Emergence of verb-pattern morphology in young Arabic speakers: morphological and semantic features.

Introduction: Arabic, a Semitic language, displays a particularly rich derivational morphological system with all verb stems consisting of a semantic root and a prosodic verb-pattern. Such regular and frequently encountered knowledge is expected to be acquired early. The present study presents a developmental perspective on the relative contribution of morphological and semantic complexity to the acquisition of verbs in Spoken Arabic. Method: Verbs in a spontaneous corpus from 133 typically developing children, 2; 6-6; 0-year-old, were coded for type and token frequency of verbal patterns and root type, and classified according to semantic complexity. Results: Results support an item-based emergence driven by semantic complexity at the earliest stages of acquisition. A developmental expansion in the diversity of verbal patterns and morphological complexity was observed with age. Morphological complexity is only identified when the same root appears in different verb patterns. Discussion: The late emergence of the same root in different verb patterns indicates that the perception of verb patterns as abstract linguistic entities beyond the actual verbs is attained later than the semantically-constrained verbs in earlier childhood. We conclude that whereas semantic complexity obstructs verbs from emerging in the lexicon in younger age groups, morphological complexity constitutes no such obstruction, since their perception as morphological devices is attained later in acquisition.

Is There an Early Morphological Decomposition during L2 Lexical Access? A Meta-Analysis on the Morphological Priming Effect.

A considerable body of experimental data currently exists on the representation and processing of derived words. However, no theoretical account has led to a consensus so far, due in part to inconsistencies in empirical results which show either the presence or the absence of signs of early morphological decomposition during lexical access. In this paper, we present the results of a meta-analysis that sought to examine the robustness of the masked morphological priming effect (MMP) in native and non-native speakers. This effect is indexed by faster responses to targets preceded by morphologically related primes vs. unrelated primes (e.g., fighter-FIGHT < needle-FIGHT), and is perhaps the most widespread effect used to test whether speakers of a given language are sensitive to the morphological components of words at early stages of lexical access. To this end, we selected 10 masked priming lexical decision studies (16 experiments) conducted with native and non-native speakers. Variables such as prime duration and level of L2 proficiency were considered in the analyses to assess their impact on the MMP effect. Results showed significant MMP effects, which were restricted to native speakers. No modulations were found for the prime duration. Results are interpreted in light of prevalent models of complex word processing.

Morphological processing in written word production is based on orthography rather than semantics.

Written word production is influenced by central and peripheral processes. Evidence suggests that the activation of morphological units in the lexicon influences the dynamics of handwriting. In this study, we designed two priming experiments to examine the representation level of morphological information in the lexicon during written word production in the French language. In both experiments, target words (e.g., chanteur, "singer") were primed by a derived (e.g., chanter, "to sing"), a pseudo-derived (e.g., chantier, "work site"), or an unrelated (e.g., baleine, "whale") prime. We used the pseudo-derivation condition to disentangle two distinct levels of representation: the sublexical (also known as morpho-orthographic) and the supralexical (morpho-semantic). In Experiment 1 (learning-recall task), we measured the writing latency and writing duration of the target words. In Experiment 2 (word pair copying task), we measured the inter-word duration and writing duration of the target words. We observed morphological priming effects in both experiments: The processing of a derived prime influenced target writing compared to an unrelated prime, but the effect was observed on latencies in Experiment 1 and on target writing duration in Experiment 2. We found similar patterns of priming in the derived and pseudo-derived conditions in both experiments. The findings revealed that morphemes are processed at the morpho-orthographic representation level in written word production. Morphemes serve as grouping units during handwriting, a process that operates independently of their meaning.

What Language Disorders Reveal About the Mechanisms of Morphological Processing.

We addressed an understudied topic in the literature of language disorders, that is, processing of derivational morphology, a domain which requires integration of semantic and syntactic knowledge. Current psycholinguistic literature suggests that word processing involves morpheme recognition, which occurs immediately upon encountering a complex word. Subsequent processes take place in order to interpret the combination of stem and affix. We investigated the abilities of individuals with agrammatic (PPA-G) and logopenic (PPA-L) variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and individuals with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia (StrAg) to process pseudowords which violate either the syntactic (word class) rules (*reheavy) or the semantic compatibility (argument structure specifications of the base form) rules (*reswim). To this end, we quantified aspects of word knowledge and explored how the distinct deficits of the populations under investigation affect their performance. Thirty brain-damaged individuals and 10 healthy controls participated in a lexical decision task. We hypothesized that the two agrammatic groups (PPA-G and StrAg) would have difficulties detecting syntactic violations, while no difficulties were expected for PPA-L. Accuracy and Reaction Time (RT) patterns indicated: the PPA-L group made fewer errors but yielded slower RTs compared to the two agrammatic groups which did not differ from one another. Accuracy rates suggest that individuals with PPA-L distinguish *reheavy from *reswim, reflecting access to and differential processing of syntactic vs. semantic violations. In contrast, the two agrammatic groups do not distinguish between *reheavy and *reswim. The lack of difference stems from a particularly impaired performance in detecting syntactic violations, as they were equally unsuccessful at detecting *reheavy and *reswim. Reduced grammatical abilities assessed through language measures are a significant predictor for this performance, suggesting that the "hardware" to process syntactic information is impaired. Therefore, they can only judge violations semantically where both *reheavy and *reswim fail to pass as semantically ill-formed. This finding further suggests that impaired grammatical knowledge can affect word level processing as well. Results are in line with the psycholinguistic literature which postulates the existence of various stages in accessing complex pseudowords, highlighting the contribution of syntactic/grammatical knowledge. Further, it points to the worth of studying impaired language performance for informing normal language processes.

Asymmetric Morphological Priming Among Inflected and Derived Verbs and Nouns in Greek.

The present study examined differences between inflectional and derivational morphology using Greek nouns and verbs with masked priming (with both short and long stimulus onset asynchrony) and long-lag priming. A lexical decision task to inflected noun and verb targets was used to test whether their processing is differentially facilitated by prior presentation of their stem in words of the same grammatical class (inflectional morphology) or of a different grammatical class (derivational morphology). Differences in semantics, syntactic information, and morphological complexity between inflected and derived word pairs (both nouns and verbs) were minimized by unusually tight control of stimuli as permitted by Greek morphology. Results showed that morphological relations affected processing of morphologically complex Greek words (nouns and verbs) across prime durations (50-250ms) as well as when items intervened between primes and targets. In two of the four experiments (Experiments 1 and 3), inflectionally related primes produced significantly greater effects than derivationally related primes suggesting differences in processing inflectional versus derivational morphological relations, which may disappear when processing is less dependent on semantic effects (Experiment 4). Priming effects differed for verb vs. noun targets with long SOA priming (Experiment 3), consistent with processing differences between complex words of different grammatical class (nouns and verbs) when semantic effects are maximized. Taken together, results demonstrate that inflectional and derivational relations differentially affect processing complex words of different grammatical class (nouns and verbs). This finding indicates that distinctions of morphological relation (inflectional vs. derivational) are not of the same kind as distinctions of grammatical class (nouns vs. verbs). Asymmetric differences among inflected and derived verbs and nouns seem to depend on semantic effects and/or processing demands modulating priming effects very early in lexical processing of morphologically complex written words, consistent with models of lexical processing positing early access to morphological structure and early influence of semantics.

Sensitivity to word structure in adult Hebrew readers is associated with microstructure of the ventral reading pathways.

Skilled readers differ in their sensitivity to morphological word structure, which captures useful regularities in the mapping between written word forms and their meaning. We recently showed that sensitivity to morphological information in adult English readers is associated with the ventral reading pathways, bilaterally. It remains unclear, however, whether this association is specific to the English writing system. To shed light on this question, we investigated whether the associations between the ventral reading pathways and morphological sensitivity to word structure generalize across languages with different orthographies and morphological systems. To this end, we assessed neurocognitive correlations between white matter structural properties and morphological sensitivity in Hebrew, a Semitic language where morphemes are combined in a non-linear manner. We used diffusion MRI (dMRI) to segment ventral and dorsal tracts of interest in a sample of 43 adult Hebrew readers, who also completed a behavioral language assessment battery that included a morphological task. Significant correlations were found between morphological sensitivity and properties of bilateral ventral, but not dorsal, tracts. These correlations remained significant after controlling for measures of vocabulary and word reading, demonstrating their specificity to the morphological task. The current findings in Hebrew show striking similarity to prior findings in English. Our results support the view that morphological information contributes to lexical access along the ventral pathways, across orthographies and morphological systems.

Prefix Stripping Re-Re-Revisited: MEG Investigations of Morphological Decomposition and Recomposition.

We revisit a long-standing question in the psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic literature on comprehending morphologically complex words: are prefixes and suffixes processed using the same cognitive mechanisms? Recent work using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to uncover the dynamic temporal and spatial responses evoked by visually presented complex suffixed single words provide us with a comprehensive picture of morphological processing in the brain, from early, form-based decomposition, through lexical access, grammatically constrained recomposition, and semantic interpretation. In the present study, we find that MEG responses to prefixed words reveal interesting early differences in the lateralization of the form-based decomposition response compared to the effects reported in the literature for suffixed words, but a very similar post-decomposition profile. These results not only address a question stretching back to the earliest days of modern psycholinguistics, but also add critical support and nuance to our much newer emerging understanding of spatial organization and temporal dynamics of morphological processing in the human brain.

Structural properties of the ventral reading pathways are associated with morphological processing in adult English readers.

Morphological processing, the ability to extract information about word structure, is an essential component of reading. Functional MRI studies have identified several cortical regions involved in morphological processing, but the white matter pathways that support this skill remain unknown. Here, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of morphological processing and microstructural properties of white matter pathways. Using diffusion MRI (dMRI), we identified the major ventral and dorsal reading pathways in a group of 45 adult English readers. The same participants completed a behavioral battery that included a morphological task and measures of phonological and orthographic processing. We found significant correlations between morphological processing skill and microstructural properties of the ventral, but not dorsal, pathways. These correlations were detected primarily in the left hemisphere, and remained significant after controlling for phonological or orthographic measures, suggesting some level of cognitive specificity. Morphological processing of written words thus appears to rely on ventral pathways, primarily in the left hemisphere. This finding supports the contribution of morphological processing to lexical access and comprehension of complex English words.

The reality of hierarchical morphological structure in multimorphemic words.

This cross-modal priming study is one of the first to empirically test the long-held assumption that individual morphemes of multimorphemic words are represented according to a hierarchical structure. The results here support the psychological reality behind this assumption: Recognition of trimorphemic words (e.g., unkindness or [[un-[kind]]-ness]) was significantly facilitated by prior processing of their substrings when the substrings served as morphological constituents of the target words (e.g., unkind), but not when the substrings were not morphological constituents of the target words (e.g., kindness). This morphological structural priming occurred independently of the linear positions of morphological constituents.

Take a stand on understanding: electrophysiological evidence for stem access in German complex verbs.

The lexical representation of complex words in Indo-European languages is generally assumed to depend on semantic compositionality. This study investigated whether semantically compositional and noncompositional derivations are accessed via their constituent units or as whole words. In an overt visual priming experiment (300 ms stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA), event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for verbs (e.g., ziehen, "pull") that were preceded by purely semantically related verbs (e.g., zerren, "drag"), by morphologically related and semantically compositional verbs (e.g., zuziehen, "pull together"), by morphologically related and semantically noncompositional verbs (e.g., erziehen, "educate"), by orthographically similar verbs (e.g., zielen, "aim"), or by unrelated verbs (e.g., tarnen, "mask"). Compared to the unrelated condition, which evoked an N400 effect with the largest amplitude at centro-parietal recording sites, the N400 was reduced in all other conditions. The rank order of N400 amplitudes turned out as follows: morphologically related and semantically compositional ≈ morphologically related and semantically noncompositional < purely semantically related < orthographically similar < unrelated. Surprisingly, morphologically related primes produced similar N400 modulations-irrespective of their semantic compositionality. The control conditions with orthographic similarity confirmed that these morphological effects were not the result of a simple form overlap between primes and targets. Our findings suggest that the lexical representation of German complex verbs refers to their base form, regardless of meaning compositionality. Theories of the lexical representation of German words need to incorporate this aspect of language processing in German.

Há contribuições diferentes da morfologia derivacional e flexional para a escrita? / Are there different contributions of derivational and flexional morphology to spelling?

O presente estudo investigou a relação entre a consciência morfológica e a escrita em 111 adolescentes matriculados no 6º ano de uma escola pública na região urbana do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Os adolescentes tiveram que realizar duas tarefas de consciência morfológica, focando na morfologia derivacional e flexional, e uma tarefa de escrita, o subteste do Teste de Desempenho Escolar (TDE). Os resultados das regressões mostraram que, para essa amostra, a morfologia derivacional faz uma contribuição significativa após o controle da idade e da consciência fonológica para a escrita, mas a morfologia flexional não. Os resultados são discutidos à luz das teorias recentes sobre o papel dos morfemas para a escrita.(AU).

This study investigated the relationship between morphological awareness and spelling of 111 students enrolled in 6th grade of a public school in the urban area of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The adolescents executed two morphological awareness tasks, focusing derivational and flexional morphology, and a spelling task, the sub-test of the School Performance Test. The results of the regressions showed that, for this sample, derivational morphology contributed significantly after the control of age and phonological awareness for spelling, unlike the flexional morphology. The results are discussed in the light of the recent theories on the role of morphemes to spelling.(AU).

Há contribuições diferentes da morfologia derivacional e flexional para a escrita? / Are there different contributions of derivational and flexional morphology to spelling?

O presente estudo investigou a relação entre a consciência morfológica e a escrita em 111 adolescentes matriculados no 6º ano de uma escola pública na região urbana do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Os adolescentes tiveram que realizar duas tarefas de consciência morfológica, focando na morfologia derivacional e flexional, e uma tarefa de escrita, o subteste do Teste de Desempenho Escolar (TDE). Os resultados das regressões mostraram que, para essa amostra, a morfologia derivacional faz uma contribuição significativa após o controle da idade e da consciência fonológica para a escrita, mas a morfologia flexional não. Os resultados são discutidos à luz das teorias recentes sobre o papel dos morfemas para a escrita.

This study investigated the relationship between morphological awareness and spelling of 111 students enrolled in 6th grade of a public school in the urban area of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The adolescents executed two morphological awareness tasks, focusing derivational and flexional morphology, and a spelling task, the sub-test of the School Performance Test. The results of the regressions showed that, for this sample, derivational morphology contributed significantly after the control of age and phonological awareness for spelling, unlike the flexional morphology. The results are discussed in the light of the recent theories on the role of morphemes to spelling.

Word production errors in children with developmental language impairments.

This review focuses on the errors that children with developmental language impairments make on three types of word production tasks: lexical retrieval, the elicitation of derivationally complex forms and the repetition of non-sense forms. The studies discussed in this review come principally from children with specific language impairment, and from children who are English-speakers or deaf users of British sign language. It is argued that models of word production need to be able to account for the data presented here, and need to have explanatory power across both modalities (i.e. speech and sign).

Diferenças entre o desenvolvimento da morfologia derivacional e flexional no português brasileiro no ensino fundamental / Differences in the development of derivational and flexional morphology in brazilian portuguese

Vários estudos têm demonstrado que a consciência morfológica está associada à aquisição da leitura e a escrita. Porém, há diferentes tipos de morfemas. O presente estudo explora diferenças no desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica derivacional e flexional no português do Brasil. A amostra do estudo foi constituída por 134 crianças de primeiro ao quarto ano do Ensino fundamental. As crianças realizaram tarefas que acessavam seu conhecimento da morfologia derivacional e flexional. Os resultados mostraram que para todos os anos as tarefas de morfologia flexional foram mais fáceis do que as de derivação. Houve uma melhora no desempenho do segundo para o terceiro ano, mas não do terceiro para o quarto ano. De um modo geral, os resultados corroboram os já encontrados no inglês e no francês.(AU)

Several studies have demonstrated that morphological awareness is related to reading and writing acquisition. However, there are different types of morphemes. The present study explores differences in derivational and flexional awareness development in Brazilian Portuguese. The sample in this study was constituted of 134 children from 1st to 4th grades of primary education who accomplished tasks which assessed their knowledge of derivational and flexional morphology. The results show that for all grades flexional morphology tasks were easier than derivational morphology ones. Performance improved from second to third grade but not from third to fourth grade. In general, results corroborate those already found in English and French languages.(AU)

Diferenças entre o desenvolvimento da morfologia derivacional e flexional no português brasileiro no ensino fundamental / Differences in the development of derivational and flexional morphology in brazilian portuguese

Vários estudos têm demonstrado que a consciência morfológica está associada à aquisição da leitura e a escrita. Porém, há diferentes tipos de morfemas. O presente estudo explora diferenças no desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica derivacional e flexional no português do Brasil. A amostra do estudo foi constituída por 134 crianças de primeiro ao quarto ano do Ensino fundamental. As crianças realizaram tarefas que acessavam seu conhecimento da morfologia derivacional e flexional. Os resultados mostraram que para todos os anos as tarefas de morfologia flexional foram mais fáceis do que as de derivação. Houve uma melhora no desempenho do segundo para o terceiro ano, mas não do terceiro para o quarto ano. De um modo geral, os resultados corroboram os já encontrados no inglês e no francês...

Several studies have demonstrated that morphological awareness is related to reading and writing acquisition. However, there are different types of morphemes. The present study explores differences in derivational and flexional awareness development in Brazilian Portuguese. The sample in this study was constituted of 134 children from 1st to 4th grades of primary education who accomplished tasks which assessed their knowledge of derivational and flexional morphology. The results show that for all grades flexional morphology tasks were easier than derivational morphology ones. Performance improved from second to third grade but not from third to fourth grade. In general, results corroborate those already found in English and French languages...

Desenvolvimento da morfologia derivacional nos primeiros anos do ensino fundamental / Morphological awareness development in the first years of primary education

Consciência morfológica é a habilidade de refletir sobre os morfemas. Essa habilidade está relacionada à aquisição da leitura e da escrita. A maioria dos estudos nessa área foca no desenvolvimento da morfologia flexional. Menos se sabe sobre a morfologia derivacional. Este estudo verificou o desenvolvimento da morfologia derivacional. Trinta e sete crianças de primeiro e terceiro ano responderam a uma tarefa de decisão lexical que exigia que a criança julgasse um par de palavras com base na morfologia da língua portuguesa. Os resultados mostraram que as crianças de primeiro ano fizeram julgamentos ao nível de chance. As crianças de terceiro ano tiveram desempenho acima do nível de chance. No entanto, não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre as séries escolares. Esses resultados contradizem os usualmente encontrados na literatura. O tipo de tarefa e a natureza do sistema escolar são apontados como possíveis explicações para as diferenças nos resultados.

Morphological awareness is the ability to reflect upon a word´s morphemes. This ability is related to reading and spelling acquisition. Most studies carried out in the Portuguese language have focused on the development of flexional morphology. Less is known about derivational morphology. This study looked at the development of derivational morphology. Thirty-seven children from grades one and three were given a lexical decision task that required judging a pair of words on the basis of Portuguese language morphology. The results showed that first grade children made the judgments at random levels. Third grade children had above random performance. However, no grade effects were found for comparisons between grades. These results are different from the ones usually found in the literature. The type of task used and the nature of the school system are possible explanation for differences in performance.