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On Detecting Words and Word Boundaries in Finnish: A Survey of Potential Word Boundary Signals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Kari Suomi
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Department of Finnish and General Linguistics/Phonetics, Henrikinkatu 2, 20500 Turku, Finland
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Abstract

Two models are presented of how the listener detects words in utterances. The first model assumes that the listener takes advantage of phonetic word boundary signals (WBSs), non-phonetic information not being necessary for word detection. The second model assumes that word detection relies on the use of non-phonetic knowledge of the language, words being detected through the recognition of the preceding word. Thus WBSs may not be necessary for word detection. The WBSs suggested for Finnish are evaluated against this background. The phonotactic WBSs are found unreliable or useless, the others limited in applicability or experimentally unsupported. The models and the results of the survey will direct future investigations of word detection and recognition in Finnish.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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