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Universal and particular in morphological processing: Evidence from Hebrew.

ABSTRACT: 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, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages.

SUBMITTER: Farhy Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6159776 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Universal and particular in morphological processing: Evidence from Hebrew.

Farhy Yael Y Veríssimo João J Clahsen Harald H

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) 20180101 5

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 ...[more]

PMID: 28335663

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Project description:Morphological processing of derived words develops simultaneously with reading acquisition. However, the reader's engagement in morphological segmentation may depend on the language morphological richness and orthographic transparency, and the readers' reading skills. The current study tested the common idea that morphological segmentation is enhanced in non-transparent orthographies to compensate for the absence of phonological information. Hebrew's rich morphology and the dual version of the Hebrew script (with and without diacritic marks) provides an opportunity to study the interaction of orthographic transparency and morphological segmentation on the development of reading skills in a within-language design. Hebrew speaking 2nd (N = 27) and 5th (N = 29) grade children read aloud 96 noun words. Half of the words were simple mono-morphemic words and half were bi-morphemic derivations composed of a productive root and a morphemic pattern. In each list half of the words were presented in the transparent version of the script (with diacritic marks), and half in the non-transparent version (without diacritic marks). Our results show that in both groups, derived bi-morphemic words were identified more accurately than mono-morphemic words, but only for the transparent, pointed, script. For the un-pointed script the reverse was found, namely, that bi-morphemic words were read less accurately than mono-morphemic words, especially in second grade. Second grade children also read mono-morphemic words faster than bi-morphemic words. Finally, correlations with a standardized measure of morphological awareness were found only for second grade children, and only in bi-morphemic words. These results, showing greater morphological effects in second grade compared to fifth grade children suggest that for children raised in a language with a rich morphology, common and easily segmented morphemic units may be more beneficial for younger compared to older readers. Moreover, in contrast to the common hypothesis, our results show that morphemic segmentation does not compensate for the missing phonological information in a non-transparent orthography, but rather that morphological segmentation is most beneficial in the highly transparent script. These results are consistent with the idea that morphological and phonological segmentation processes occur simultaneously and do not constitute alternative pathways to visual word recognition.

Project description:Morphological differences, including growth-related changes, were examined in three morphologically similar East Asian sea bass species, Lateolabraxjaponicus, L.maculatus and L.latus. In many cases, body measurements indicated specific patterns of growth-related proportional changes. Lateolabraxlatus differed from the other two species in having greater body depth, caudal peduncle depth, caudal peduncle anterior depth, snout length, and upper and lower jaw length proportions. In particular, scatter plots for caudal peduncle anterior depth relative to standard length (SL) in that species indicated complete separation from those of the other two species, being a new key character for identification. Comparisons of L.japonicus and L.maculatus revealed considerable proportional differences in many length-measured characters, including fin lengths (first and second dorsal, caudal and pelvic), snout length, post-orbital preopercular width (POPW) and post-orbital length. In particular, snout length (SNL) and POPW proportions of the former were greater and smaller for specimens >200 and ? 200 mm SL, respectively. Because the scatter plots of these proportions for the two species did not overlap each other in either size range, identification of the species was possible using a combination of the two characters. In addition, scatter plots of the POPW / SNL proportion (%) of L.japonicus and L.maculatus were almost completely separated throughout the entire size range examined (border level 90%), a further aid to identification. The numbers of pored lateral line scales and scales above the lateral line tended to increase and decrease with growth, respectively, in L.japonicus, whereas scales below the lateral line and gill raker numbers tended to increase with growth in L.maculatus. Because the ranges of these meristic characters may therefore vary with specimen size, they are unsuitable for use as key characters. Accordingly, a new key is proposed for the genus Lateolabrax.

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Universal and particular in morphological processing: Evidence from Hebrew.

Publications

Universal and particular in morphological processing: Evidence from Hebrew.

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