L'assimilation de voisement en français : elle vaut pour les non-mots autant que les mots (Voice assimilation in French: It applies to nonwords just like to words) [in French]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Voice assimilation in French: It applies to nonwords just like to words Recent studies on voice assimilation in French have addressed several important issues. Firstly, is this assimilation process gradient or categorical? Recent analyses of how distributions of voicing ratio change with assimilating to non-assimilating contexts suggest that assimilation is optional but is complete when it occurs. It would therefore be categorical. In this study, we refine these observations with the analysis of some secondary cues to voicing (e.g., closure duration). We also address the issue of whether the occurrence of assimilation is motivated by phonological rules that can be generalized to any item or, rather, is determined by internalized statistics on heard or produced utterances. We use the extreme situation of nonwords in assimilating vs. nonassimilating context. In read speech, voice assimilation affects nonwords as much as words, supporting rule-based rather than statistical accounts. MOTS-CLES : assimilation de voisement, français, parole lue, non-mots.