Wait, was that bruise or brews? Utilizing acoustic cues in word recognition of morphologically simple and complex homophones

This study investigates listeners' sensitivity to acoustic cues in recognizing morphologically simple (e.g., bruise, freeze) and complex (e.g., brews, frees) homophones. Previous studies demonstrated that native speakers of English use distinct acoustic cues in producing morphologically simple versus complex forms (e.g., Walsh and Parker, 1983; Plag et al., 2014; Seyfarthet al., 2018). For example, Seyfarth et al. (2018) reported that both the stem (e.g., brew, free) and the segment “si” are longer in duration in morphologically complex words compared to those in monomorphemic counterparts. It still remains in question whether listeners utilize this information in recognizing morphologically simple versus complex homophones. To answer this question, a listening comprehension study is conducted: 20 participants are asked to select the word that they thought they heard. The stimuli have three conditions: (1) both the s and stem length are longer in complex words than simple words, (2) only the s is longer, and (3) only the stem is longer. The influence of each durational cue on the listeners' responses and their response time is analyzed. The results will show whether the distinct acoustic cues available in the input are meaningfully coded and used in speech perception.