음성음운형태론연구 32집 1호 Kim, Hyun-ju (김현주)
2026.05.08 12:04
Pitch accent in North Kyungsang Korean spoken-word recognition
Abstract
This study investigates the role of pitch accent in spoken-word recognition in North Kyungsang Korean (NKK), where pitch accent is lexically specified. Perception experiments were designed to examine whether pitch accent contributes to lexical access in NKK and whether its use differs across age groups, using a lexical decision priming paradigm adapted from Katsuda and Steffman (2022) with modifications for NKK lexical activation. The results showed that pitch accent significantly facilitates lexical access in NKK. Both older and younger NKK listeners responded faster to target words when preceded by identity primes matching both segmentally and suprasegmentally than when preceded by segmentally matching primes. Notably, younger NKK listeners remained highly sensitive to pitch accent despite ongoing changes in their production patterns, revealing a significant priming effect from pitch accent primes but no facilitation from segment primes, in contrast to the control group’s reliable priming effects from segment primes but not from pitch accent. These findings suggest that pitch accent information clearly constrains lexical activation in NKK and that tonal change in production and perception is not necessarily synchronous.
Keywords
Kyungsang Korean, pitch accent, spoken-word recognition, priming paradigm, suprasegmental information, lexical access, sound change
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