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On the use of lexical stress in reading Spanish

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Abstract

This paper investigates whether or not lexical stress is used for lexical access in Spanish. A lexical decision task and a masking priming procedure were used to compare correctly-versus-incorrectly stressed words (e.g., técla-TECLA vs. teclá-TECLA). SOA (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) was manipulated at 33, 66, 100, and 143 ms. The results showed that congruent condition was easier, but in 143 ms SOA only. Furthermore, while congruent condition did not differ from a control identity condition (e.g., tecla-TECLA) incongruent condition was slower, but in 100 and 143 ms SOA only. All these results suggest that stress affects lexical access at a late stage of lexical access processing. Reading models should be re-designed in order to include lexical stress as another phonological code which is used for reading.

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Notes

  1. For example, while áctor would be possible (because the stress mark is used to indicate an exception to the general rule that words ending in a consonant have final stress) actór is not possible (because the stress mark can not be used in the final syllable except when it ends in a vowel or in n or s). Similarly, técla (key) is not possible (because words with penultimate stress never bear the stress mark when they end in a vowel) while teclá would be possible.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the previous draft of this manuscript. Thanks are also due to the Spanish Government for its support through the project titled ‘Marcos estructurales y su utilización en Percepción, Producción y Adquisición del Lenguaje [Structural Frames in Language Perception, Production, and Acquisition]’, reference: BS02002-02993.

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Correspondence to Nicolás Gutiérrez-Palma.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix I Lists of words

   

Appendix II Lists of pseudowords

   

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Gutiérrez-Palma, N., Palma-Reyes, A. On the use of lexical stress in reading Spanish. Read Writ 21, 645–660 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-007-9082-x

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