There is significant variability in the ability of listeners to perceive degraded speech. Existing research has suggested that vocabulary knowledge is one factor that differentiates better listeners from poorer ones, though the reason for such a relationship is unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether a relationship exists between vocabulary knowledge and the type of lexical segmentation strategy listeners use in adverse conditions. This study conducted error pattern analysis using an existing dataset of 34 normal-hearing listeners (11 males, 23 females, aged 18 to 35) who participated in a speech recognition in noise task. Listeners were divided into a higher vocabulary (HV) and a lower vocabulary (LV) group based on their receptive vocabulary score on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Lexical boundary errors (LBEs) were analysed to examine whether the groups showed differential use of syllabic strength cues for lexical segmentation. Word substitution errors (WSEs) were also analysed to examine patterns in phoneme identification. The type and number of errors were compared between the HV and LV groups. Simple linear regression showed a significant relationship between vocabulary and performance on the speech recognition task. Independent samples t-tests showed no significant differences between the HV and LV groups in Metrical Segmentation Strategy (MSS) ratio or number of LBEs. Further independent samples t-tests showed no significant differences between the WSEs produced by HV and LV groups in the degree of phonemic resemblance to the target. There was no significant difference in the proportion of target phrases to which HV and LV listeners responded. The results of this study suggest that vocabulary knowledge does not affect lexical segmentation strategy in adverse conditions. Further research is required to investigate why higher vocabulary listeners appear to perform better on speech recognition tasks.

This dissertation investigates Slavic collective numerals and their syntactic structure from descriptive and structural perspectives on the basis of the operation Agree. The headedness of Slavic collective numeral phrases will be focused on with three Slavic languages: Russian, Bosnian/ Croatian/Serbian, and Polish. To analyze the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of Slavic collective numeral phrases, I adopted two important concepts proposed by Rappaport (2002, 2006): i) Minimal Lexical Representation (MLR) and ii) pre-valued abstract Quantitative Case (QC). MLR represents the semantic and formal features of nouns, which selectively combine with collective numerals, while the idea of QC can predict the heterogeneous and homogeneous patterns of case assignment. The presence of pre-valued abstract QC triggers heterogeneous morphosyntax, while the absence of QC triggers homogeneous morphosyntax. The spell-out forms of collective numerals are the direct result of morphological syncretic rules. In regard of the headedness of Slavic collective numeral phrases, this research claims that nouns are the heads of Slavic numeral phrases on the grounds that numerals, adjectives, and other modifiers agree with nouns, which functions as the locus of morphosyntax (Zwicky 1985). The use of collective numerals is determined by the properties of nouns. In each chapter, Slavic collective numerals will be analyzed from the three points of view: i) semantics, ii) morphology, and iii) syntax. Collective numerals can emphasize the meaning of collectivity, totality, and cohesiveness as an aggregate. BCS and Polish collective numerals strictly specify a group of mixed gender, while Russian does not. BCS is characterized by three different types of collective numerals: i) collective numeral substantives (dvojica ‘two’, trojica ‘three’, četvorica ’four’, petorica ’five’, etc.), collective numerals (dvoje ‘two’, troje ‘three’, četvoro ’four’, petoro ’five’, etc.), and collective numeral adjectives (dvoji (m.)/ dvoje (f.)/ dvoja (n.) ’two’, etc.). Moreover, indeclinability of numerals is one of the characteristics of BCS numerals. Polish has secondary gender, so-called virile marking, which does not apply to collective numerals. Polish collective numerals are strictly used to express a group of mixed gender. / text

This thesis extends a previous pilot study with children who stutter (CWS) to include children with specific language impairment (CSLI). The current study examines lexical-semantic organization in these two clinical populations in hopes of comparing and contrasting behavioral profiles. The study employed a list-recall task to assess the lexical-semantic organization of 9 CWS, 5 CSLI, and 20 typically developing children matched for age and vocabulary. Similar to previous investigations, our child participants demonstrated the well-documented list position effects. With regard to recall accuracy, by-participant analyses revealed significant differences between CSLI and their age-matched peers; however, they did not reveal significant differences between the CWS and either of their control groups nor between the CSLI and CWS groups. Further, inspection of error distribution suggested significant differences in the number and types of errors the CSLI and control groups produced. The prevalence of unrelated and previous list errors in CSLI suggest that deficits in inhibitory processes as well as perseveration may have affected their performance. Areas of overlap and divergence in the profiles of CWS and CSLI indicate continuity in the degree of lexical-semantic weakness as well as differences in lexical retrieval and executive functions among CSLI and CWS. / text

Previous investigations have sought to determine how listeners might locate word boundaries in the speech signal for the purpose of lexical access. Cutler (1990) proposes the Metrical Segmentation Strategy (MSS), such that only full vowels in stressed syllables and their preceding syllabic onsets are segmented from the speech stream. I report the results of several experiments which indicate that the listener segments the minimal word, a phonologically motivated prosodic constituent, during processing of the speech signal. These experiments were designed to contrast the MSS with two prosodic alternative hypotheses. The Syllable Hypothesis posits that listeners segment a linguistic syllable in its entirety as it is produced by the speaker. The Minimal Word Hypothesis proposes that a minimal word is segmented according to implicit knowledge the listener has concerning statistically probable characteristics of the lexicon. These competing hypotheses were tested by using a word spotting method similar to that in Cutler and Norris (1988). The subjects' task was to detect real monosyllabic words embedded initially in bisyllabic nonce strings. Both open (CV) and closed (CVC) words were embedded in strings containing a single intervocalic consonant. The prosodic constituency of this consonant was varied by manipulating factors affecting prosodic structure: stress, the sonority of the consonant, and the quality of the vowel in the first syllable. The assumption behind the method is that word detection will be facilitated when embedded word and segmentation boundaries are coincident. Results show that these factors are influential during segmentation. The degree of difficulty in word detection is a function of how well the speech signal corresponds to the minimal word. Findings are consistently counter to both the MSS and Syllable hypotheses. The Minimal Word Hypothesis takes advantage of statistical properties of the lexicon, ensuring a strategy which is successful more often than not. The minimal word specifies the smallest possible content word in a language in terms of prosodic structure while simultaneously affiliating the greatest amount of featural information within the structural limits. It therefore guarantees an efficient strategy with as few parses as possible.

Letter position plays an important role in lexical access. But are some positions more important than the others? Findings from numerous studies support the notion that in lexical access, initial letters produce strongest activation, which weakens towards the end of the word. In order to create a metric for computing the activation produced by each letter position in a correctly spelled word versus a word in which some or all letters are transposed, the formula for calculating a word's orthographic match coefficient (OMC) was developed and tested. Utilizing the masked priming paradigm and a lexical decision task, Experiments 1-5 test the accuracy and reliability of the OMC predictions, and look at neighborhood density in conjunction with different types of letter movement. Results from these experiments provide empirical support for the OMC as a reliable predictor of priming that involves transposed letters, and offer insight into possible mechanisms of word recognition.

Most research in word recognition uses words that already exist in the reader's lexicon, and it is therefore of interest to see whether newly learned words are represented and processed in the same way as already known words. For example, are newly learned words immediately represented in a special form of lexical memory, or is there a gradual process of assimilation? As for L2 language learners, are newly learned words incorporated into the same processing system that serves L1, or are they represented quite independently?The current study examines this issue by testing for the existence of the Prime Lexicality Effect (PLE) observed in masked priming experiments (Forster & Veres, 1998). Strong form priming was found with nonword primes (e.g., contrapt-CONTRACT), but not with word primes (e.g., contrast-CONTRACT). This effect is generally assumed to result from competition between the prime and the target. So if the readers had been trained to treat "contrapt" as a new word, would it now function like a word and produce much weaker priming? Elgort (2007) demonstrated such an effect with unmasked primes with L2 bilinguals. The current study investigates the PLE in both L1 and L2 bilinguals under different training conditions. When the training program involves mere familiarization (learning to type the words), a PLE was found with visible primes, but not with masked primes, which suggests that unmasked PLE is not the best indicator of lexicalization. In the case of "real" acquisition where the new word is given a definition and a picture of the object it refers to, and learning is spread over two weeks, a clear PLE was obtained. However, when the same experiment was carried out on Chinese-English bilinguals using the same English materials, completely opposite results were obtained. The learning enhanced priming, rather than reducing it, suggesting that the L2 lexicon might differ qualitatively from the L1 lexicon. The implications of these results for competitive theories of lexical access are discussed, and alternative explanations are considered.

This dissertation focuses on the unique aspects of Maltese morphology brought about by its genetic and geographic history. The experiments conducted and described here build on past research in Indo-European languages and new research in other Semitic languages to determine how different word formation systems function. Applying experimental techniques to the study of Maltese is crucial for two reasons. First, though Maltese is a Semitic language, recent extensive contact with English has greatly impacted its vocabulary and the structure of its verbs. Though the effects of persistent language contact is pervasive, clear and systematic differences may be observed between native Semitic verbs and those borrowed from English. Secondly, unlike other Semitic languages, the Maltese writing system uses the Roman alphabet. This allows for tests that require the reading of written stimuli to be performed in the same writing system as previous studies in Indo-European languages, eliminating a number of confounding factors.A masked priming experiment asked Maltese speakers to judge whether or not test items were words of their language. The test items included real and nonce verbs of both Semitic and English origin. Accuracy rates and reaction time were recorded and compared across speakers. The results of this experiment support the psychological salience of the consonantal root as a unit of lexical organization.An elicitation experiment asked native speakers of Maltese to provide a verb form that corresponded to a given noun or adjective. The test items were nouns of Semitic and English origin and non-words constructed to resemble such nouns. Responses were broadly transcribed and analyzed for their similarity to the expected patterns. The results show that speakers are able to use two morphological strategies to form new words. The factors affecting the choice between morphological systems include linguistic structure and social variables.Collectively, this pair of experiments indicate that the consonantal root is a viable morphological and psychological unit of lexical organization, supporting a search-based approach to lexical access. Furthermore, speakers are able to form new words on the basis of whole words, showing that this level of organization must also be present to facilitate lexical access.

This thesis advances a specific model of 1-syntax, based on Hale and Keyser (1993, 1994) and Dechaine (1996) as a point of departure, and also proposes a general theory of the relation between the lexicon and the syntax. One of the essential proposals that I make is the F\mctionalization Principle, which permits a lexical head to project a functional projection if and only if the meaning of the head is represented by 1-syntactic structure without any extra semantic features. I refer to this type of head as a light head. The Functionalization Principle leads us to a principled account of various lexical and functional uses of lexical items such as a passive morpheme -en and have. Examples that support my analysis range from adjectival and verbal passives (e.g. Mary is very pleased and The glass was broken by BUI), to constructions of alienable and inalienable possession (e.g. John has Jive bucks and John has blue eyes), to causative/experiential constructions (e.g. John had his students walk out of class), and to perfect constructions (e.g. Lucie has advised the prime minister). Furthermore, the analysis of possessive have is extended to possessive nominals (e.g. John's cat and John's eyes). I also examine the implications of the theories of 1-syntax and 1- functors for Case. I propose that 1-syntactic structure partly determines inherent Case whereas the 1-functor checks what I call l-Junctor Case through the Spec-head relation. Furthermore, I show that these analyses of inherent Case and 1-functors account for essential properties of possessive D (a genitive marker -*s), some Hindi marked subject constructions and Japanese experiential transitive constructions.

This work is compiled to meet the needs of students or teachers in homonymy. It this meant as a supplement to different textbooks, serves as a guide to those who wish to attain a more complete view of morphological homonymy. The work is devided into different sections, among which regular and irregular homonymy sctions are considered to be the most important ones. Each section includes a number of definitions, explanations, examples of the most common pairs of homonyms such as noun-verb, verb-verb, noun-adjective, adjective-verb, noun-noun and others. This work presents an axhaustive survey of homonymy, the variety of which suggests the idea of the dictionary of Lithuanian Morphological Homonyms.

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