The graphematic foot in English and German

Abstract In traditional graphematics words are represented as a linear sequence of letters. We will present a non-linear graphematic approach which supplements linearity with a hierarchical graphematic structure. This hierarchy of graphematic units comprises letter features, letters, graphemes, syllables, feet and words. We will present structural and experimental evidence for this hierarchical organisation of graphematic units. Our focus lies on the graphematic foot and on the graphematics of English and German. We have found an asymmetry between a canonical and a non-canonical structural organisation of graphematic words. The regularities found in these types of structure can be captured with reference to hierarchical graphematic structures and to foot structures in particular. In order to elucidate whether graphematic foot structure is a relevant unit in graphematics that may influence the analysis of the corresponding phonological foot structure we have conducted a production experiment with German pseudowords.