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- Volume 8, Issue, 2013
The Mental Lexicon - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2013
Volume 8, Issue 1, 2013
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It’s time to do the math: Computation and retrieval in phrase production
Author(s): Simone Sprenger and Hedderik van Rijnpp.: 1–25 (25)More LessResearch suggests that the lexicon stores high-frequent combinations of words (e.g., Arnon & Snider, 2010), thereby optimizing the balance between computation and retrieval during language comprehension. Here, we studied whether the production of multi-word expressions is optimized in a similar way. First, we measured speech onset latencies for Dutch clock-time expressions. Second, we developed a statistical model of these latencies, using two types of predictors: (1) the speech-onset latencies for arithmetic problems involved in Dutch clock time naming, and (2) the expressions’ Google frequencies. The resulting model explains 94% of the variance in our naming study. We conclude that phrase production shows the same frequency-driven balance between online computation and lexicon-related retrieval found in phrase comprehension.
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(Ir)regularity of verbs revisited: Evidence for lexical entry complexity
Author(s): Helena Trompelt, Denisa Bordag and Thomas Pechmannpp.: 26–52 (27)More LessIn three experiments we explored the representation and encoding of verb regularity. Contrasting articulation latencies of present and past regular and irregular forms from paradigms consisting of regular, irregular, or hybrid verbs (regular in present, but irregular in past tense), allowed us to differentiate between affixation and stem selection processes. The analyses revealed that regular verbs in the present and past tense were produced significantly faster than all other forms. Crucially, the naming latencies of hybrid and irregular verbs did not differ from each other in both tenses. We conclude that regularity is not a property of individual verb forms, but generalizes to all forms within a paradigm. In a third, picture word interference experiment, we tested whether regularity, when not bound to individual verb forms, is represented in the form of abstract regularity nodes, as assumed for gender or conjugational class. However, the critical conditions did not exhibit the expected congruency effect. Consequently we conclude that the paradigmatic effects could be explained as a result of the complexity of lexical entries. The retrieval of a complex entry (irregular and hybrid verbs) takes longer than the retrieval of a single stem entry (regular verbs).
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Plurals as modifiers in Dutch and English noun-noun compounds express plurality in production
Author(s): Arina Banga, Esther Hanssen, Anneke Neijt and Robert Schreuderpp.: 53–74 (22)More LessThe present study investigates the relation between conceptual plurality and the occurrence of a plural morpheme in novel Dutch and English noun-noun compounds. Using a picture-naming task, we compared the naming responses of native Dutch speakers and native English speakers to pictures depicting either one or multiple instances of the same object serving as a possible modifier in a novel noun-noun compound. While the speakers of both languages most frequently produced novel compounds containing a singular modifier, they also used compounds containing a plural modifier and did this more often to describe a picture with several instances of an object than to describe a picture with one instance of the object. Speakers of English incorporated some regular plurals into the noun-noun compounds they produced. These results contradict the words-and-rules theory of Pinker (1999) and also the semantic constraints for compounding put forth by Alegre and Gordon (1996). Interestingly, it appears, however, that the acceptability constraints put forth by Haskell, MacDonald, and Seidenberg (2003) apply to the production of compounds.
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Processing of English compounds is sensitive to the constituents’ semantic transparency
Author(s): Rowan El-Bialy, Christina L. Gagné and Thomas L. Spaldingpp.: 75–95 (21)More LessCompounds vary in terms of the extent to which the constituents’ meanings contribute to the meaning of the compound, and there is an ongoing debate about whether the semantic representations of the constituents of opaque compounds are available during compound processing. Three lexical decision experiments investigated whether semantically priming the first constituent of a compound influenced the processing of that compound. Experiment 1 found semantic priming for fully transparent (TT) compounds but not for OT compounds. Experiment 2 found semantic priming for TT compounds, but not for TO compounds. Experiment 3 found semantic priming for fully opaque (OO) compounds, but not for TO compounds. Our results suggest that semantic transparency is a property of processing, not of representation.
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Assessing automatic processing of hypernymic relations in first language speakers and advanced second language learners: A semantic priming approach
Author(s): Scott A. Crossleypp.: 96–116 (21)More LessThis study investigates the depth of lexical knowledge in first language (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners in reference to hierarchical word knowledge. Eighty-eight participants took part in a lexical decision task that assessed their speed and accuracy in recognizing words and nonwords. Prime and target pairs in the lexical decision task were related words (hyponynm to hypernym and hypernym to hyponym), unrelated words, or word to nonwords. The findings indicate bidirectional priming in L1 participants such that associated pairs (hyponynm to hypernym and hypernym to hyponym) were processed faster than unrelated words. For L2 participants, unidirectional priming effects were reported for the hyponynm to hypernym condition only. These findings provide evidence that hierarchical lexical networks characterize L1 lexicons but not L2 networks. Such findings provide important information about the organizational properties of L1 and L2 lexicons.
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