Universal and particular in morphological processing
- Do properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their non-concatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, itDo properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their non-concatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages.…
Author details: | Yael FarhyGND, Joao Marques VeríssimoORCiDGND, Harald ClahsenORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412541 |
Title of parent work (English): | Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe |
Subtitle (English): | evidence from Hebrew |
Publication series (Volume number): | Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (468) |
Publication type: | Postprint |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/09/26 |
Publication year: | 2016 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2018/09/26 |
Tag: | Semitic; language universals; morphology; priming |
Number of pages: | 9 |
Last Page: | 468 |
Source: | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 71 (5) (2018), S. 1125–1133 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1310917 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
Grantor: | Taylor & Francis Open Access Agreement |
License (German): | CC-BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell, keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International |
External remark: | Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle |