• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.91-107
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• 2014

The syllable frequency effect is defined as the inhibitory effect that words starting with high frequency syllable generate a longer lexical decision latency and a larger error rate than words starting with low frequency syllable do. Researchers agree that the reason of the inhibitory effect is the interference from syllable neighbors sharing a target's first syllable at the lexical level and the degree of the interference effect correlates with the number of syllable neighbors or stronger syllable neighbors which have a higher word frequency. However, although the syllable frequency can be classified as the syllable type and token frequency, previous studies in visual word recognition have used the syllable frequency without the classification. Recently Conrad, Carreiras, & Jacobs (2008) demonstrated that the syllable type frequency might reflect a sub-lexical processing level including matching from letters to syllables and the syllable token frequency might reflect competitions between a target and higher frequency words of syllable neighbors in the whole word lexical processing level. Therefore, the present study investigated their proposals using word naming tasks. Generally word naming tasks are more sensitive to sub-lexical processing. Thus, the present study expected a facilitative effect of high syllable type frequency and a null effect of high syllable token frequency. In Experiment 1, words starting with high syllable type frequency generated a faster naming latency than words starting with low syllable type frequency with holding syllable token frequency of them. In Experiment 2, high syllable token frequency also created a shorter naming time than low syllable token frequency with holding their syllable type frequency. For that reason, we rejected the propose of Conrad et al. and suggested that both type and token syllable frequency could relate to the sub-lexical processing.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.5 no.10
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• pp.1879-1890
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• 2011

Previous studies of syllable frequency effects have proposed that inhibitory effects due to high first syllable frequency were the products of competitions between activated lexical candidates within a lexical level. However, these studies have primarily used lexical decision tasks to examine the nature of syllable frequency effects. This study investigates whether a syllable frequency effect can arise in semantic categorization tasks and whether phonologically or orthographically defined syllables interact with semantically related variables such as morphological family size. If the syllable frequency effect was created by activations and competitions on a lexical level, it is highly possible that the effect was related to semantic categorization tasks. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, morphological family size and phonological syllable frequency were factorially manipulated. In Experiment 2, morphological family size and orthographic syllable frequency were factorially manipulated. The results demonstrate that morphemes have no relationship with phonological syllables but do with orthographic syllables. This suggests that phonological syllables and orthographic syllables have different roles in the syllable frequency effect on visual word recognition process.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.97-112
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• 2024

This study investigated how syllable-level variables such as syllable frequency, syllable (i.e. vowel) type, presence of final consonants (i.e. batchim) and syllable position influence naming of both words and pseudo-words. The results of the linear mixed-effects model analysis showed that, for words, naming time decreased as the frequency of the first syllable increased, and when the first syllable had a final consonant. Additionally, words were named more accurately when they had vertical vowels compared to horizontal vowels. For pseudo-words, naming time decreased and accuracy rate increased as the frequency of the first or the second syllable increased. Furthermore, pseudo-words were named more accurately when they had vertical vowels compared to horizontal vowels. These results suggest that while the frequency of the second syllable had differential effects between words and pseudo-words, the frequency of the first syllable and the syllable type had consistent effects for both words and pseudo-words. The implications of this study were discussed concerning visual word recognition processing.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.129-140
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study is to investigate frequency related information and syllable structure constraints on Sino-Korean. Previous studies on Sino-Korean have mostly investigated the historical change of sounds and reviewed archaic features of Chinese language in Sino-Korean. Unfortunately, there is little study on the sounds of contemporary Sino-Korean in terms of syllable structure constraints. For the purpose of the present study, sounds of 7,742 Chinese characters used in Sino-Korean (7,795 syllables) were investigated and syllable matrices made based on the results of frequency related information. As a result, 483 syllable types were observed and the most frequently observed syllables were as follows: /ku/ (103) > /ki/ (100) > /ju/ (87) > /pi/ (86). Only 16 out of 19 consonants are used for Sino-Korean. /$t^{\ast}$/ and /$p^{\ast}$/ are never used in Sino-Korean and /kh, $s^{\ast}$, $k^{\ast}$/ occur only a few times (3, 2, 1 respectively). /k/ (17.5%) shows the highest frequency and /n, ${\eta}$, 1, tc, m/ occupied the next rankings. Among 20 vowel types, /a/ showed the highest frequency and /o, u, i, $j{\Lambda}$, ${\Lambda}$/ occupied the next rankings. Based on the syllable matrices, gaps were observed and classified into accidental or systematic ones. Onset and nucleus, nucleus and coda, onset and coda, and other syllable structure constraints of Sino-Korean were listed.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.277-297
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• 2023

This study attempted to find out how lexical decision of two-syllable words or pseudo-words is affected by syllabic information, such as syllable frequency, syllable (i.e. vowel) type, and presence of final consonant (i.e. batchim), through the analysis of the Korean Lexicon Project Database (KLP-DB). Hierarchical regression of RT data showed that lexical decision of words was influenced by the frequency of the first syllable, the syllable type of the first and second syllables, batchim for the first and second syllables, and also by the interaction of the two syllable types and the interaction of syllable frequency and batchim of the second syllable. For pseudo-words lexical decision was influenced by the frequency of the first and second syllables, syllable type of the first syllable, and batchim for the first and second syllables, and also by the interaction of the two syllable frequencies, the interaction of the two syllable types, and the interaction of syllable frequency and batchim of the first syllable. Word frequency had a strong effect on lexical decision of words, while syllabic information had a stable effect on the lexical decision of pseudo-words. These results indicate that syllabic information should be seriously considered in constructing word and pseudo-word lists and interpreting lexical decision time. Understanding the effect of syllabic information will also contribute to the understanding of word recognition process.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.3-20
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a segmentation unit for a Korean noun is a 'syllable' and whether the process of segmenting spoken words occurs at the lexical level. A syllable monitoring task was administered which required participants to detect an auditorily presented target from visually presented words. In Experiment 1, syllable neighborhood density of high frequency words which can be segmented into both CV-CVC and CVC-VC were controlled. The syllable effect and the neighborhood density effect were significant, and the syllable effect emerged differently depending on the syllable neighborhood density. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 2 where low frequency words were used. The significance of word frequency effect on syllable effect was also examined. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that the segmentation unit for a Korean noun is indeed a 'syllable', and this process can occur at the lexical level.

• MALSORI
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• no.57
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• pp.31-42
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to observe how Korean learners perceive an English weak syllable in words containing WS syllable pattern. According to the automated discrimination task using E-Prime, the ratio of correct answer(%) and reaction time of the stimuli with same syllable patterns were respectively higher and faster than those with different syllable patterns. Specifically, in the stimuli with different syllable patterns, the frequency(familiarity) of stressed word succeeding weak syllable and whether the weak syllable had coda in it were two important factors in distinguishing between a word with and without weak syllable. Even though the high English proficiency Koreans had faster reaction time than the low English proficiency Koreans, all Korean learners had a difficulty in perceiving the weak syllable at the beginning of a word.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.28B no.9
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• pp.692-703
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• 1991

A Korean word is composed of syllables. A Korean syllable is regarded as a random variable according to its probabilistic property in occurrence. A Korean syllable is divided into 'choseong', 'jungseong', and 'jongseong' which are regarded as random variables. We can consider teh conditional probatility of syllable as an index which represents the occurrence correlation between syllables in Korean words. Since the number of syllables is enormous, we use the conditional probability of a' choseong', a 'jungseong', and a 'jongseong' between syllables as an index which represents the occurrence correlation between syllables in Korean words. The length distribution of Korean woeds is computed according to frequency and to kind. Form the cumulative frequency of a Korean syllable computed from multi-syllable Korean woeds, all probabilities and conditiona probabilities are computed for the three random variables. The conditional probabilities of 'choseong'- 'choseong', 'jungseong'- 'jungseong', 'jongseong'-'jongseong', 'jongseong'-'choseong' between adjacent syllables in multi-syllable Korean woeds are computed.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.99-107
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the syllable and phoneme frequencies in the spontaneous speech of some Korean children. Sixty four normally developing children aged from 2 to 5 were involved (male: female=1 : 1, 16 children in each age group). Fifty connected utterances were analyzed using the KCLA (Korean Computerized Language Analysis) 2.0 and Exel. The findings were as follows: 1) /i/ was the most frequently used syllable and was followed by /yo/, /k/, /s'/, /nen/ and so on. 2) The most frequently used Korean phonemes were syllable-initial consonant /k/, syllable- medial vowel /a/ and syllable-final consonant /n/. 3) All seven syllable final consonants (/p,t,k,m,n,n,l/) were used more frequently in the word-medial position than in the word-final position. Three syllable initial consonants(/k, I, s'/) were used more frequently in the word-medial position than in the word-initial position. The syllable and phoneme frequencies in the Korean children's spontaneous speech will provide valuable information in interpreting the severity of phonological disorder and in developing tools for the Korean phonological assessment and intervention.

• MALSORI
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• no.60
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• pp.29-45
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• 2006

We investigated whether the first syllable plays an important role in lexical access in Korean visual word recognition. To do so, one lexical decision task (LDT) and two form primed LDT experiments examined the nature of the syllabic neighborhood effect. In Experiment 1, the syllabic neighborhood density and the syllabic neighborhood frequency was manipulated. The results showed that lexical decision latencies were only influenced by the syllabic neighborhood frequency. The purpose of experiment 2 was to confirm the results of experiment 1 with form-primed LDT task. The lexical decision latency was slower in form-related condition compared to form-unrelated condition. The effect of syllabic neighborhood density was significant only in form-related condition. This means that the first syllable plays an important role in the sub-lexical process. In Experiment 3, we conducted another form-primed LDT task manipulating the number of syllabic neighbors in words with higher frequency neighborhood. The interaction of syllabic neighborhood density and form relation was significant. This result confirmed that the words with higher frequency neighborhood are more inhibited by neighbors sharing the first syllable than words with no higher frequency neighborhood in the lexical level. These findings suggest that the first syllable is the unit of neighborhood and the unit of representation in sub-lexical representation is syllable in Korea.