Effects of syllable boundaries in Tibetan reading. 2023

Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
Plateau Brain Science Research Center, Tibet University, Lhasa, 850000, China.

Interword spaces exist in the texts of many languages that use alphabetic writing systems. In most cases, interword spaces, as a kind of word boundary information, play an important role in the reading process of readers. Tibetan also uses alphabetic writing, its text has no spaces between words as word boundary markers. Instead, there are intersyllable tshegs (" "), which are superscript dots. Interword spaces play an important role in reading as word boundary information. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate the role of tshegs and what effect replacing tshegs with spaces will have on Tibetan reading. To answer these questions, Experiment 1 was conducted in which 72 Tibetan undergraduates read three-syllable-boundary conditions (normal, spaced, and untsheged). However, in Experiment 1, because we performed the experimental operations of deleting tshegs and replacing tshegs, the spatial information distribution of Tibetan sentences under different operating conditions was different, which may have a certain potential impact on the experimental results. To rule out the underlying confounding factor, in Experiment 2, 58 undergraduates read sentences for both untsheged and alternating-color conditions. Overall, the global and local analyses revealed that tshegs, spaces, and alternating-color markers as syllable boundaries can help readers segment syllables in Tibetan reading. In Tibetan reading, both spaces and tshegs are effective visual syllable segmentation cues, and spaces are more effective visual syllable segmentation cues than tshegs.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007802 Language A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings. Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D014956 Writing The act or practice of literary composition, the occupation of writer, or producing or engaging in literary work as a profession.
D018609 Tibet An autonomous region located in central Asia, within China.

Related Publications

Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
January 2017, Frontiers in psychology,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
January 2004, Brain and language,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
December 1980, Journal of speech and hearing research,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
May 1967, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
July 2007, Memory & cognition,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
April 2021, Psychological research,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
January 2023, Frontiers in psychology,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
January 1968, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
May 1968, Behavioral science,
Danhui Wang, and Man Zeng, and Han Zhao, and Lei Gao, and Shan Li, and Zibei Niu, and Xuejun Bai, and Xiaolei Gao
April 1988, Journal of experimental child psychology,
Copied contents to your clipboard!