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Prefixed Word Forms in the German Mental
Lexicon Ingrid Sonnenstuhl Meike Hadler Helga
Weyerts Harald Clahsen University of Düsseldorf
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The Lexical Representation of Derivational Word
Forms

• Full form storage of all complex word
  forms, morphological structure plays no
  role. (e.g. Butterworth 1983 Rumelhart
  McClelland 1986 Bybee 1995)

• Full form storage of all complex word forms,
  morphological structure plays some role.
  (e.g. Lukatela, Gligorijevic, Kostic, Savier
  Turvey 1980 Andrews 1986 Feldman
  Fowler 1987 Schriefers, Friederici Graetz 1992)

• Decomposition of complex word forms. (e.g.
  Taft Forster 1975 Taft 1979, 1981)

• Transparency determines the processing of
  complex word forms. (e.g. Henderson, Wallis
  Knight 1984 Feldman 1994 Marslen-Wilson, Tyler,
  Waksler Older 1994 Drews Zwitserlood 1995)

• Different processing of prefixed and suffixed
  words. (e.g. Marslen-Wilson, Tyler, Waksler
  Older 1994)

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Previous Results
Full-form frequency effect? Full priming effect?
Default Forms
-t participles ge- kauf -t no yes
-s plurals Brikett -s no yes
Irregulars
-n participles gefahren yes no
-er plurals Kinder yes no
Subregulars
-n Plurals fem, e Tasche -n yes yes
Productive Derivations
-ung nominalizations Stift -ung yes yes
diminutives Kind -chen yes yes
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Two Mechanisms Three Distinctions
Word forms inflected by a general default Basic stem and affix -t participles -s plurals ge kauf -t 'bought' Brikett -s 'briquets'
Irregulars Opaque stems -n participles -er plurals gefahren 'driven' Kinder 'children'
Subregulars and productive derivation Morphologically structured stems -n plurals -ung nominalizations diminutives Tasche-n 'pockets' Stift -ung 'donation' Kind -chen 'small child'
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Research Questions

• Do the results from suffixed forms generalize
  to prefixed forms?

• How are derivational forms with a limited
  productivity represented?

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German Adjectives Investigated
bequem 'comfortable' unbequem
'uncomfortable'
un bequem ? un bequem
stabil 'stable' instabil
'unstable'
instabil ? instabil
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Experiment 1 Frequency
Effects
instabil
UnprimedLexical Decision
Access Representations
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Experiment 1
Frequency Effects

Condition Mean base stem frequency Mean derived stem frequency

un- (high) 70,0 12,6 ungerecht 'unjust'
un- (low) 69,8 0,3 unplausibel 'implausibel'

in- (high) 149,1 9,5 inoffiziell 'unofficial'
in- (low) 149,3 0,3 ineffektiv 'ineffective'

• Prediction Derived word forms are stems by
  themselves
• frequency effects for derived stems

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Experiment 1 Frequency
Effects
Results

• Word- form frequency effects for both
  derivational forms
• Full-form representations
• for fully productive
• and less productive
• prefixed adjectives

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Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming
instabil
Cross-ModalPriming
stabil
Stem-InternalLexical Structures
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Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming
Derivational form Auditory primes Auditory primes Visual target
un- adjectives Identity bequem bequem ('comfortable')
un- adjectives Derivation unbequem bequem ('comfortable')
un- adjectives Control tolerant bequem ('comfortable')
in- adjectives Identity stabil stabil ('stable')
in- adjectives Derivation instabil stabil ('stable')
in- adjectives Control ledig stabil ('stable')
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Experiment 2 Cross-Modal
Priming
Predictions

• No decomposition Separate entries for
  derivational forms
• reduced priming

• Decomposition Repeated access to the same stem
• full priming

• Dual-Mechanism hypothesis
• full priming for un- adjectives
• reduced priming for in- adjectives

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Experiment 2 Cross-Modal
Priming
Results

• Full priming for un- forms
• decomposed lexical representations
• Reduced priming for in- forms
• full-form lexical representations

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Experiment 3 Masked
Priming
MaskedPriming
stabil
XXXXXX 500 msec STABI L 60 msec XXXXXX
60 msec
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Experiment 3 Masked
Priming
Derivational form Masked primes Masked primes Target
un- adjectives Identity bequem bequem ('comfortable')
un- adjectives Derivation unbequem bequem ('comfortable')
un- adjectives Control tolerant bequem ('comfortable')
in- adjectives Identity stabil stabil ('stable')
in- adjectives Derivation instabil stabil ('stable')
in- adjectives Control ledig stabil ('stable')
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Experiment 3 Masked
Priming
Results

• Full priming for un- forms
• decomposed lexical representations
• Reduced priming for in- forms
• full-form lexical representations

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Summary

• Full-form frequency effects for all
  derivational forms
• Full-form access representations for all
  derivational forms

• Reduced priming for in- adjectives
• Storage of derivational forms with limited
  productivity and transparency

• Full priming for derived un- adjectives
• Full priming for derived -ung nouns
• Full priming for -chen diminutives
• Decomposition of transparent and fully
  productive derivational forms

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Conclusion
full-form access representations, full-form
lexical representations Inflection
Irregulars Derivation Forms with restricted
phonological transparency and limited
productivity
full-form access representations,
morphologically structured lexical
representations Inflection Subregulars Deriv
ation Forms with full phonological
transparency and full productivity