decomposing morphologically complex words: across...

Decomposing morphologically complex words: Across contexts and word types II

Robert Fiorentino

Neurolinguistics & Language Processing Lab

Department of Linguistics

University of Kansas

MorphologyFest 2014, Talk 3

Today’s plan

Talk 3: Decomposing morphologically complex words: Across contexts and word types II

Last time, I used masked priming and lexical decision to demonstrate that compounds are processed via constituents, and that transparency affected post-decompositional processing, rather than precluding decomposition



To summarize where we are so far:1. Evidence from lexical decision/MEG for compound

constituent activation 2. Evidence from masked priming that compounds are

segmented and yield constituent activation regardless of transparency

3. Lexical decision evidence that compound processing is both morpheme-based and affected by transparency

4. Masked, unmasked, and ERP evidence that even novel putatively complex words (including novel compounds) show constituent activation (though not always easy to distinguish from orthographic activation)


Taken together, these findings are consistent in suggesting that word recognition involves segmenting or “sampling” the input for minimal morphological units.

Segmentation system:(i) is not necessarily dependent on “affix stripping”(ii) Appears robust to at least some regular morpho-orthotactic changes (McCormick et al., 2008, 2009)(iii) Operates across the board, not strongly constrained by semantic transparency or lexicality(iv) “Exhaustivity” (though recall our discussion of pseudoembedded nonwords like slegrack)

Today’s plan

Talk 3: Decomposing morphologically complex words: Across contexts and word types II

Today, I’d like to extend the discussion to include derivation and inflection, and to engage issues related to regular/irregular distinction and productivity

We will also extend the cross-linguistic coverage of our discussion along the way


A major focus in research on derivation has concerned the impact of productivity on complex word recognition

Example: English de-adjectival nominalization

darkness humidity

Derivation

-nessRelatively productive

-ityRelatively unproductive

Does limited productivity lead to non-decompositional/whole-word based storage and processing?

To better understand the locus of productivity effects, cross-method research is called for

We will discuss one study from my lab that takes this approach

Our test case will be de-adjectival nominalization, but in Japanese

We’ll also examine related findings from priming and lexical decision

Derivation

It has been argued that deviations from productivity may engender whole-word storage and access for some derived words (e.g., Clahsen et al., 2003; Hagiwara et al., 1999).

However, it remains unclear whether productivity indeed constrains initial lexical access in this way.

Fiorentino et al. (2010): Productivity and Priming

Hagiwara et al. (1999): Japanese productive de-adjectival nominals (-sa suffixed words) are derived by rule, while unproductive deadjectival nominals (-mi suffixed words) are listed in the lexicon

Evidence from acceptability judgments and aphasiology


Clahsen et al. (2003): Only productive derivation is aligned with inflection in terms of involvement of morphological combinatorics, in contrast to unproductive derivation/irregular affixation

Evidence from cross-modal priming/lexical decision

(cross-modal priming: auditorily-presented prime word, visually-presented target word)


Marslen-Wilson et al. (1996): Evidence from cross-modal priming in English, arguing for morphological-level processing of productive but not unproductive affixed words

Consistent with a range of findings from other unmasked paradigms and lexical decision studies suggesting productivity effects (e.g., Ford et al., 2010, Anshen & Aronoff, 1988; Bradley, 1979, Plag & Baayen, 2009)

When do productivity effects come into play? Do they preclude initial segmentation/activation, or operate later?


Silva & Clahsen (2008): Masked priming experiments on priming of stems of productive English de-adjectival nominals (e.g. bitterness-bitter) and their unproductive counterparts (e.g., humidity-humid)

Robust priming of both word types, tested in separate experiments (no orthographic control condition)

Consistent with a view in which all potentially complex words are initially decomposed during visual word recognition, not initially constrained by productivity


Fiorentino, Naito-Billen, & Minai (2010):

Utilize masked priming and unmasked, longer-duration priming to test this, using the -sa/-mi contrast in Japanese

Examine new contrast and language

Similarities/differences with the English case

Methodological differences


Japanese De-adjectival Nominalization:

Productive -sa affix (e.g., haya-sa ‘quick-ness’)

Unproductive -mi affix (e.g., maru-mi ‘round-ness’)

-sa attaches to most all adjectives; -mi limited to ~30 words in Japanese Thus, we are able to test virtually all attested

examples of -mi in our study on this phenomenon

Unlike English -ness vs. -ity, -sa and -mi are matched in length and -mi does not involve stem changes


Japanese De-adjectival Nominalization:

-sa readily attaches to newly-coined/borrowed words; -migenerally does not

fansii-sa; *fansii-mi ‘fanciness’

It has been argued that –mi takes on more extended meanings (see Clahsen & Ikemoto, 2012 for discussion)

tsuyo-i (“strong”)

tsuyo-sa (“strength”) tsuyo-mi (“virtue”)


We conducted two priming studies on –sa and –mi in Japanese

I. Masked priming (49 ms SOA) experiment

Will we see similar masked morphological priming patterns with productive/unproductive words (and in Japanese)?

II. Unmasked priming (252 ms SOA) experiment

Will productivity effects emerge with this longer duration, conscious presentation of the primes?



Productive Condition: 30 i-adjective primes, –sa suffixed de-adjectival nouns as targets

Unproductive Condition: 30 i-adjective prime, –mi suffixed de-adjectival nouns as targets

Orthographic-Overlap Condition: 30 prime-target pairs matching in orthography except at the end of the word, mirrors proportion/position of prime-target orthographic overlap in the other conditions


In this study, we presented the –sa and –mi words as targets

Thus, in this study, we will be able to see the effect of pre-activating the root, on how each word type is processed


The primes for the –sa and –mi words are also complex (they carry an –i adjectival ending)


Primes/targets: Matched on frequency, length, proportion of overlap

Fillers: 30 additional unrelated prime-target pairs to reduce relatedness proportion to 37.5%

120 real-word prime, nonword target pairs were also included as fillers (1:1 word:nonword ratio)

Semantic relatedness: assessed for each item in pencil-and-paper rating study (N=74 native Japanese speakers)

I. Masked priming (49 ms SOA) experimentII. Unmasked priming (252 ms SOA) experiment

Trial structure:

Mask (hash marks) for 500 ms (12pt Times New Roman)

Presentation of prime (11pt PMingLiu font) for 49 or 252 ms

Presentation of target (12pt MS PMincho font) until lexical decision or 3000 ms timeout


Results: Masked Priming


Robust, equivalent priming (facilitation) for productive and unproductive conditions

Marginal inhibition for orthographic condition Effects not modulated by semantic relatedness

Results: Unmasked Priming


Robust priming (facilitation) for productive and unproductive conditions, but significantly reduced for unproductive

Significant inhibition for orthographic condition Effects not modulated by semantic relatedness

Results: Unmasked Priming


Evidence of morpheme-based processing of productive and unproductive complex word targets; pre-activation of the stem facilitates processing of both productive and unproductive target words

Evidence suggests initial access to morphemes of both productive and unproductive de-adjectival nominals, dissociable from semantic and orthographic effects

Cross-task, cross-linguistic converging evidence suggesting that productivity may constrain processes subsequent to initial morphological analysis, rather than precluding a morphological parse


Converging evidence:

Clahsen & Ikemoto (2012): Masked priming (-sa and –mi words were primes in this study)


Clahsen & Ikemoto (2012): equivalent masked priming for –sa and –mi words


They also tested a version with Kana/Kanji, and find a similar pattern

No orthographic condition but argued effects are not orthographic via analysis of fillers

Clahsen & Ikemoto (2012): Whole-word frequency effect found in unprimed lexical decision in another experiment for both word types


Clahsen & Ikemoto (2012): Whole-word frequency effect found in lexical decisions in another experiment for both word types


Taken together, these findings suggest initial, across-the-board access to morphological constituents regardless of productivity, and subsequent effects of morpheme combination that are modulated by productivity (and in Clahsen & Ikemoto, 2012, frequency)

Significant equivalent masked priming for -sa/-mi: (i) When -sa/-mi words were targets (Fiorentino et al.,

2010) in Kanji/Kana(ii) When -sa/-mi words were primes (Clahsen &

Ikemoto, 2012) in Kanji/Kana or all Kana



Productivity effect emerges for -sa/-mi:

(i) In longer-lag, unmasked priming (Fiorentino et al., 2010), with morpheme activation also still evident



Productivity effect emerges for both -sa/-mi:

(i) In unprimed lexical decision (Clahsen & Ikemoto, 2012)


Decomposing morphologically complex words: Across contexts and word types II: Interim summary

Segmentation - Activation - Composition

Constituent priming; M350;

N400; RT (w/caution)

Not limited to affix stripping; exhaustivity;

not constrained by lexicality, transparency,

productivity

Constraints on morpheme

combination:Assembly of

meanings from parts? Transparency effects

Productivity

Priming data allow inferences regarding

segmentation

..and motivate questions regarding the (existence and) nature of post-

decompositional processes


Masked morphological priming: how about discontinuous/interleaved morphology?

e.g., Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson, 2005, 2011; Deutsch et al., 1998; Frost et al., 1997, among others

Let’s take a look at Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2005)


Arabic morphology: discontinuous/interleaved

Root: tri-consonantal (associated with semantic content)

Word pattern: typically vowels/also can be consonants (convey syntactic information)

[xatama] “seal”

Root: {xtm} conveys ‘sealing’Word pattern: {faʕala} conveys active, perfective.

(Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson, 2005)


Let’s look at Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2005, Ex. 2):

Masked priming in Arabic verbs, testing prime-target pairs including:

(1) Those sharing a word pattern(2) Those sharing a root (also semantically related)(3) Those sharing a root (not semantically related)(4) Purely orthographically related conditions(5) Purely semantically related conditions

Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2005): Ex. 2 (masked priming in Arabic verbs)

Shared word

pattern


Ortho overlap to mimic WP


Shared root


Shared root,

opaque


Ortho condition to mimic roots


Only semanticrelation


Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2005, Ex. 2): Results

Root priming: robust regardless of semantics, across stimulus-onset-asynchronies (SOA)

Word pattern priming: at 48 ms SOA

Semantic priming: absent

Orthographic priming: largely absent (save at the longest SOA)

Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2005): Results (Ex. 2, verbs)


Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2004): similar effects when testing strong and weak roots

Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson (2010): priming effects for word pattern only in context of productive roots (i.e., roots with relatively large type frequency/morphological family)

Thank you!

[email protected]

Neurolinguistics & Language Processing Lab:www.neuroling.ku.edu

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