@article{JaenschHeyerGordonetal.2014, author = {Jaensch, Carol and Heyer, Vera and Gordon, Peter and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {What plurals and compounds reveal about constraints in word formation}, series = {Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics}, volume = {21}, journal = {Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics}, number = {4}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1048-9223}, doi = {10.1080/10489223.2014.892949}, pages = {319 -- 338}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Morphological systems are constrained in how they interact with each other. One case that has been widely studied in the psycholinguistic literature is the avoidance of plurals inside compounds (e.g. *rats eater vs. rat eater) in English and other languages, the so-called plurals-in-compounds effect. Several previous studies have shown that both adult and child speakers are sensitive to this contrast, but the question of whether semantic, morphological, or surface-form constraints are responsible for the plurals-in-compounds effect remains controversial. The present study provides new empirical evidence from adult and child English to resolve this controversy. Graded linguistic judgments were obtained from 96 children (age range: 7;06 to 12;08) and 32 adults. In the task, participants were asked to rate compounds containing different kinds of singular or plural modifiers. The results indicated that both children and adults disliked regular plurals inside compounds, whereas irregular plurals were rated as marginal and singulars as fully acceptable. Furthermore, acceptability ratings were found not to be affected by the phonological surface form of a compound-internal modifier. We conclude that semantic and morphological (rather than surface-form) constraints are responsible for the plurals-in-compounds effect, in both children and adults.}, language = {en} } @article{HeyerKornishova2018, author = {Heyer, Vera and Kornishova, Dana}, title = {Semantic transparency affects morphological priming ... eventually}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {71}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {5}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2017.1310915}, pages = {1112 -- 1124}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Semantic transparency has been in the focus of psycholinguistic research for decades, with the controversy about the time course of the application of morpho-semantic information during the processing of morphologically complex words not yet resolved. This study reports two masked priming studies with English -ness and Russian -ost' nominalisations, investigating how semantic transparency modulates native speakers' morphological priming effects at short and long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). In both languages, we found increased morphological priming for nominalisations at the transparent end of the scale (e.g. paleness - pale) in comparison to items at the opaque end of the scale (e.g. business - busy) but only at longer prime durations. The present findings are in line with models that posit an initial phase of morpho-orthographic (semantically blind) decomposition.}, language = {en} } @article{VerissimoHeyerJacobetal.2018, author = {Verissimo, Joao Marques and Heyer, Vera and Jacob, Gunnar and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Selective effects of age of acquisition on morphological priming}, series = {Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics}, volume = {25}, journal = {Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics}, number = {3}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1048-9223}, doi = {10.1080/10489223.2017.1346104}, pages = {315 -- 326}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional (but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturational factors.}, language = {en} } @article{ClacksonHeyer2014, author = {Clackson, Kaili and Heyer, Vera}, title = {Reflexive anaphor resolution in spoken language comprehension: structural constraints and beyond}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, volume = {5}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00904}, pages = {9}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We report results from an eye-tracking during listening study examining English-speaking adults' online processing of reflexive pronouns, and specifically whether the search for an antecedent is restricted to syntactically appropriate positions. Participants listened to a short story where the recipient of an object was introduced with a reflexive, and were asked to identify the object recipient as quickly as possible. This allowed for the recording of participants' offline interpretation of the reflexive, response times, and eye movements on hearing the reflexive. Whilst our offline results show that the ultimate interpretation for reflexives was constrained by binding principles, the response time, and eye-movement data revealed that during processing participants were temporarily distracted by a structurally inappropriate competitor antecedent when this was prominent in the discourse. These results indicate that in addition to binding principles, online referential decisions are also affected by discourse-level information.}, language = {en} } @article{ClahsenGerthHeyeretal.2015, author = {Clahsen, Harald and Gerth, Sabrina and Heyer, Vera and Schott, Esther}, title = {Morphology constrains native and non-native word formation in different ways Evidence from plurals inside compounds}, series = {The mental lexicon}, volume = {10}, journal = {The mental lexicon}, number = {1}, publisher = {Benjamins}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {1871-1340}, doi = {10.1075/ml.10.1.03cla}, pages = {53 -- 87}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The role of morphological and syntactic information in non-native second language (L2) comprehension is controversial. Some have argued that late bilinguals rapidly integrate grammatical cues with other information sources during reading or listening in the same way as native speakers. Others claim that structural cues are underused in L2 processing. We examined different kinds of modifiers inside compounds (e.g. singulars vs. plurals, *rat eater vs. rats eater) with respect to this controversy which are subject to both structural and nonstructural constraints. Two offline and two online (eye-movement) experiments were performed examining the role of these constraints in spoken language comprehension of English and German, testing 77 advanced L2 learners. We also compared the L2 groups to corresponding groups of native speakers. Our results suggest that despite native-like sensitivity to the compounding constraints, late bilinguals rely more on non-structural constraints and are less able to revise their initial interpretations than L1 comprehenders.}, language = {en} } @article{HeyerClahsen2014, author = {Heyer, Vera and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Late bilinguals see a scan in scanner AND in scandal: dissecting formal overlap from morphological priming in the processing of derived words}, series = {Bilingualism : language and cognition.}, volume = {18}, journal = {Bilingualism : language and cognition.}, number = {3}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728914000662}, pages = {543 -- 550}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Masked priming research with late (non-native) bilinguals has reported facilitation effects following morphologically derived prime words (scanner - scan). However, unlike for native speakers, there are suggestions that purely orthographic prime-target overlap (scandal - scan) also produces priming in non-native visual word recognition. Our study directly compares orthographically related and derived prime-target pairs. While native readers showed morphological but not formal overlap priming, the two prime types yielded the same magnitudes of facilitation for non-natives. We argue that early word recognition processes in a non-native language are more influenced by surface-form properties than in one's native language.}, language = {en} } @article{JacobHeyerVerissimo2018, author = {Jacob, Gunnar and Heyer, Vera and Verissimo, Joao Marques}, title = {Aiming at the same target}, series = {International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior}, volume = {22}, journal = {International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior}, number = {6}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1367-0069}, doi = {10.1177/1367006916688333}, pages = {619 -- 637}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: We compared the processing of morphologically complex derived vs. inflected forms in native speakers of German and highly proficient native Russian second language (L2) learners of German. Design/methodology/approach: We measured morphological priming effects for derived and inflected German words. To ensure that priming effects were genuinely morphological, the design also contained semantic and orthographic control conditions. Data and analysis: 40 native speakers of German and 36 native Russian learners of L2 German participated in a masked-priming lexical-decision experiment. For both participant groups, priming effects for derived vs. inflected words were compared using linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: While first language (L1) speakers showed similar facilitation effects for both derived and inflected primes, L2 speakers showed a difference between the two prime types, with robust priming effects only for derived, but not for inflected forms. Originality: Unlike in previous studies investigating derivation and inflection in L2 processing, priming effects for derived and inflected prime-target pairs were determined on the basis of the same target word, allowing for a direct comparison between the two morphological phenomena. In this respect, this is the first study to directly compare the processing of derived vs. inflected forms in L2 speakers. Significance/implications: The results are inconsistent with accounts predicting general L1/L2 differences for all types of morphologically complex forms as well as accounts assuming that L1 and L2 processing are based on the same mechanisms. We discuss theoretical implications for L2 processing mechanisms, and propose an explanation which can account for the data pattern.}, language = {en} }