Segmentation of Continuous Speech Using Phonotactics. McQueen, J. M. J Mem Lang, 39(1):21–46, 1998.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Listeners appear to use phonotactic constraints in the segmentation of continuous speech. Because some strings of phonemes (such as [lv] and [mr] in Dutch) never occur within the same syllable, they cue syllable boundaries, and hence possible word boundaries. Dutch listeners found it easier to detect words at the beginnings of nonsense sequences when the words were aligned with a phonotactic boundary (e.g.,pil,pill, in [pil.vrem]) than when they were misaligned (e.g.,pilin [pilm.rem]). This effect was stronger for words at the ends of nonsense sequences (e.g.,rok,skirt, in [fim.r&unknown;k] and [fi.dr&unknown;k]). Two control experiments indicated that although part of this effect can be attributed to the role of phonotactics in speech production, there remains a significant perceptual component; the legality of sound sequences appears to be computed on-line during recognition. It is argued that segmentation is achieved via competition between candidate words, that competition is modulated by knowledge about where in the input candidates are unlikely to begin or end, and that phonotactic constraints are one of several information sources used in this segmentation process.
@Article{McQueen1998,
  author   = {McQueen, James M.},
  journal  = {J Mem Lang},
  title    = {Segmentation of Continuous Speech Using Phonotactics},
  year     = {1998},
  number   = {1},
  pages    = {21--46},
  volume   = {39},
  abstract = {Listeners appear to use phonotactic constraints in the segmentation
	of continuous speech. Because some strings of phonemes (such as [lv]
	and [mr] in Dutch) never occur within the same syllable, they cue
	syllable boundaries, and hence possible word boundaries. Dutch listeners
	found it easier to detect words at the beginnings of nonsense sequences
	when the words were aligned with a phonotactic boundary (e.g.,pil,pill,
	in [pil.vrem]) than when they were misaligned (e.g.,pilin [pilm.rem]).
	This effect was stronger for words at the ends of nonsense sequences
	(e.g.,rok,skirt, in [fim.r&unknown;k] and [fi.dr&unknown;k]). Two
	control experiments indicated that although part of this effect can
	be attributed to the role of phonotactics in speech production, there
	remains a significant perceptual component; the legality of sound
	sequences appears to be computed on-line during recognition. It is
	argued that segmentation is achieved via competition between candidate
	words, that competition is modulated by knowledge about where in
	the input candidates are unlikely to begin or end, and that phonotactic
	constraints are one of several information sources used in this segmentation
	process.},
  doi      = {10.1006/jmla.1998.2568},
}

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