Dual-route phonetic encoding: some acoustic evidence

Contemporary psycholinguistic models suggest that there may be two possible routes in phonetic encoding: a 'direct' route which uses stored syllabic units, and an 'indirect' route which relies on the on-line assembly of sub-syllabic units. The computationally more efficient direct route is likely to be used for high frequency words, whereas the indirect route is most likely to be used for novel or low frequency words. This paper presents some acoustic evidence that suggests that there may be dual routes operating in phonetic encoding. The data reported suggest that a group of normal speakers may be employing different routes in the phonetic encoding of high and low frequency words elicited via a repetition task. The evidence is presented and discussed within the framework of a dual-route hypothesis, and in light of other acoustic evidence reported in the literature.