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The role of phonology in reading Japanese: Or why I don’t hear myself when reading Japanese

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Cognitive Processing of the Chinese and the Japanese Languages

Part of the book series: Neuropsychology and Cognition ((NPCO,volume 14))

Abstract

Based on the phenomenal experience that when I read Japanese I don’t hear ‘inner speech’, I suggest that the role of phonology may be more limited when reading text in Japanese than in English. Although this possibility has been suggested by others, I argue for somewhat different sources of this reduced role. Specifically, I propose that the greater visual discriminability of kanji words under degraded conditions, and the less important role of word order as a syntactic cue are likely to be the key factors. Relevant literature is reviewed, and directions for future research are suggested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Sachiko Kinoshita

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  1. Sachiko Kinoshita
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Correspondence to Sachiko Kinoshita .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Saskatchewan, Canada

    Che Kan Leong  & Katsuo Tamaoka  & 

  2. Hiroshima University, Japan

    Che Kan Leong  & Katsuo Tamaoka  & 

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Kinoshita, S. (1998). The role of phonology in reading Japanese: Or why I don’t hear myself when reading Japanese. In: Leong, C.K., Tamaoka, K. (eds) Cognitive Processing of the Chinese and the Japanese Languages. Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9161-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9161-4_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5140-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9161-4

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