The role of syllabic structure in French visual word recognition

Abstract

Two experiments are reported in which the processing units involved in the reading of French polysyllabic words are examined. A comparison was made between units following the maximal onset principle (i.e., the spoken syllable) and units following the maximal coda principle (i.e., the basic orthographic syllabic structure {BOSS}). In the first experiment, it took longer to recognize that a syllable was the beginning of a word (e.g., the fœ of fœtus) than to make the same judgment of a BOSS (e.g., fœt). The fact that a BOSS plus one letter (e.g., fœtu) also took longer to judge than the BOSS indicated that the maximal coda principle applies to the units of processing in French. The second experiment confirmed this, using a lexical decision task with the different units being demarcated on the basis of color. It was concluded that the syllabic structure that is so clearly manifested in the spoken form of French is not involved in visual word recognition.