Nina Kazanina|Jeffrey S. Bowers|William J. Idsardi
Phonemes: Lexical access and beyond
University of Bristol|University of Bristol|University of Maryland, College Park
phonemes play central role traditional theories units speech perception access codes lexical representations phonemes two essential properties segmentsized size consonant vowel abstract single phoneme may different acoustic realisations nevertheless long history challenging phoneme hypothesis theorists arguing differently sized phonological units eg features syllables others rejecting abstract codes favour representations encode detailed acoustic properties stimulus phoneme hypothesis minority view today defend phoneme hypothesis two complementary ways first show rejection phonemes based flawed interpretation empirical findings example commonly argued failure find acoustic invariances phonemes rules phonemes however lack invariance problem assumption speech perception bottomup process learned sublexical codes modified topdown constraints argument loses force second provide strong positive evidence phonemes basis linguistic data almost findings taken incorrectly evidence phonemes based psycholinguistic studies single words however phonemes first introduced linguistics best evidence phonemes comes linguistic analyses complex word forms sentences short rejection phonemes based false analysis toonarrow consideration relevant data