How Spanish phonotactics informs psycholinuistic models of speech production

This study emphasizes the importance of close examination of language-specific phonotactic patterns when testing models of language processing. The results of a delayed naming task testing native speakers’ reactions to nonwords containing licit vs. proscribed patterns of stress and syllable structure offer empirical data to inform models of speech production. While the findings generally support a postlexical locus of syllable-level encoding (Levelt et al. 1999), the data also pose challenges for this model. It is argued that the model must identify more clearly the locus of and the interaction between stress-level and syllable-level encoding. The findings also suggest that the self-monitoring system may track phonotactic patterns in addition to conceptual accuracy.