Investigating the effects of phonological neighbours on word retrieval and phonetic variation in word naming and picture naming paradigms

摘要

Prior work has shown that when a word with an initial voiceless stop has a contrasting initial voiced stop neighbour, Voice Onset Times (VOTs) are longer. Higher phonological neighbourhood density (PND) has also been shown to facilitate word retrieval times (RTs), and be associated with longer VOTs. However, these effects have rarely been investigated with picture naming, which is a more semantically driven task. This study examined the effects of phonological neighbours on RTs and phonetic variation, and how these effects differed in word naming and picture naming paradigms. Results showed that PND was positively correlated with longer VOT in both paradigms. Furthermore, the effect of initial stop neighbours on VOTs was only significant in word naming. These results highlight the influence of phonological neighbours on word production in different paradigms, support interactive models of word production, and suggest that hyper-articulation in speech does not solely depend on communicative context.