• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.45-56
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• 2019

This study investigated the interaction between phonological phrase boundary and word frequency variable in Korean speech processing. A word monitoring task was performed to examine the interference caused by the frequency effect of target word depending on whether a phonological phrase is formed within the target word. Frequency of target word (high vs low) and phonological phrase boundary (within target word vs between target words) were applied as between and within subject condition respectively. Our results showed the significant main effect of the phonological phrase boundary and the significant interaction. In the post-hoc analysis, the high-frequency target words were detected significantly faster than the low-frequency target words only in the within phonological phrase boundary condition. Frequency effect in the between phonological phrase boundary condition did not appear. The results indicated that the phonological phrase boundary and word frequency variable played an important role in Korean speech processing. In particular, we discussed the possibility of processing the word frequency at the very early sensory information processing stage based on the interaction of two experimental factors.