Interpreting experience enhances the use of lexical stress and syllabic structure to predict L2 word endings

Abstract Prediction underlies many life’s situations including language. Monolinguals and advanced L2 learners use prosodic cues such as stress tone in a word’s first syllable to predict the suffix. To determine whether same findings extend words with non-morphological endings, we investigate Spanish monolinguals of without interpreting experience (stressed, unstressed) syllabic structure (CV, CVC) initial its ending. This is crucial understand associations underlying prediction are morphophonolexical or purely phonolexical. Interpreters were included due their extensive predicting incoming speech. Participants completed an eye-tracking study where they listened sentence while seeing two selected word heard. Results revealed that interpreters predicted endings under all conditions, but non-interpreters only CVC oxytone condition. These relevant for (1) accounts, showing phonolexical trigger prediction; (2) phonological models, revealing information key accessing meaning; (3) processing indicating suprasegmental access lexical items similar monolinguals.