three questions: Do subtle differences in lexical frequency influence how sounds are produced synchronically? What are the advantages of considering lexical frequency in scalar terms as opposed to a categorical variable (high vs. low-frequency)? What is the relationship between lexical frequency and other linguistic factors?

Author(s):  
Mari-Liis Kalvik ◽  
Liisi Piits

Artikkel käsitleb kaht eesti keeles varieeruvat nähtust: h hääldamist sõna alguses ning i-tüveliste (C)VVC-struktuuriga sõnade lõpukonsonantide palatalisatsiooni. Mõlema nähtuse puhul uuritakse, milline on sõna esinemissageduse ning tähenduste eristamise vajaduse mõju hääldusele. Uurimismaterjaliks on 42 h-algulist sõna ja 30 pika vokaaliga ühesilbilist i-tüvelist sõna, mis on keelejuhtide poolt ette loetud. 94 keele juhi 3945 hääldusjuhu uurimine andis tulemuseks, et a) h väljahääldamine oli valdav (92% juhtudest); b) suurema esinemissagedusega sõnades oli sõnaalguline h enamasti lühem ja see jäeti välja hääldamata sagedamini kui väiksema esinemis sagedusega sõnades; c) esines tendents, et sõnades, kus h-l on tähendust eristav ülesanne, oli h veidi sagedamini ja veidi pikemalt välja hääldatud. 40 keelejuhi 1280 hääldusjuhu analüüs näitas, et a) väiksema esinemissagedusega sõnu ei palataliseeritud märgatavalt vähem kui suurema esinemissagedusega sõnu ning b) sõnu, kus palatalisatsiooni esinemine eristab tähendusi, palataliseeriti rohkem. Abstract. Mari-Liis Kalvik and Liisi Piits: Word frequency and a meaning-distinguishing function of a phoneme as a reason for variation. The article investigates the variation of word-initial /h/ and palatalization in i-stemmed monosyllabic words with a (C)VVC structure. Two possible causes of the variation were examined: word frequency and meaning-distinguishing function of a phoneme. Material was collected by means of a reading task. The text consisted of words with both the word-initial /h/ and palatalized consonants. Altogether, 5225 pronunciations were analysed. The results show that: a) in 92% of occasions the word-initial /h/ was pronounced; b) in high frequency words, the word initial /h/ was shorter or absent more often than in low frequency words; c) the word-initial /h/ in a meaning-distinguishing position tended to be more often pronounced and to be longer; d) consonant palatalization in i-stemmed words with a (C)VVC structure did not depend significantly on word frequency; and e) in the words where palatalization had a meaning- distinguishing function, the palatalized consonant was slightly longer than in the words where the function did not exist. Keywords: Estonian, word-initial /h/, palatalization, reading experiment, word frequency, meaning-distinguishing function, duration


1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith E. Stanovich ◽  
Anne E. Cunningham ◽  
Richard F. West

Experiment 1 was a study in which three times during the school year (in September, February, and April) first graders performed a discrete-trial Stroop task in which they named the colors of stimuli that were either letters, high-frequency words, or low-frequency words. The amount of interference caused by these stimuli was assessed by comparing the naming times to a control condition where the subject named a series of X's. In each testing period the interference caused by letters exceeded that caused by high-frequency words. There was also a nonsignificant tendency for interference caused by high-frequency words to exceed that caused by low-frequency words. There was a marked increase in interference between September and February, but very little change between February and April, indicating that the automaticity function had already flattened out by the end of first grade. There was a tendency for better readers to display more interference and to show interference earlier in the year. Experiment 2 replicated the developmental trends displayed in Experiment 1 and explored the relationship between interference and the speed and accuracy with which subjects named the stimuli. The overall pattern of results in the two experiments was reasonably consistent with the automaticity model of reading developed by LaBerge and Samuels (1974).


2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Anne Calhoon ◽  
Lauren Leslie

Beginning readers' rime reading accuracy was assessed over three years to examine the influence of word frequency and rime-neighborhood size (the number of single syllable words with the same rime) on words presented in lists and stories. Twenty-seven 1st- and 2nd- grade students read 54 words and 27 nonwords containing rimes from different size neighborhoods. In Year 1, children showed effects of neighborhood size in high frequency words read in stories and in low frequency words read in lists and stories. In Year 2, rimes from large neighborhoods were read more accurately than rimes from medium and small neighborhoods in high- and low-frequency words. In Year 3, no effects of rime-neighborhood size were found for high-frequency words, but effects on low-frequency words continued. These results support Leslie and Calhoon's (1995) developmental model of the effects of rime-neighborhood size and word frequency as a function of higher levels of word learning.


2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Bybee

Phonological evidence supports the frequency-based model proposed in the article by Nick Ellis. Phonological reduction occurs earlier and to a greater extent in high-frequency words and phrases than in low-frequency ones. A model that accounts for this effect needs both an exemplar representation to show phonetic variation and the ability to represent multiword combinations. The maintenance of alternations conditioned by word boundaries, such as French liaison, also provides evidence that multiword sequences are stored and can accrue representational strength. The reorganization of phonetic exemplars in favor of the more frequent types provides evidence for some abstraction in categories beyond the simple registration of tokens of experience.


2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096906
Author(s):  
Todd A Kahan ◽  
Louisa M Slowiaczek ◽  
Ned Scott ◽  
Brian T Pfohl

Whether attention is allocated to an entire word or can be confined to part of a word was examined in an experiment using a visual composite task. Participants saw a study word, a cue to attend to either the right or left half, and a test word, and indicated if the cued half of the words (e.g., left) was the same (e.g., TOLD-TONE) or different (e.g., TOLD-WINE). Prior research using this task reports a larger congruency effect for low-frequency words relative to high-frequency words but extraneous variables were not equated. In this study ( N = 33), lexical (orthographic neighbourhood density) and sublexical (bigram frequency) variables were controlled, and word frequency was manipulated. Results indicate that word frequency does not moderate the degree to which parts of a word can be selectively attended/ignored. Response times to high-frequency words were faster than response times to low-frequency words but the congruency effect was equivalent. The data support a capacity model where attention is equally distributed across low-frequency and high-frequency words but low-frequency words require additional processing resources.


1971 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 768-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. McA. Kimbrell ◽  
D. Chesler

To clarify the relationship between dominance status and frequency of specific sub-classes of agonistic behavior in response to foot shock, 30 mice were selected on the basis of high- or low-dominance status and paired in a foot-shock situation. Dominant pairs exhibit a high frequency of defensive behavior patterns whereas submissive pairs exhibit a very low frequency of defensive patterns.


2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 1155-1167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Malouf ◽  
Sachiko Kinoshita

Two experiments investigated whether priming due to a match in just the onset between a masked prime and target is found with high-frequency target words. Forster and Davis (1991, Exp. 5) reported that the masked onset priming effect was absent for high-frequency words and used the finding to argue that the effect has its locus in the grapheme–phoneme mapping process that operates serially within the nonlexical route. Experiment 1 used primes that were unrelated to targets and found a masked onset priming effect of equal size for high-frequency and low-frequency target words. Experiment 2 used form-related primes as used by Forster and Davis, and again found that the effect of onset mismatch was not dependent on target word frequency. These results are interpreted in terms of an alternative view that the masked onset priming effect has its origin in the process of preparing a speech response.


2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 2050006
Author(s):  
Sukriye Tuysuz

This paper examines the relationship between 10 Global sectoral conventional and Islamic assets. For each sector, a conventional, an Islamic stock index and a bond are retained. The analyzed relations are done by taking into account diverse investment horizons by using MODWT and GARCH-DCC-type models. Our results indicate that adding bond indexes into a portfolio composed with conventional stock or Islamic stock is efficient. As for the correlations between conventional and Islamic sectoral indexes, they depend on the sector. Relations between returns of securities are quite similar to the relations between high-frequency part of these series and are very volatile at low frequency.


1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris C. Weatherly ◽  
Steven E. Ball ◽  
James R. Stacks

The relationship of habitual use of visual imagery and mental rotation was investigated. Reliance on Visual Imagery scores were used to define subjects as high frequency or low frequency visualizers. During the mental rotation task, subjects indicated if a pair of 2-dimensional stimulus figures displayed on a computer screen were identical or mirror-images. Figures on the right were rotated in relation to those on the left by 0, 60, 120, or 180°. Data supported the prediction that subjects who report high use of imagery would perform the task with greater accuracy ( z=1.97, p<.05) than subjects who reported low use. The imagery groups did not differ in response latency ( z = .91, p<.36). A comparison of performance on Trials 1 to 24 with performance on Trials 115-138 indicated a learning effect in both accuracy ( z = 7.58, p<.01) and latency ( z = 9.72, p<.01) for all subjects.


2010 ◽  
Vol 139-141 ◽  
pp. 2502-2505
Author(s):  
Bing Cheng Wang ◽  
Zhao Hui Ren

Simulated four different fault signals in the lab, the authors then used wavelet scalogram and amplitude spectrum to make analysis on the above four fault signals and abstract each spectrum characteristics. Wavelet scalogram was able to extract the characteristic’s frequency, show the impact components caused by rub-impact, show the beat phenomenon caused by oil whip and show the irreducible high frequency components as well as the complex low-frequency components. Amplitude spectrum was able to show the energy size distribution at various frequency bands and able to analyze and calculate the relationship between various frequency components. Thus they express the relationship between various frequency banks from a quantitative manner. Therefore, combining the wavelet scalogram and amplitude spectrum when making analysis, as they complement and verify each other, it will enhance the reliability when extract and analyze the characteristics of fault signal.


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