In case you were wondering what my survey was all about

Koga · 05-23-2005, 06:03 AM

I handed in the first draft of my Ba Essay today, so I thought this would be a good time to explain what the purpose of the survey was.

First, I'll need to give you a little background information about (English) phonology and in particular phonotactics. Phonology is the study of sounds of a language. Sound units are represented by phonemes. These are roughly related to the letters of the alphabet (especially when it comes to consonants), but not all of them. For example the sound spelled as 's' is the phoneme /s/ (phonemes are represented between slashes), but the sound spelled 'sh' is also one phoneme (represented with a stereched 's' I don't know where to find the symbol). All the phonemes that aren't represented by letters of the alphabet are usually represented by greek letters. Sometimes, a phoneme represents a sound that's not in accordance with English spelling. /j/ for example, is not the sound 'j' as in 'john', but the 'y' as in 'you'. Usually this is because many other languages use the spell the /j/ sound as 'j' and not as 'y'. The phonemic alphabet is international, but not all phonemes occur in every language. Many languages lack the 'th' sounds of English, and English doesn't have the 'ch' sound found in Scottish 'loch'. In most English dictionaries you can find a list of the symbols used for English phonemes.

Now, on to phonotactics. This is a subdivision of phonolgy, and it's concerned with the possible sound sequences of English. The beginning (onset) and end (coda) of a word can have one phoneme, more or even none. A word like 'can' has /k/ as onset and /n/ as coda. (The sounds between onset and coda (almost always a vowel) are called the peak, but this study wasn't concerned with those). This word have one phoneme as onset and coda. A word like 'twelve' has two phonemes as onset /tw/ and two as coda /lv/. A word like eye has no onset or coda, but only consists of a peak.

The ways in which sounds can combine to form onsest and codas are very limited. English alllows /pl/, but doesn't allow /ps/ (ps does appear in spelling, but the p is not pronounced). In Dutch /ps/ is a legal onset. Speakers (subconsciously) know which sounds are possible and impossible in their language, so they can see if a word is a word of their language, and whether a non-word is a possible word of their language. But some words are seen as more likely to be a word of a language then others (here we come to my study), and there could be two things to influence that. It could either be determined by the (subconscious) knowledge of phonotactics, or it could be caused by the fact that speakers know what words are in their language. In other words, do people judge by the sounds or whether the word resembles a real word.

In the survey you took, each pair consisted of a word that was one phoneme away from a real word (a near miss) and one that was one phoneme away from the near miss, and therefore two from the real word (isolate). All words followed the rules of English phonotactics, so if it was influenced by the resemblance to a real word the near miss would be picked the most. If not, there would be a random distribution of the choices.

Example: real word shrimp
replace phoneme (i)/I/ with (e)/3/
near miss shremp
replace phoneme /m/ with /s/
isolate shresp

In this case you chose shremp 100% of the time, so it was clearly that the word most like a real word was chosen. This was not the case for all entries, but it was for the vast majority.

Exceptions were drolf and drelf, where the isolate drolf was preferred to drelf (which was probably because the real word it resembled was a very obscure word) and isolate stolf preferred to tolf (no explanation here). The pair swesh and sweck was 50/50.

Note: I did not come up with the list of isolates and near misses I took it from a study of Todd M. Bailey and Ulrike Hahn called "Determinants of Wordlikeness: Phonotactics or lexical Neighbourhoods?" Journal of Memory and Language 44 (2001): 568-591

Koga · 05-23-2005, 06:06 AM

I would like to thank Captain Hayfever, Marth, Heroine of the Dragon, Tubs, Nomytaker, Luigi007, Curt, Wyborn, Tikerman, Nintendonut, Knux, Link the Survivor, The Missing Link, Saria Dragon, Link2000, Cravdraa, CodieKitty, Prince Toad and SilverWind for participating [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ May 23, 2005, 06:16 AM: Message edited by: Koga ]

Chunky Kong12345 · 05-23-2005, 06:31 AM

I knew I forgot something...

The Missing Link · 05-23-2005, 06:31 AM

I figured it was something similar to that. [img]smile.gif[/img] That's a very interesting study, Koga.

"There are some who call me... Link?"

"Carpe Gaium Domesticum!" (Seize the Cucco!)
Zelda: The Grand Adventures | Triforce MUCK
ザ行方不明リンク
悪いユウモアの賢人

The Doctor · 05-23-2005, 06:47 AM

I'm glad that we could be of assistance to you, Koga.

Link2000 · 05-23-2005, 07:49 AM

Hope that you get a good mark, Koga.

**Cravdraa** · 05-23-2005, 09:42 AM

Sounds interesting. I'm glad I could contribute.

***CaptHayfever*** · 05-23-2005, 09:52 AM

Cul, I speek gud Eengulsh.

Very interesting stuff.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

imported_ · 05-23-2005, 10:17 AM

Linguistics is a hot field, and phonetics/phonology/etc is the hottest branch of that already hot field.

Codiekitty · 05-23-2005, 10:49 AM

And thanks for letting me be a part of it! *gives Koga a cheese wheel*

Where are these lemmings going? The Super Nintendo Super Shire! Hop in line and follow them there!

SilverWind · 05-23-2005, 11:57 AM

Wow! ^__^ Facinating! I'm so happy I got to participate, then got an explaination. Thank you!

Viceroy Nute Gunray · 05-23-2005, 12:27 PM

Man, that is so boring. Koga you will bore your teacher to sleep! F!

Koga · 05-23-2005, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Linguistics is a hot field, and phonetics/phonology/etc is the hottest branch of that already hot field.

I totally agree.

Thanks again for your support, guys. It will take a while before I get my mark, though. I only handed in my first draft. I will get it back, with remarks from my supervisor and I have to hand in a second draft on the 13th of June. I will let you know once I get my final mark.

And Knux, my supervisor/teacher was already very impressed when I talked to him about my project about halfway through. You would be amaze what excites linguistics teachers.

***Heroine of the Dragon*** · 05-24-2005, 07:28 PM

Very cool, Koga!!! And you're very welcome... thank you for including us!! I hope you get the result that you're hoping for!!

05-23-2005, 06:03 AM	#1
Koga Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: The Netherlands Gender: Posts: 17,093 Thanks: 104 Thanked 173 Times in 116 Posts Points: 105,737.41 Bank: 19,215.78 Total Points: 124,953.19 Donate	I handed in the first draft of my Ba Essay today, so I thought this would be a good time to explain what the purpose of the survey was. First, I'll need to give you a little background information about (English) phonology and in particular phonotactics. Phonology is the study of sounds of a language. Sound units are represented by phonemes. These are roughly related to the letters of the alphabet (especially when it comes to consonants), but not all of them. For example the sound spelled as 's' is the phoneme /s/ (phonemes are represented between slashes), but the sound spelled 'sh' is also one phoneme (represented with a stereched 's' I don't know where to find the symbol). All the phonemes that aren't represented by letters of the alphabet are usually represented by greek letters. Sometimes, a phoneme represents a sound that's not in accordance with English spelling. /j/ for example, is not the sound 'j' as in 'john', but the 'y' as in 'you'. Usually this is because many other languages use the spell the /j/ sound as 'j' and not as 'y'. The phonemic alphabet is international, but not all phonemes occur in every language. Many languages lack the 'th' sounds of English, and English doesn't have the 'ch' sound found in Scottish 'loch'. In most English dictionaries you can find a list of the symbols used for English phonemes. Now, on to phonotactics. This is a subdivision of phonolgy, and it's concerned with the possible sound sequences of English. The beginning (onset) and end (coda) of a word can have one phoneme, more or even none. A word like 'can' has /k/ as onset and /n/ as coda. (The sounds between onset and coda (almost always a vowel) are called the peak, but this study wasn't concerned with those). This word have one phoneme as onset and coda. A word like 'twelve' has two phonemes as onset /tw/ and two as coda /lv/. A word like eye has no onset or coda, but only consists of a peak. The ways in which sounds can combine to form onsest and codas are very limited. English alllows /pl/, but doesn't allow /ps/ (ps does appear in spelling, but the p is not pronounced). In Dutch /ps/ is a legal onset. Speakers (subconsciously) know which sounds are possible and impossible in their language, so they can see if a word is a word of their language, and whether a non-word is a possible word of their language. But some words are seen as more likely to be a word of a language then others (here we come to my study), and there could be two things to influence that. It could either be determined by the (subconscious) knowledge of phonotactics, or it could be caused by the fact that speakers know what words are in their language. In other words, do people judge by the sounds or whether the word resembles a real word. In the survey you took, each pair consisted of a word that was one phoneme away from a real word (a near miss) and one that was one phoneme away from the near miss, and therefore two from the real word (isolate). All words followed the rules of English phonotactics, so if it was influenced by the resemblance to a real word the near miss would be picked the most. If not, there would be a random distribution of the choices. Example: real word shrimp replace phoneme (i)/I/ with (e)/3/ near miss shremp replace phoneme /m/ with /s/ isolate shresp In this case you chose shremp 100% of the time, so it was clearly that the word most like a real word was chosen. This was not the case for all entries, but it was for the vast majority. Exceptions were drolf and drelf, where the isolate drolf was preferred to drelf (which was probably because the real word it resembled was a very obscure word) and isolate stolf preferred to tolf (no explanation here). The pair swesh and sweck was 50/50. Note: I did not come up with the list of isolates and near misses I took it from a study of Todd M. Bailey and Ulrike Hahn called "Determinants of Wordlikeness: Phonotactics or lexical Neighbourhoods?" Journal of Memory and Language 44 (2001): 568-591

05-23-2005, 06:06 AM	#2
Koga Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: The Netherlands Gender: Posts: 17,093 Thanks: 104 Thanked 173 Times in 116 Posts Points: 105,737.41 Bank: 19,215.78 Total Points: 124,953.19 Donate	I would like to thank Captain Hayfever, Marth, Heroine of the Dragon, Tubs, Nomytaker, Luigi007, Curt, Wyborn, Tikerman, Nintendonut, Knux, Link the Survivor, The Missing Link, Saria Dragon, Link2000, Cravdraa, CodieKitty, Prince Toad and SilverWind for participating [img]smile.gif[/img] [ May 23, 2005, 06:16 AM: Message edited by: Koga ]

05-23-2005, 06:31 AM	#3
Chunky Kong12345 Трахните Вас парни. Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: ogmftwbqq Gender: Posts: 16,708 Thanks: 62 Thanked 292 Times in 214 Posts Points: 130.19 Bank: 111,377.13 Total Points: 111,507.32 Donate	I knew I forgot something...

05-23-2005, 06:31 AM	#4
The Missing Link Professional Lurker Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: New Hyrule, Washington, US Gender: Posts: 15,674 Thanks: 83 Thanked 294 Times in 201 Posts Points: 10,547.73 Bank: 70,170.09 Total Points: 80,717.82 Donate	I figured it was something similar to that. [img]smile.gif[/img] That's a very interesting study, Koga. "There are some who call me... Link?" "Carpe Gaium Domesticum!" (Seize the Cucco!) Zelda: The Grand Adventures \| Triforce MUCK ザ行方不明リンク悪いユウモアの賢人

05-23-2005, 06:47 AM	#5
The Doctor Timelord. Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: In my Tardis Gender: Posts: 11,944 Thanks: 410 Thanked 355 Times in 246 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 75,697.34 Bank: 1,423,636.81 Total Points: 1,499,334.15 Donate	I'm glad that we could be of assistance to you, Koga.

05-23-2005, 07:49 AM	#6
Link2000 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Ontario, Canada Gender: Posts: 8,052 Thanks: 1 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Points: 16,285.15 Bank: 804.22 Total Points: 17,089.37 Donate	Hope that you get a good mark, Koga.

05-23-2005, 09:42 AM	#7
Cravdraa Moderator Join Date: May 2001 Location: It's round on the sides and high in the middle Gender: Posts: 5,675 Thanks: 51 Thanked 156 Times in 117 Posts Points: 32,948.10 Bank: 855,641.88 Total Points: 888,589.98 Donate	Sounds interesting. I'm glad I could contribute.

05-23-2005, 09:52 AM	#8
*CaptHayfever* Smash Supermod Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: (n) - the place where I am Gender: Posts: 19,500 Thanks: 176 Thanked 813 Times in 515 Posts Points: 110,773.54 Bank: 1,171.59 Total Points: 111,945.14 Donate	Cul, I speek gud Eengulsh. Very interesting stuff. And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

05-23-2005, 10:17 AM	#9
imported_ Banned Join Date: Dec 1969 Posts: 0 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 4,413.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 4,913.00 Donate	Linguistics is a hot field, and phonetics/phonology/etc is the hottest branch of that already hot field.

05-23-2005, 10:49 AM	#10
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,143 Thanks: 121 Thanked 174 Times in 120 Posts Points: 46,008.72 Bank: 3,021,450.74 Total Points: 3,067,459.46 Donate	And thanks for letting me be a part of it! gives Koga a cheese wheel Where are these lemmings going? The Super Nintendo Super Shire! Hop in line and follow them there!

05-23-2005, 11:57 AM	#11
SilverWind Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Looking up at the stars... Posts: 8,225 Thanks: 2 Thanked 5 Times in 3 Posts Points: 13,228.24 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 13,728.24 Donate	Wow! ^__^ Facinating! I'm so happy I got to participate, then got an explaination. Thank you!

05-23-2005, 12:27 PM	#12
Viceroy Nute Gunray Fallen Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: new york Gender: Posts: 35,823 Thanks: 187 Thanked 129 Times in 92 Posts Points: 87,476.99 Bank: 38,699.14 Total Points: 126,176.13 Donate	Man, that is so boring. Koga you will bore your teacher to sleep! F!

05-24-2005, 07:28 PM	#14
*Heroine of the Dragon* The Grinnie Fool! ♥ VGFCodes Staff Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: In a pretty place surrounded by sparkly faerie dust!! Gender: Posts: 27,765 Thanks: 277 Thanked 354 Times in 274 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 20,810.15 Bank: 2,417,977.64 Total Points: 2,438,787.78 Donate	Very cool, Koga!!! And you're very welcome... thank you for including us!! I hope you get the result that you're hoping for!!