Prosodic structure in audiovisual spoken word recognition

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Alexandra Jesse
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2006 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 25022988

The research project extends current research by investigating for the first time the role ofauditory and visual prosody in audiovisual spoken word recognition. Within this novel field ofresearch, the focus of the current project will be on two key issues in how prosody might influence(audiovisual) word recognition, namely (a) how visual lexical stress information constrains lexicalcompetition, and (b) how visual prosodic cues aid the segmentation of continuous speech. Foreach issue, it will be investigated in newly developed audiovisual versions of on-line wordrecognition tasks, such as fragment priming and word monitoring, whether visual prosodic cuesinfluence these processes, what the specific nature of these visual cues is, and how exactly thesecues influence word recognition. The current project will seek to deepen our understanding ofphonological knowledge by specifying how quantitative models of spoken word recognition coulduse visual information for segmentation and/or in the retrieval of lexical stress. More generally,the goal of this project is to develop a theory of phonological competence, with regard to lexicalknowledge, that takes visual as well as auditory, segmental and suprasegmental information intoaccount.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1234: Phonological and Phonetic Competence: Between Grammar, Signal Processing and Neural Activity