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Journal ArticleDOI

Evidence for early morphological decomposition: Combining masked priming with magnetoencephalography

01 Nov 2011-Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (NIH Public Access)-Vol. 23, Iss: 11, pp 3366-3379
TL;DR: Data regarding the transitional probability from stem to affix in a post hoc comparison is presented, which suggests that this factor may modulate early morphological decomposition, particularly for opaque words.
Abstract: Are words stored as morphologically structured representations? If so, when during word recognition are morphological pieces accessed? Recent masked priming studies support models that assume early decomposition of (potentially) morphologically complex words. The electrophysiological evidence, however, is inconsistent. We combined masked morphological priming with magneto-encephalography (MEG), a technique particularly adept at indexing processes involved in lexical access. The latency of an MEG component peaking, on average, 220 msec post-onset of the target in left occipito-temporal brain regions was found to be sensitive to the morphological prime-target relationship under masked priming conditions in a visual lexical decision task. Shorter latencies for related than unrelated conditions were observed both for semantically transparent (cleaner-CLEAN) and opaque (corner-CORN) prime-target pairs, but not for prime-target pairs with only an orthographic relationship (brothel-BROTH). These effects are likely to reflect a prelexical level of processing where form-based representations of stems and affixes are represented and are in contrast to models positing no morphological structure in lexical representations. Moreover, we present data regarding the transitional probability from stem to affix in a post hoc comparison, which suggests that this factor may modulate early morphological decomposition, particularly for opaque words. The timing of a robust MEG component sensitive to the morphological relatedness of prime-target pairs can be used to further understand the neural substrates and the time course of lexical processing.

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Citations
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01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: This paper discusses one aspect of the lexicon, namely its morphological organization, and describes this kind of lexicon system as most suited for describing suffixing languages with a comparatively high degree of agglutination.
Abstract: 1. In trod u otion In this paper, I w ill discuss one aspect of the lexicon, namely its morphological organization. For about two years I have been working with Koakenniemi's twolevel model (Koakenniemi 1983)i on a Polish two-level description. In this work, I have become more and more Interested in the formalism it s e l f , something that has tended to push work on the language description into the background. It seems to be the case that in moat concrete two-level descriptions, the rule component is forced to carry too heavy a burden in comparison with the lexicon, perhaps because the lexicon is very simple as to its implementation. Like many other lexical systems in computer applications i t is implemented as a tree, with a root node and leaves, from which the lexical entries eire retrieved when the analysts routine has traversed the tree. The twolevel lexicon la a bit more sophisticated than th is , however, in that there la not only one, but several lexicon trees, the so called minilexicons. The user links the mlnilexicona into a whole, moat often into a root lexicon and a number of su ffix lexicons. In Hockett'a terminology, we could apeak of an Itern-and-Arrangement (lA) model (Hockett 1958, pp 386ff). Elsewhere I have characterized this kind of lexicon system as most suited for describing suffixing languages with a comparatively high degree of agglutination (Borin 1985f p 35); This is mainly due to the fact that the system works according to what Blåberg (1984, p 6 l) aptly has termed the "forget-where-you-came-from"

261 citations

Book ChapterDOI
13 May 2013

183 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The data support a model of word recognition in which decomposition is attempted, and possibly utilized, for complex words containing bound roots as well as free word-stems, and find evidence of decomposition for both free stems and bound roots at the M170 stage in processing.
Abstract: We employ a single-trial correlational MEG analysis technique to investigate early processing in the visual recognition of morphologically complex words. Three classes of affixed words were presented in a lexical decision task: free stems (e.g., taxable), bound roots (e.g., tolerable), and unique root words (e.g., vulnerable, the root of which does not appear elsewhere). Analysis was focused on brain responses within 100-200 msec poststimulus onset in the previously identified letter string and visual word-form areas. MEG data were analyzed using cortically constrained minimum-norm estimation. Correlations were computed between activity at functionally defined ROIs and continuous measures of the words' morphological properties. ROIs were identified across subjects on a reference brain and then morphed back onto each individual subject's brain (n = 9). We find evidence of decomposition for both free stems and bound roots at the M170 stage in processing. The M170 response is shown to be sensitive to morphological properties such as affix frequency and the conditional probability of encountering each word given its stem. These morphological properties are contrasted with orthographic form features (letter string frequency, transition probability from one string to the next), which exert effects on earlier stages in processing (∼130 msec). We find that effects of decomposition at the M170 can, in fact, be attributed to morphological properties of complex words, rather than to purely orthographic and form-related properties. Our data support a model of word recognition in which decomposition is attempted, and possibly utilized, for complex words containing bound roots as well as free word-stems.

129 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 2019-Cortex
TL;DR: The view that learning to appreciate morphological relationships may be a vital part of acquiring a direct mapping between printed words and their meanings, represented in the ventral brain pathway of the reading network is developed.

91 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work uses MEG to provide evidence for the temporally-differentiated stages of the Full Decomposition model, and demonstrates an early effect of derivational family entropy, corresponding to the stem lookup stage, and a late effect of a novel statistical measure, semantic coherence, which quantifies the gradient semantic well-formedness of complex words.

68 citations


Cites background from "Evidence for early morphological de..."

  • ...Taking advantage of the temporal resolution of MEG, here we separately examine both the hypothesized earlier derivational family entropy effect on lexical access for a stem, as well as the hypothesized later surface frequency effect on recombination of stem and affix....

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  • ...Using MEG, Lehtonen, Monahan, and Poeppel (2011) found similar effects for regular derived words at a latency of !...

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that the effects of morphologically related primes containing a pseudoroot did not influence performance relative to the unrelated prime condition, and this supports a supralexical account of morphological representation.
Abstract: Effects of morphologically related primes were examined in two masked prime experiments. Responses to both free root and derived suffixed word targets were facilitated when primes were derived suffixed words containing the target’s root, and this facilitation effect showed a time course similar to that for the facilitation effect of repetition primes (though systematically smaller in magnitude). In a control experiment only the longest prime duration of Experiment 1 was used; responses to derived suffixed word targets were facilitated by both free root primes and derived suffixed word primes sharing the target’s root (relative to unrelated and form-related control primes). The free root and derived suffixed word prime conditions did not differ significantly. In Experiment 2, only true derived word primes produced facilitation, whereas morphologically simple primes containing a pseudoroot did not influence performance relative to the unrelated prime condition. We argue that this supports a supralexical account of morphological representation.

205 citations


"Evidence for early morphological de..." refers background or result in this paper

  • ...…models would assume (Plaut & Gonnerman, 2000; Seidenberg & Gonnerman, 2000) and are also in contrast with hypotheses put forward by supralexical models (Giraudo & Grainger, 2000, 2001), which assume that morpheme-based representations are accessed only after whole-word representations....

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  • ...…& Baayen, 1995; Niemi et al., 1994; Caramazza, 1988; Caramazza et al., 1988), (2) those that support late decomposition (supralexical model; Giraudo & Grainger, 2000, 2001), and (3) connectionist models (Bybee & McClelland, 2005; Plaut & Gonnerman, 2000), wherein morphological structure is…...

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  • ...…the hypothesized decomposition occurs early, at a prelexical or word-form level (sublexical models; see, e.g., Taft, 2004; Taft & Forster, 1975), or late, at a level where modality-independent (lexical) representations are accessed (supralexical models; e.g., Giraudo & Grainger, 2000, 2001)....

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  • ...The authors argue that the data, thus, support neither the prelexical decomposition account nor the original supralexical model (Giraudo & Grainger, 2001) but could be explained by a more interactive account that does not need to posit the existence of explicit morphological representations....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A core decompositional network linking left inferior frontal cortex with superior and middle temporal cortex, connected via the arcuate fasciculus is argued for, handling the processing of regularly inflected words (such as joined or treats).
Abstract: This paper outlines a neurocognitive approach to human language, focusing on inflectional morphology and grammatical function in English. Taking as a starting point the selective deficits for regular inflectional morphology of a group of non-fluent patients with left hemisphere damage, we argue for a core decompositional network linking left inferior frontal cortex with superior and middle temporal cortex, connected via the arcuate fasciculus. This network handles the processing of regularly inflected words (such as joined or treats), which are argued not to be stored as whole forms and which require morpho-phonological parsing in order to segment complex forms into stems and inflectional affixes. This parsing process operates early and automatically upon all potential inflected forms and is triggered by their surface phonological properties. The predictions of this model were confirmed in a further neuroimaging study, using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), on unimpaired young adults. The salience of grammatical morphemes for the language system is highlighted by new research showing that similarly early and blind segmentation also operates for derivationally complex forms (such as darkness or rider). These findings are interpreted as evidence for a hidden decompositional substrate to human language processing and related to a functional architecture derived from non-human primate models.

187 citations


"Evidence for early morphological de..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The nature of the representation of morphologically complex words has been a hotly debated issue in psycholinguistics and more recently in the cognitive neuroscience of language (Marslen-Wilson & Tyler, 2007; Devlin, Jamison, Matthews, & Gonnerman, 2004)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that morphology emerges from the convergence of form and meaning, as neural regionssensitive to morphological structure overlapped almost entirely with regions sensitive to orthographic and semantic relatedness.
Abstract: Morphology is the aspect of language concerned with the internal structure of words, and languages vary in the extent to which they rely on morphological structure. Consequently, it is not clear whether morphology is a basic element of a linguistic structure or whether it emerges from systematic regularities between the form and meaning of words. Here, we looked for evidence of morphological structure at a neural systems level by using a visual masked priming paradigm and functional MRI. Form and meaning relations were manipulated in a 2 × 2 design to identify reductions in blood oxygenation level-dependent signal related to shared form (e.g., corner-corn), shared meaning (e.g., idea-notion), and shared morphemes (e.g., boldly-bold, which overlapped in both form and meaning). Relative to unrelated pairs (e.g., ozone-hero), morphologically related items reduced blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in the posterior angular gyrus bilaterally, left occipitotemporal cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus. In the posterior angular gyrus, a neural priming effect was observed for all three priming conditions, possibly reflecting reduced attentional demands rather than overlapping linguistic representations per se. In contrast, the reductions seen in the left occipitotemporal cortex and left middle temporal gyrus corresponded, respectively, to main effects of orthographic and semantic overlap. As neural regions sensitive to morphological structure overlapped almost entirely with regions sensitive to orthographic and semantic relatedness, our results suggest that morphology emerges from the convergence of form and meaning.

187 citations

Book ChapterDOI
13 May 2013

183 citations


"Evidence for early morphological de..." refers background or result in this paper

  • ...This is in contrast to the full, across-the-board decomposition view but is in line with dual-route models (e.g., Schreuder & Baayen, 1995), which assume that the early access to morphologically complex or pseudocomplex words may occur via decomposition, accessing full-form representations or both,…...

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  • ...Parallel dual route models (Baayen, Dijkstra, & Schreuder, 1997; Schreuder & Baayen, 1995; Niemi, Laine, & Tuominen, 1994; Caramazza, 1988; Caramazza, Laudanna, & Romani, 1988) assume that both decomposed and full-form representations may be activated early, and the primary route used is dependent…...

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  • ...…groups: (1) those that incorporate early decomposition (full decomposition and parallel dual routes models; Stockall & Marantz, 2006; Taft, 2004; Schreuder & Baayen, 1995; Niemi et al., 1994; Caramazza, 1988; Caramazza et al., 1988), (2) those that support late decomposition (supralexical…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Against longstanding assumptions in the psycholinguistics literature, it is argued that all complex words assembled by the grammar from lexical roots and functional morphemes, even for irregular forms like gave, are assembled.
Abstract: Against longstanding assumptions in the psycholinguistics literature, we argue for a model of morphological complexity that has all complex words assembled by the grammar from lexical roots and functional morphemes. This assembly occurs even for irregular forms like gave. Morphological relatedness is argued to be an identity relation between repetitions of a single root, distinguishable from semantic and phonological relatedness. Evidence for the model is provided in two MEG priming experiments that measure root activation prior to lexical decision. Both regular and irregular allomorphs of a root are shown to prime the root equally. These results are incompatible both with connectionist models that treat all morphological relatedness as similarity and with dual mechanism models in which only regular forms involve composition.

168 citations


"Evidence for early morphological de..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…by guest on 15 May 2021 ranging from full, across-the-board decomposition for all morphologically complex words (Stockall & Marantz, 2006; Taft, 1979, 2004) to postulating no role for morphemic representations (Plaut & Gonnerman, 2000)....

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  • ...…these models can be divided into three groups: (1) those that incorporate early decomposition (full decomposition and parallel dual routes models; Stockall & Marantz, 2006; Taft, 2004; Schreuder & Baayen, 1995; Niemi et al., 1994; Caramazza, 1988; Caramazza et al., 1988), (2) those that support…...

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