Abstract
In this study, we investigate the effects of lexical transparency and headedness on English compound word processing. Previous research involving semantic priming of compounds suggests that individual constituents of at least partially transparent compound words are activated during processing (e.g. Jarema, Busson, Nikolova, Tsapkini, & Libben, 1999; Sandra, 1990). We hypothesized that in a lexical decision task, subjects would show faster average response times to compound words when primed by a word related to one constituent, especially a transparent or head constituent. Our results are generally consistent with previous studies in that response times are faster for transparent compounds paired with related words than with unrelated word pairs, with some exceptions for transparent compounds. Our results offer support for constituent activation during compound word processing and morpheme-based lexical organization.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Steinke, Sarah and Zhai, Weiyi
(2020)
"Transparency and Headedness in Processing Compound Words: A Lexical Decision Study,"
Linguistic Portfolios: Vol. 9, Article 7.
Available at:
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/stcloud_ling/vol9/iss1/7
