Processing (un-)predictable word stress: ERP evidence from Turkish

This paper investigates the way the predictability of prosodic patterns in a particular language influences the processing of stress information by native speakers of that language. We extend previous findings where speakers of languages with predictable stress had difficulties to process and represent stress information when confronted with a language with distinctive stress and investigate how the co-existence of a predictable stress pattern and exceptions to that regularity within a single language influences prosodic processing. The stress system of Turkish constitutes an instructive test case since it employs predictable stress on the final syllable of a prosodic word (e.g., misir “corn”) and some exceptional nonfinal stress (e.g., misir “Egypt”). Results from an event-related potential (ERP) study on stress violations in Turkish trisyllabic words showed asymmetrical ERP responses for different stress violations: Stress violations with final stress produced an N400 effect whereas violations with nonf...