Phonological knowledge in compensation for native and non-native assimilation

We investigated whether compensation for phonological assimilation in the first language depends on language specific knowledge of phonological processes. To this end, we tested two different assimilation rules, one that exists in English and involves place of articulation, and another that exists in French and involves voicing. Both contrasts were tested on speakers of French and American English. In two experiments using a word detection task, we observed that participants showed a significantly higher degree of compensation for phonological changes that correspond to rules existing in their language than to rules that do not exist in their language (even though they are phonologically possible since they exist in another language). Thus, French participants compensated more for voicing than place assimilation, while American English participants compensated more for place than voicing assimilation. In both experiments, we also found that the nonnative rule induced a very small but significant compensation effect, suggesting that both a language-specific and a language-independent mechanism are at play. Control experiments ensured that changes in stimuli were clearly perceived in isolation, compensation then being due to the phonological context of change, rather than to specific phonetic cues. The results are discussed in light of current models of lexical access and phonological processing.