Methodological Considerations in Morphological Processing Research

Name: Methodological Considerations in Morphological Processing Research
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Author: Zhaohong Wu
ISBN: 978-1-80079-637-9

Wu, Zhaohong

Methodological Considerations in Morphological Processing Research

by Zhaohong Wu (Author)

Linguistics

Series: Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics, Volume 49

Summary

This book falls in the broad subject area of psycholinguistics and second-language acquisition. More specifically, this book is written for researchers stepping into the field of morphological processing so that they are not overwhelmed by the large number of individual studies and do not lose sight of the whole picture. With a comprehensive review of the relevant factors that first- and second-language morphological processing researchers need to take into consideration, including material- and procedure-related factors, participant individual differences, and participant group-level differences, this book is a useful theoretical reference work for morphological processing researchers. By considering the various potential confounding factors reviewed in this book, researchers are in a better position to more scientifically and meticulously reduce or eliminate the effects of potential covariates so that they can focus on their independent variables of interest. It may also help researchers in evaluating previous studies and their findings and whether or not these studies may have failed to consider possible confounding factors.

Excerpt

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Different Approaches to Morphology
Different Accounts of Morphological Processing in the L1 Psycholinguistic Literature
Research Methods Employed in the L1 and L2 Morphological Processing Literature
Controversies in the L2 Morphological Processing Literature
Overview of the Book
Chapter 2 Material- and Procedure-Related Factors in L1 and L2 Morphological Processing
The Material-Related Factors of Frequency
The Material-Related Factors of Length
The Material-Related Factors of Neighborhood Size (or Density) and Neighborhood Frequency
The Material-Related Factors of Morphological Family
The Material-Related Semantic Factors
The Material-Related Factor of Stem Homograph
The Material-Related Factors of Affix Characteristics
The Material-Related Factor of Presentation Context (Words in Isolation vs. Words in Context)
The Material-Related Factor of Grammatical Class
The Material-Related Factor of Prime Lexicality
The Material-Related Factor of Boundness of the Stem (Free vs. Bound)
The Material-Related Factor of Concreteness
The Material-Related Factor of Stem Priming vs. Suffix Priming
The Material-Related Factor of Stem Alternation
The Material-Related Factor of Conditional Root Uniqueness Point (CRUP) for Prefixed Words
The Material-Related Factor of Relatedness Proportion
The Material-Related Factor of Orthographic Familiarity
The Material-Related Factor of Word Formation Type
The Material-Related Factor of the Spelling-Meaning Consistency of Prefixes
The Material-Related Factor of Linearity and Structural Complexity of Derivations
The Material-Related Factor of Linear vs. Structural Distance on L2 (in)sensitivity to Agreement Violations
The Material-Related Factor of the Paradigmatic Effect of Entropy
The Material-Related Factors That Are Uniquely Relevant to Compound Processing
The Procedure-Related Factors That Could Possibly Affect Morphological Processing
Chapter 3 Participant Individual-Level Differences in L1 and L2 Morphological Processing
Cognition-Related Individual Differences
Experience-Related Individual Differences
Age-Related Individual Differences
Chapter 4 Participant Group-Level Differences in L1 and L2 Morphological Processing
Participant Group-Level Differences in L1 Morphology
Participant Group-Level Differences in L1 Orthography and Writing System
Participant Group-Level Differences in L1 Prosodic Structure or L1 Phonology
Participant Group-Level Differences in Sex
Participant Group-Level Differences in Handedness
Chapter 5 General Discussions and Implications
A Brief Summary of Modulating Factors in Morphological Processing
Educational Implications
Bibliography
Index
Series index

←viii | ix→

Figures

Figure 1.The mean log-transformed reaction time for the English group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 2.The mean log-transformed reaction time for the Turkish group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 3.The mean log-transformed reaction time for the Chinese group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 4.The mean log-transformed reaction time for the Vietnamese group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 5.The mean accuracy rate for the English group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 6.The mean accuracy rate for the Turkish group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 7.The mean accuracy rate for the Chinese group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

Figure 8.The mean accuracy rate for the Vietnamese group in each condition for each sex with error bars representing ± standard error.

←x | xi→

Tables

Table 1.Effects of Suffix Complexity on Priming Magnitude in Terms of Reaction Time

Table 2.Effects of Suffix Complexity on Priming Magnitude in Terms of Accuracy

Table 3.Effects of Linear and Quadratic Effects of Both Suffix Complexity and Suffix Productivity for Words for Each Language Group in the Transparent Condition in Terms of Reaction Time

Table 4.Effects of Linear and Quadratic Effects of Both Suffix Complexity and Suffix Productivity for Words for Each Language Group in the Transparent Condition in Terms of Accuracy

Table 5.Effects of Linear and Quadratic Effects of Both Suffix Complexity and Suffix Productivity for Words for Each Language Group in the Opaque Condition in Terms of Reaction Time

Table 6.Effects of Linear and Quadratic Effects of Both Suffix Complexity and Suffix Productivity for Words for Each Language Group in the Opaque Condition in Terms of Accuracy

Table 7.Effects of Morphological Awareness on Priming Effects in Each Condition Relative to the Unrelated Condition in Terms of Reaction Time

Table 8.Effects of Morphological Awareness on Priming Effects in Each Condition Relative to the Unrelated Condition in Terms of Accuracy

Table 9.Modulation of Sex on Processing in Each Condition in Terms of Reaction Time for the Combined Data as Well as for Each Language Group

Table 10.Male and Female Processing in Each Condition Relative to the Unrelated Condition in Terms of Reaction Time in Each Language Group

Table 11.Modulation of Sex on Processing in Each Condition Relative to the Unrelated Condition in Terms of Accuracy for the Combined Data as Well as for Each Language Group

Table 12.Male and Female Processing in Each Condition Relative to the Unrelated Condition in Terms of Accuracy in Each Language Group

←xii | xiii→

Preface

Previous studies of second-language (L2) morphological processing are controversial regarding whether L2 learners decompose morphologically complex words similarly to native speakers, and whether there are first-language (L1) influences in L2 morphological processing. A large part of this controversy could be attributed to factors that are not unanimously controlled for across studies.

This book is a general review of the relevant factors that modulate the processing of morphologically complex words in native speakers as well as L2 learners, including material- and procedure-related factors, participant individual-level differences, and participant group-level differences. A small part of this book is based on the results of the author’s dissertation work completed at the University of Pittsburgh (Wu, 2017), including the effects of the material-related factor of suffix complexity, the participant group-level factor of sex, and the participant individual-level factor of morphological awareness on L2 derivational processing. Wu (2017) examined online L2 morphological processing in a masked priming lexical decision task in a native English group and three L2 groups of typologically different L1s (including Turkish, Chinese, and Vietnamese) and revealed effects of suffix complexity and morphological awareness on L2 morphological processing of derivations, and also sex differences in L1 and L2 morphological processing.

This book is useful for the following purposes. First, in an attempt to provide a systematic overview of the modulating factors that could affect L1 and L2 morphological processing, this book is a useful theoretical reference book for researchers in the field of morphological processing. With references to the various potential confounding factors reviewed in this book, researchers are in a better position to more scientifically and meticulously reduce or eliminate the effects of potential covariates so that they could focus on their independent variable(s) of interest. Second, this book also hopes to contribute to a more comprehensive, although maybe not exhaustive, perspective of L2 morphological processing. It aims to function as a reminder for researchers and readers in the areas of morphological ←xiii | xiv→processing to maintain not only an appreciative but also a critical attitude toward the findings in the previous literature of L2 morphological processing. Readers need to critically evaluate whether or not previous studies may have failed to consider possible confounding factors such that their conclusions may not naturally follow from their research design and results. For this purpose, this book is written for researchers stepping into the field of morphological processing so that they are not overwhelmed by the large number of individual studies and lose sight of the whole picture. Third, this book has educational implications for language teachers and practitioners. By taking into account possible factors that influence morphological processing, especially L2 morphological processing, language teachers and practitioners could draw from these theoretical findings, which could inform their practice of incorporation of various considerations into L1 and especially L2 morphological instruction.

Chapter 1 of this book gives a brief review of the different approaches to the representation of morphology and different accounts of morphological processing in the L1 psycholinguistic literature. Psycholinguistic research methods that are usually employed in the L1 and L2 morphological processing literature are reviewed as well. Controversies in the L2 morphological processing literature are then introduced, followed by an overview of this book. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 contribute to the discussion on the possibly modulating factors in L1 and L2 morphological processing, including material- and procedure-related factors, participant individual-level factors, and participant group-level factors, respectively. The book ends with Chapter 5 which summarizes the relevant factors to be taken into consideration in morphological processing research and then discusses the implications of L1 and L2 morphological processing research for L1 and L2 teaching practice.

←xiv | 1→

Chapter 1

Introduction

Intuitively, we, as proficient users or learners of any language, may tend to agree that our knowledge of most (if not all) words include our knowledge of the lexeme level of morphology (i.e., the internal structure of words), in addition to the lexeme level of word form and the lemma level of meaning and syntax (Levelt, 2001; Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999). Such a view automatically contends that morphologically complex words are composed of smaller units. Indeed, traditional structuralist morpheme-based linguistic theories to morphology have represented morphology explicitly as one aspect of linguistic knowledge.

However, theoretical approaches to morphology hold varying positions regarding the overall nature of morphology. In contrast to the explicit representation of morphology and the internal structure of morphologically complex words in structuralist or formalist approaches, some approaches to morphology even discard explicit representation of morphemes, such as the Word-and-Paradigm Morphology (Matthews, 1972), A-morphous Morphology (Anderson, 1992), or the connectionist approaches to morphology. Therefore, the first subsection of this chapter provides a brief introduction to the different theoretical approaches to morphological theory.

Usually adopting a morpheme-based item-and-arrangement approach to morphology, psycholinguistic studies in the area of morphology investigate the representation and processing of morphologically complex words in real time. Different accounts of morphological processing have been proposed in the L1 psycholinguistic literature, including single-route models such as the sublexical models and the supralexical models, dual-route models, and connectionist models, which are discussed in detail in the next subsection.

Following the two subsections on the different theoretical approaches to morphological theory and processing, the subsequent subsection reviews ←1 | 2→the commonly used research methods in the investigation of morphological representation and processing, which is then followed by a brief introduction to the controversies in the L2 morphological processing literature. The chapter ends with an overview of the book.

Different Approaches to Morphology

Varying with regard to whether they are morpheme-based or lexeme-based, linguistic approaches to morphology include Item-and-Arrangement Morphology (Bram, 2012; Hockett, 1954), Item-and-Process Morphology (Bram, 2012; Hockett, 1954), Word-and-Paradigm Morphology (Anderson, 1992; Matthews, 1972), Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz, 1993; McGinnis-Archibald, 2016), Construction Morphology (Booij, 2015, 2016; Croft, 2001), Paradigm Function Morphology (Bonami & Stump, 2016; Stump, 2001, 2015), Network Morphology (Hippisley, 2016), Natural Morphology (Dressler & Kilani-Schoch, 2016), and Connectionist accounts for morphology (e.g., Plaut & Gonnerman, 2000).

The traditional structural or formalist Item-and-Arrangement approach to morphology (Bram, 2012; Hockett, 1954) regards complex words as composed of decomposable component morphemes (i.e., items), and morphology as the arrangement of morphemes in a specific order to form a whole word. In other words, the Item-and-Arrangement approach to morphology regards both roots and affixes as distinct morphemes. The Item-and-Arrangement approach to morphology is thus a morpheme-based theory of morphology (Bram, 2012; Hockett, 1954).

Details

Pages: XIV, 258
Year: 2022
ISBN (PDF): 9781800796355
ISBN (ePUB): 9781800796362
ISBN (MOBI): 9781800796379
ISBN (Softcover): 9781800796348
DOI: 10.3726/b18848
Language: English
Publication date: 2021 (December)
Keywords: morphological representation and processing morphological decomposition whole-word storage of morphologically complex words Methodological Considerations in Morphological Processing Research Zhaohong Wu
Published: Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2022. XIV, 258 pp., 8 b/w ill. 12 b/w tables.

Biographical notes

Zhaohong Wu (Author)

Zhaohong Wu is Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from University of Pittsburgh, USA. Her research interests are in psycholinguistics and second-language acquisition. Her current research focuses on the comparison between L1 and advanced L2 morphological processing to understand whether native speakers and advanced L2 learners process morphologically complex words in qualitatively the same way. She has published in journals such as Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Second Language Research, and The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Methodological Considerations in Morphological Processing Research

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

Figures

Tables

Preface

Chapter 1

Introduction

Different Approaches to Morphology

Details

Biographical notes

Key Subject Areas