Processing unfamiliar words : a study in the perception and production of native and foreign placenames
This thesis sets out to examine some of the linguistic processes which take place when speakers are faced with unfamiliar and potentially foreign place names, and the possible psycholinguistic origins of these processes. It is concluded that lexical networks are used to map from input to output, and that phonological rule-based models do not fully account for the data. Previous studies of nativisation have tended to catalogue the phonological and spelling changes which have taken place in historical examples, and explanations have generally been limited to comparison of details of the borrowed and borrowing languages, rather than being set in a solid linguistic framework describing the ways in which speakers and readers process words. There have been psycholinguistic studies of unfamiliar words, but these have generally ignored the foreign dimension, and have been limited in scope. Traditional linguistic work, meanwhile, focuses on descriptions, either abstract or more related to mental processes, of the language that we know and use every day. Studies of foreign language also have a rather different focus from the current work, as they examine what happens when we attempt, over a period of time, to acquire
Fitt, S. E.
Processing unfamiliar words : a study in the perception and production of native and foreign placenames. This thesis sets out to examine some of the linguistic processes which take place when speakers are faced with unfamiliar and potentially foreign place names, and the possible psycholinguistic origins of these processes. It is concluded that lexical networks are used to map from input to output, and that phonological rule-based models do not fully account for the data. Previous studies of nativisation have tended to catalogue the phonological and spelling changes which have taken place in historical examples, and explanations have generally been limited to comparison of details of the borrowed and borrowing languages, rather than being set in a solid linguistic framework describing the ways in which speakers and readers process words. There have been psycholinguistic studies of unfamiliar words, but these have generally ignored the foreign dimension, and have been limited in scope. Traditional linguistic work, meanwhile, focuses on descriptions, either abstract or more related to mental processes, of the language that we know and use every day. Studies of foreign language also have a rather different focus from the current work, as they examine what happens when we attempt, over a period of time, to acquire
processing unfamiliar word study perception_production native foreign set_examine linguistic process take_place speaker face unfamiliar potentially foreign place_name possible psycholinguistic origin process concluded lexical network use map input output phonological rule based_model fully account_data previous_study tend catalogue phonological spelling change_take_place historical example explanation generally limit comparison detail borrow borrowing language rather set solid linguistic_framework describe way speaker reader process word psycholinguistic study unfamiliar word generally ignore foreign dimension limited scope traditional linguistic work meanwhile focus description either abstract related mental_process language know use studies foreign_language also rather different focus current work examine happen attempt period_time acquire