Is Hanja represented in the Korean mental lexicon?: Encoding cross-script semantic cohorts in the representation of Sino-Korean

Korean can be transcribed in two different scripts, one alphabetic (Hangul) and one logographic (Hanja). How does the mental lexicon represent the contributions of multiple scripts? Hangul’s highly transparent one-to-one relationship between spellings and sounds creates homophones in spoken Korean that are also homographs in Hangul, which can only be disambiguated through Hanja. We thus tested whether native speakers encoded the semantic contributions of the different Hanja characters sharing the same homographic form in Hangul in their mental representation of Sino-Korean. Is processing modulated by the number of available meanings, that is, the size of the semantic cohort? In two cross-modal lexical decision tasks with semantic priming,participants were presented with auditory primes that were either syllables (Experiment 1) or full Sino-Korean words (Experiment 2), followed by visual Sino-Korean full word targets. In Experiment 1, reaction times were not significantly modulated by the size of the semantic cohort. However, in Experiment 2, we observed significantly faster reaction times for targets preceded by primes with larger semantic cohorts. We discuss these findings in relation to the structure of the mental lexicon for bi-scriptal languages and the representation of semantic cohorts across different scripts.1. Introduction 2. Hanja and Hangul during processing 3. Experiment 1: Cross-modal fragment priming 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants 3.1.2. Materials and design 3.1.3. Procedure 3.2. Results 3.3. Discussion 4. Experiment 2: Cross-modal full word priming 4.1. Method 4.1.1. Participants 4.1.2. Materials and design 4.1.3. Procedure 4.2. Results 4.3. Discussion 5. General discussion 6. Conclusion

The effect of phonological and morphological overlap on the processing of Bengali words

In normal language processing, we are continuously analyzing the form and structure of incoming speech signals in order to understand their meaning. At the same time, we unavoidably encounter situations in which words are contained within other words (e.g. ham in hammer). Since morphologically-related words often have a certain amount of phonological overlap, it is essential to understand the relevance of this overlap while investigating morphological processing. The current study provides a psycholinguistic investigation of the processing consequences of Bengali words overlapping in form both with and without being morphologically related. Overall, form-related items elicited significantly less priming than morphologically-related items. Form-related items differing in length by a single segment did not prime one another, while morphologically-related items did. However, form-related items matched in length but differing in a single segment did prime, indicating that relationships between formrelated words are not always straightforward

(A)symmetry in vowel features in verbs and pseudoverbs: ERP evidence

This paper examines the processing of height and place contrasts in vowels in words and pseudowords, using mismatch negativity (MMN) to determine firstly whether asymmetries resulting from underlying representations found in the processing of vowels in isolation will remain in a word context and secondly whether there is any difference in the way these phonological differences manifest in pseudowords. The stimuli are two sets of English ablaut verbs and corresponding pseudowords (sit~sat/*sif~*saf and get~got/*gef~*gof) contrasting in vowel height ([HIGH] vs. [LOW]) and place of articulation ([CORONAL] vs. [DORSAL]). In line with previous research, the results show a processing asymmetry for place of articulation in both words and nonwords, while different vowel heights result in symmetrical MMN patterns. These findings confirm that an underspecification account provides the best explanation for featural processing and that phonological information is independent of lexical status

Still ‘native’? Morphological processing in second-language immersed speakers

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This paper investigates whether sustained immersion in a dominant second-language (L2) environment alters morphological processing strategies compared to those of L1-immersed speakers. Furthermore, we assess the methodological usefulness of a language-mode task in light of the validity of conducting native processing research on L2-immersed speakers. Design/methodology/approach: We use the design and stimuli of a previous long-lag visual lexical decision task conducted with native German speakers in Germany and use this group as a control. Thirty-two native German speakers resident in the UK (>2 years; minimal day-to-day German use) participated in two experimental sessions (one containing a 20-minute conversation task in German). Data and analysis: The data shows clear differences between facilitation patterns of L1 and L2-immersed participants. L2-immersed speakers display decreased sensitivity to subtle morphological differences as well as facilitation in a form condition similar to effects seen in L2 processing. Lexical decisions of pseudowords based on plausibility, however, remain similar. While the pre-experiment language-mode task resulted in overall faster responses, there was no effect on processing patterns. Findings/conclusions: L1 morphological processing is affected by continued exposure to a dominant second language with sensitivity to the internal structure or differences of morphologically complex items decreasing. The attrition group shows certain similarities to L2 morphological processing. Our findings also call for caution in the recruitment of L2-immersed experiment participants. Originality: Research on morphological processing in language attrition is scarce and no previous work has examined complex derived words. The addition of a principled manipulation of the pre-experiment task is also uncommon. Significance/implications: The possible similarity of L1-attrition and L2-learner processing challenges the concept of ‘native’ processing and the notion of ‘nativeness’ as a stable property. Further comparison of these populations may lead to a more thorough understanding of the adaptability of our processing system

Bengali nasal vowels: Lexical representation and listener perception

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'Fake' gemination in suffixed words and compounds in English and German

In languages with an underlying consonantal length contrast, the most salient acoustic cue differentiating singletons and geminates is duration of closure. When concatenation of identical phonemes through affixation or compounding produces “fake” geminates, these may or may not be realized phonetically as true geminates. English and German no longer have a productive length contrast in consonants, but do allow sequences of identical consonants in certain morphological contexts, e.g., suffixation (green-ness; zahl-los “countless”) or compounding (pine nut; Schul-leiter “headmaster”). The question is whether such concatenated sequences are produced as geminates and realized acoustically with longer closure duration, and whether this holds in both languages. This issue is investigated here by analyzing the acoustics of native speakers reading suffixed and compound words containing both fake geminate and non-geminate consonants in similar phonological environments. Results indicate that the closure duration is consistently nearly twice as long for fake geminates across conditions. In addition, voice onset time is proportionally longer for fake geminates in English while vowel duration shows few significant differences (in German sonorants only). These results suggest that English and German speakers articulate fake geminates with acoustic characteristics similar to those found in languages with an underlying length contrast, despite no longer displaying the contrast morpheme-internally

Distinct orthography boosts morphophonological discrimination: Vowel raising in Bengali verb inflections

This study is concerned with how vowel alternation, in combination with and without orthographic reflection of the vowel change, affects lexical access and the discrimination of morphologically related forms. Bengali inflected verb forms provide an ideal test case, since present tense verb forms undergo phonologically conditioned, predictable vowel raising. The mid-to-high alternations, but not the low-to-mid ones, are represented in the orthography. This results in three different cases: items with no change (NoDiff), items with a phonological change not represented in the orthography (PronDiff) and items for which both phonology and orthography change (OrthPronDiff). To determine whether these three cases differ in terms of lexical access and discrimination, we conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 was a cross-modal lexical decision task with auditory primes (1 st PERSON and 3 rd PERSON forms, e.g. [lek he] or [lik hi]) and visual targets (verbal noun; e.g. [lek ha]). Experiment 2 uses eye tracking in a fragment completion task, in which auditory fragments (first syllable of 1 st or 3 rd PERSON form, e.g. [le-] from [lek he]) were to be matched to one of two visual targets (full 1 st and 3 rd PERSON forms, [lek he] vs. [lik hi] in Bengali script). While the lexical decision task, a global measure of lexical access, did not show a difference between the cases, the eye-tracking experiment revealed effects of both phonology and orthography. Discrimination accuracy in the OrthPronDiff condition (vowel alternation represented in the orthography) was high. In the PronDiff condition, where phonologically differing forms are represented by the same graphemes, manual responses were at chance, although eye movements revealed that match and non-match were discriminated. Thus, our results indicate that phonological alternations which are not represented in spelling are difficult to process, whereas having orthographically distinct forms boosts discrimination performance, implying orthographically influenced mental phonological representations

Form or structure? Morphological processing in second-language English speakers: Evidence from long-lag lexical decision

Whether second-language speakers process morphological complexity using native-like strategies has yet to be conclusively established. While some research supports native-like strategies, other evidence suggests a shallower approach with greater reliance on surface similarity. This paper employs a visual lexical decision task with long-lag priming using tri-morphemic stimuli in three conditions, form (fluently-influential), semantic (exceptional-remarkable) and morphological (natural-unnatural), with native English subjects and proficient second-language English speakers (native language Bengali). Both groups show robust morphological priming and, while L2 speakers display a form priming effect, this is significantly reduced compared to morphological priming. The results indicate possible differences in the use of sources of information in first- and second-language processing but show that morphological structure does play a role in the latter.

The effect of phonological and morphological overlap on the processing of Bengali words

In normal language processing, we are continuously analyzing the form and structure of incoming speech signals in order to understand their meaning. At the same time, we unavoidably encounter situations in which words are contained within other words (e.g. ham  in hammer ). Since morphologically-related words often have a certain amount of phonological overlap, it is essential to understand the relevance of this overlap while investigating morphological processing. The current study provides a psycholinguistic investigation of the processing consequences of Bengali words overlapping in form both with and without being morphologically related. Overall, form-related items elicited significantly less priming than morphologically related items. Form-related items differing in length by a single segment did not prime one another, while morphologically-related items did. However, form-related items matched in length but differing in a single segment did prime, indicating that relationships between formrelated words are not always straightforward

Asymmetric influence of vocalic context on Mandarin sibilants: Evidence from ERP studies

In the present study, we examine the interactive effect of vowels on Mandarin fricative sibilants using a passive oddball paradigm to determine whether the HEIGHT features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence preceding consonants with unspecified features. The stimuli are two pairs of Mandarin words ([sa] ∼ [ʂa] and [su] ∼ [ʂu]) contrasting in vowel HEIGHT ([LOW] vs. [HIGH]). Each word in the same pair was presented both as standard and deviant, resulting in four conditions (/standard/[deviant]: /sa/[ʂa] ∼ /ʂa/[sa] and /su/[ʂu] ∼ /ʂu/[su]). In line with the Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (FUL) model, asymmetric patterns of processing were found in the [su] ∼ [ʂu] word pair where both the MMN (mismatch negativity) and LDN (late discriminative negativity) components were more negative in /su/[ʂu] (mismatch) than in /ʂu/[su] (no mismatch), suggesting the spreading of the feature [HIGH] from the vowel [u] to [ʂ] on the surface. In the [sa] ∼ [ʂa] pair, however, symmetric negativities (for both MMN and LDN) were observed as there is no conflict between the surface feature [LOW] from [a] to [ʂ] and the underlying specified feature [LOW] of [s]. These results confirm that not all features are fully specified in the mental lexicon: features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence surrounding unspecified segments