Research article summary (published 29 Jun 1992):

The monolingual nature of speech segmentation by bilinguals.

Full Abstract

Monolingual French speakers employ a syllable-based procedure in speech segmentation; monolingual English speakers use a stress-based segmentation procedure and do not use the syllable-based procedure. In the present study French-English bilinguals participated in segmentation experiments with English and French materials. Their results as a group did not simply mimic the performance of English monolinguals with English language materials and of French monolinguals with French language materials. Instead, the bilinguals formed two groups, defined by forced choice of a dominant language. Only the French-dominant groups showed syllabic segmentation and only with French language materials. The English-dominant group showed no syllabic segmentation in either language. However, the English-dominant group showed stress-based segmentation with English language materials; the French-dominant group did not. We argue that rhythmically based segmentation procedures are mutually exclusive, as a consequence of which speech segmentation by bilinguals is, in one respect at least, functionally monolingual.

Author information

Author/s: Cutler, A (A); Mehler, J (J); Norris, D (D); Segui, J (J);

Affiliation: MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Cognitive psychology (Cogn Psychol), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1992-Jul; vol 24 (issue 3) : pp 381-410

Dates: Created 1992/10/07; Completed 1992/10/07; Revised 2009/01/16;

PMID: 1516360, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Female Humans Language Language Development Linguistics

Male Mental Processes Phonetics Research Design Speech Perception Verbal Behavior

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