The time course of sociolinguistic influences on wordlikeness judgments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2016/07/0026/000285Keywords:
wordlikeness, neighbourhood density, bilingualism, gender, time courseAbstract
This study examined how and when sociolinguistic factors affect wordlikeness judgments by near-native bilinguals of Mandarin, the prestige language of Taiwan, and Southern Min (Taiwanese). Auditory syllables nonlexical in both languages were recorded by two bilingual speakers, one with a S. Min accent and one with a Mandarin accent. Accent and target language (judging the syllables as Mandarin-like or as S. Min-like) were crossed across participant groups. Binary judgments collected via the Worldlikeness Web app were analyzed in terms of target language, accent, participant gender, Mandarin and S. Min neighbourhood density, and reaction time. Response patterns were affected by all of these variables, including reaction time, in ways consistent with the differing social status of the two languages.
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