2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Astudy of the vowel epenthesis mechanisms from the view point of brain sciences and physiological aspects.
| Project/Area Number |
18520327
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Prefectural University of Hiroshima |
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Principal Investigator |
FUNATSU Seiya Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Academic Information Center, Research Associate (30275383)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
FUJIMOTO Masako The National Institute for Japanese Language, Department of Language Research, Part-time Researcher (30392541)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | MEG / Mismatch Response / Repetition / Vowel Epenthesis / Consonant Clusters / Japanese Speakers / Phonotactics |
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| Research Abstract |
Vowel epenthesis is a well known phenomenon that non-native speakers insert epenthetic vowels inside non-native consonant clusters. Vowel epenthesis is assumed as perceptual "illusory vowels" (Dupoux, et al. 1999). We analyzed vowel epenthesis shown by native Japanese speakers during reading and repetition tasks for non-native consonant clusters, and analyzed their brain responses using magnetoencephalographic methods. Under the reading task, in which subjects read English words and nonsense words, native Japanese speakers inserted vowel /o/ after /t/ and /d/ in consonant clusters, and vowel /u/ after other consonants. Under the repetition task, in which subjects repeated utterances of a native English speaker, native Japanese speakers did not produce epenthetic vowels, with a few exceptions. The length of exceptional epenthetic vowels found under the repetition task was shorter than those under the reading task. The magnetoencephalographic mismatch responses were elicited by epenthetic vowels, suggesting that the native Japanese detected epenthetic vowels as real segments. Based on these results, we conclude that vowel epenthesis by native Japanese speakers did not arise from "illusory vowels", but rather from the difficulty of articulating consonant clusters which are not found in Japanese, and/or Japanese phonological rules.
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