• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.27-35
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the lexical representation of phonological variants derived from optional vs. obligatory phonological processes. Given that place assimilation is optionally processed, whereas nasal assimilation is obligatory in Korean, a long-term repetition priming experiment was conducted, using a shadowing task. Korean speakers shadowed words containing either assimilated or unassimilated consonants in three priming conditions and their shadow responses were evaluated. It was shown that in both place and nasal assimilations, shadowing latencies for unassimilated stimuli were longer than those for assimilated stimuli in the mismatched condition. These results suggest that even in the optional assimilation, assimilated variants were processed more easily and faster than the canonical variants. The present results argue against the frequency-based account of multiple lexical representation (Connine, 2004; Connine & Pinnow, 2006; Ranbom & Connine, 2007; $B{\ddot{u}rki$, Ernestus, & Frauenfelder, 2010; $B{\ddot{u}rki$, Alario, & Frauenfelder, 2011).