Presentation

How Misperception Affects the Structure of the L2 Mental Lexicon: A Conceptual Replication of Cutler (2005)

---

Abstract

Cutler (2005) was one ofthe first attempts to quantify how misperception of second language (L2) sounds might affect word recognition. In this conceptual replication, we build on Cutler’s work by replicating her analyses using the EVP Phon database—which we designed to simulate the L2 English mental lexicon—and focus on how misperception might affect the structure of the mental lexicon. Misperceiving L2 sounds may lead learners to create lexical representations that are pseudo-homophones (e.g., if a learnercannot discriminate English /ɛ/-/æ/, then pen-pan are homophones) or pseudo-phonological neighbors (e.g., pen /pɛn/ and man /mæn/ are phonological neighbors when they should not be). We quantify the number of pseudo-homophones and pseudo-neighbors in a learner’s mental lexicon at each CEFR proficiency level for two misperception patterns: /ɛ/-/æ/ and /l/-/r/. This allows us to analyze how lexical encoding issues could grow as more words areadded to the lexicon.

Keywords: Mental lexicon, Speech perception, Phonological networks, Second language learning

How to Cite:

 

Rocca, B., Martino, F., & Darcy, I. (2024).  How Misperception Affects the Structure of the L2 Mental Lexicon: A Conceptual Replication of Cutler (2005). In D. J. Olson, J. L. Sturm, O. Dmitrieva, & J. M. Levis (eds), Proceedings of 14^th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, (pp. 1-12). Purdue University, September 2023. https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.17573