TY - JOUR
T1 - Orthographic structure and deaf spelling errors: Syllables, letter frequency and speech
AU - Olson, Andrew
AU - Caramazza, A
PY - 2004/1/1
Y1 - 2004/1/1
N2 - Syllable structure influences hearing students' reading and spelling (e.g., Badecker, 1996; Caramazza Miceli, 1990; Prinzmetal, Treiman, Rho, 1986; Rapp, 1992; Treiman & Zukowski, 1988). This may seem unsurprising since hearers closely associate written and spoken words. We analysed a corpus of spelling errors made by deaf students. They would have learned English orthography with an attenuated experience of speech. Wefound that the majority of their errors were phonologically implausible but orthographically legal. A tendency to replace uncommon letter sequences with common sequences could not account for this pattern, nor could residual influence from speech. Since syllabically defined constraints are required to keep sequences orthographically legal, the deaf data are marked by an influence of syllable structure. Two main conclusions follow: (1) Our results contribute to evidence that abstract constraints, not derived from peripheral speech or hearing mechanisms, govern the organization of linguistic knowledge; and (2) statistical redundancy could not explain the deaf results. It does not offer a general alternative to suprasegmental structure.
AB - Syllable structure influences hearing students' reading and spelling (e.g., Badecker, 1996; Caramazza Miceli, 1990; Prinzmetal, Treiman, Rho, 1986; Rapp, 1992; Treiman & Zukowski, 1988). This may seem unsurprising since hearers closely associate written and spoken words. We analysed a corpus of spelling errors made by deaf students. They would have learned English orthography with an attenuated experience of speech. Wefound that the majority of their errors were phonologically implausible but orthographically legal. A tendency to replace uncommon letter sequences with common sequences could not account for this pattern, nor could residual influence from speech. Since syllabically defined constraints are required to keep sequences orthographically legal, the deaf data are marked by an influence of syllable structure. Two main conclusions follow: (1) Our results contribute to evidence that abstract constraints, not derived from peripheral speech or hearing mechanisms, govern the organization of linguistic knowledge; and (2) statistical redundancy could not explain the deaf results. It does not offer a general alternative to suprasegmental structure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=2142827926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02724980343000396
DO - 10.1080/02724980343000396
M3 - Article
SN - 1747-0226
SN - 1464-0740
VL - 57A
SP - 385
EP - 417
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
IS - 3
ER -