Japanese orthographic complexity and speech duration in a reading task

Phonetica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Grippando
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Single Character ◽  
University Of Arizona ◽  
Duration Effect ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

Abstract The number of letters in a word’s orthographic form can affect speech duration (Brewer, Jordan B. 2008. Phonetic reflexes of orthographic characteristics in lexical representation. University of Arizona Doctoral Dissertation; Warner, Natasha, Allard Jongman, Joan Sereno & Rachèl Kemps. 2004. Incomplete neutralization and other sub-phonemic durational differences in production and perception: Evidence from Dutch. Journal of Phonetics 32(2). 251–276. Previous research in this area has been limited to studies of languages with alphabets. The current study expands upon this previous research by investigating effects on speech duration from units of orthographic complexity potentially analogous to letter length in Japanese, a language with a logography. In a modified version of Brewer, Jordan B. 2008. Phonetic reflexes of orthographic characteristics in lexical representation. University of Arizona Doctoral Dissertation, reading task, native Japanese-speaking participants were audio-recorded reading pairs of homophonous words that varied by: 1) number of pen strokes in a single character; or 2) number of whole characters in their orthographic forms. Two-character words were produced significantly longer than one-character words. No significant effect was found from pen strokes on speech duration. These results are presented as evidence that the orthographic duration effect observed in previous studies is not limited to languages with alphabetic writing systems.

The Alphabet and its Legacy

2019 ◽  
pp. 240-255
Author(s):  
Madadh Richey
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Generative Power ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

The alphabet employed by the Phoenicians was the inheritor of a long tradition of alphabetic writing and was itself adapted for use throughout the Mediterranean basin by numerous populations speaking many languages. The present contribution traces the origins of the alphabet in Sinai and the Levant before discussing different alphabetic standardizations in Ugarit and Phoenician Tyre. The complex adaptation of the latter for representation of the Greek language is described in detail, then some brief attention is given to likely—Etruscan and other Italic alphabets—and possible (Iberian and Berber) descendants of the Phoenician alphabet. Finally, it is stressed that current research does not view the Phoenician and other alphabets as inherently simpler, more easily learned, or more democratic than other writing systems. The Phoenician alphabet remains, nevertheless, an impressive technological development worthy, especially by virtue of its generative power, of detailed study ranging from paleographic and orthographic specifications to social and political contextualization.

scholarly journals Reading acquisition reorganizes the phonological awareness network only in alphabetic writing systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 3354-3368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Brennan ◽  
Fan Cao ◽  
Nicole Pedroarena-Leal ◽  
Chris McNorgan ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

scholarly journals Neurocognitive Basis of Dyslexia in Different Writing Systems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

An important issue in dyslexia research is whether developmental dyslexia in different writing systems has a common neurocognitive basis across writing systems or whether there are specific neurocognitive alterations. In this chapter, we review studies that investigate the neurocognitive basis of dyslexia in Chinese, a logographic writing system, and compare the findings of these studies with dyslexia in alphabetic writing systems. We begin with a brief review of the characteristics of the Chinese writing system because to fully understand the commonality and specificity in the neural basis of Chinese dyslexia one must understand how logographic writing systems are structured differently than alphabetic systems.

scholarly journals Effects of word predictability on eye movements during Arabic reading

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam A. AlJassmi ◽  
Kayleigh L. Warrington ◽  
Victoria A. McGowan ◽  
Sarah J. White ◽  
Kevin B. Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Eye Fixations ◽  
Varying Length ◽  
Word Predictability ◽  
Word Skipping ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

AbstractContextual predictability influences both the probability and duration of eye fixations on words when reading Latinate alphabetic scripts like English and German. However, it is unknown whether word predictability influences eye movements in reading similarly for Semitic languages like Arabic, which are alphabetic languages with very different visual and linguistic characteristics. Such knowledge is nevertheless important for establishing the generality of mechanisms of eye-movement control across different alphabetic writing systems. Accordingly, we investigated word predictability effects in Arabic in two eye-movement experiments. Both produced shorter fixation times for words with high compared to low predictability, consistent with previous findings. Predictability did not influence skipping probabilities for (four- to eight-letter) words of varying length and morphological complexity (Experiment 1). However, it did for short (three- to four-letter) words with simpler structures (Experiment 2). We suggest that word-skipping is reduced, and affected less by contextual predictability, in Arabic compared to Latinate alphabetic reading, because of specific orthographic and morphological characteristics of the Arabic script.

Activation of L1 orthography in L2 word reading: Constraints from language and writing system

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832092776
Author(s):  
Lin Chen ◽  
Charles A Perfetti ◽  
Xiaoping Fang ◽  
Li-Yun Chang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Co Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Color Judgment

When reading in a second language, a reader’s first language may be involved. For word reading, the question is how and at what level: lexical, pre-lexical, or both. In three experiments, we employed an implicit reading task (color judgment) and an explicit reading task (word naming) to test whether a Chinese meaning equivalent character and its sub-character orthography are activated when first language (L1) Chinese speakers read second language (L2) English words. Because Chinese and English have different spoken and written forms, any cross language effects cannot arise from shared written and spoken forms. Importantly, the experiments provide a comparison with single language experiments within Chinese, which show cross-writing system activation when words are presented in alphabetic Pinyin, leading to activation of the corresponding character and also its sub-character (radical) components. In the present experiments, Chinese–English bilinguals first silently read or made a meaning judgment on an English word. Immediately following, they judged the color of a character (Experiments 1A and 1B) or named it (Experiment 2). Four conditions varied the relation between the character that is the meaning equivalent of the English word and the following character presented for naming or color judgment. The experiments provide evidence that the Chinese meaning equivalent character is activated during the reading of the L2 English. In contrast to the within-Chinese results, the activation of Chinese characters did not extend to the sub-character level. This pattern held for both implicit reading (color judgment) and explicit reading (naming) tasks, indicating that for unrelated languages with writing systems, L1 activation during L2 reading occurs for the specific orthographic L1 form (a single character), mediated by meaning. We conclude that differences in writing systems do not block cross-language co-activation, but that differences in languages limit co-activation to the lexical level.

The Early Greek Alphabets

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Single Event ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Archaic Greece ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Many ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

Regional variation, a persistent feature of Greek alphabetic writing throughout the Archaic period, has been studied since at least the late nineteenth century. The subject was transformed by the publication in 1961 of Lilian H. (Anne) Jeffery's Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (reissued with a valuable supplement by A. Johnston in 1990), based on first-hand study of more than a thousand inscriptions. Much important new evidence has emerged since 1987 (Johnston's cut-off date), and debate has continued energetically about all the central issues raised by the book: the date at which the Phoenician script was taken over and filled out with vowels; the priority of Phrygia or Greece in that takeover; whether the takeover happened once, and the resulting alphabet then spread outwards, or whether takeover occurred independently in several paces; if the takeover was a single event, the region where it occurred; if so again, the explanation for the many divergences in local script. The hypothesis that the different scripts emerged not through misunderstandings but through conscious variation has been strongly supported, and contested, in the post-Jeffery era; also largely post-Jeffery is the flourishing debate about the development and functions of literacy in Archaic Greece. Dialectology, the understanding of vocalization, and the study of ancient writing systems more broadly have also moved forwards rapidly. In this volume a team of scholars combining the various relevant expertises (epigraphic, philological, historical, archaeological) provide the first comprehensive overview of the state of the question 70 years after Jeffery's masterpiece.

Premodern Letters and Textual Consciousness

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-319
Author(s):  
Mark E. Amsler
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Alphabet ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
Visual Sign ◽  
Material Substances

Summary Modern linguistics textbooks devote little, if any, space to writing systems. Shifting our attention from naming precursors or proto-theories to reading earlier language study and linguistics as theorizing and description, the present paper explores ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter in terms of the semiotics of written language and the emergence of textual consciousness in manuscript culture. Early concepts and uses of the letter in alphabetic writing were ambiguous, multilayered, and occasionally contested, but they were not confused. Ancient and early medieval concepts of the letter were based on a semiotics of language and writing which connected spoken and visual signs as multimodal textual activity. Theories of the letter included: (a) the written character (gramma, littera) is a visual sign signifying a particular sound or group of sounds; (b) letters can function as arbitrary second-order signifying systems, such as numbers or diacritics; (c) different alphabets are rooted in the history of peoples although the Roman alphabet is a plastic medium for inscribing the emerging European vernaculars; (d) letters are material substances; (e) the written character is a mute sign; (f) the written character is imperfect or incomplete when detached from sound and the practice of reading aloud.

Statistical Learning and Spelling

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3S) ◽  
pp. 644-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Treiman
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Visual Characteristics ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

Purpose The purpose of this article is to provide a tutorial on statistical learning and its role in learning to spell and to discuss the implications of the research for educators. Method The tutorial begins with a discussion of statistical learning and its characteristics. It then discusses research on how statistical learning plays out in learning to spell, how spelling should be taught, and similarities and differences among learners. The focus is on the learning of English, although studies of other alphabetic writing systems are also considered. Research shows that, from an early age, children use their statistical learning skills to learn about the visual characteristics of written words. Children also use their statistical learning skills to help learn about the relations between visual units and units of language, supplementing what they are explicitly taught in school. Conclusion Statistical learning plays an important role in learning to spell, and this can help to explain why some aspects of spelling are more difficult to learn than others. If children are to learn to spell effectively and efficiently, structured instruction is also important.

Learning to read

2007 ◽  
pp. 656-666
Author(s):  
Rebecca Treiman ◽  
Brett Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Dual Route ◽  
Dual Route Model ◽  
Single Word Reading ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

A six-year-old child knows the meanings of many spoken words; 10,000 by one estimate. He or she can understand oral questions, commands, and stories. Yet if this same information is presented in written form, the child is hard pressed to decipher it. How do children learn to read, and how do they reach a point at which reading seems as easy and natural as listening? This article considers the development of reading ability, focusing on the development of single-word reading in alphabetic writing systems. It examines how children grasp the idea that writing is related to language, and how they learn about the links between the letters in printed words and the sounds in the corresponding spoken words. First, the article discusses written language and spoken language in children, and then focuses on early learning about relations between writing and language. It also looks at the dual-route model, the single-route model, and the teaching of decoding.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document