The role of semantic transparency in the processing of English compound words

AbstractCompound words allow us to investigate lexical storage, retrieval, and interpretation. The role of storage and computation in compound processing is reviewed. It is claimed that morphological processing is automatic and obligatory, and that multi-morphemic words require resolution of a conflict between whole-word and constituent activation. This leads to the conclusion that morphological constituents are created through morphological processing so that strawberry comes to be composed of straw- and -berry; these constituents are positionally bound so that berry-, -berry, and berry are distinct processing units. This proliferation of morphological representations resolves long-standing puzzles concerning semantic transparency and challenges traditional psycholinguistic approaches that investigate the effect of some independent variable (such as semantic transparency) on task performance as a dependent variable. It is suggested that psycholinguistic inquiry may be understood as the study of the correlation of dependent variables within the language processing system.

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The role of semantic transparency in visual word recognition of compound words: A megastudy approach

Behavior Research Methods ◽

10.3758/s13428-018-1143-3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 51 (6) ◽

pp. 2722-2732 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Say Young Kim ◽

Melvin J. Yap ◽

Winston D. Goh

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word ◽

Semantic Transparency ◽

Compound Words

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Imaging Implicit Morphological Processing: Evidence from Hebrew

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21357 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (9) ◽

pp. 1955-1969 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Atira S. Bick ◽

Ram Frost ◽

Gadi Goelman

Keyword(s):

Masked Priming ◽

Statistical Correlation ◽

Morphological Processing ◽

Fine Tuning ◽

Semantic Transparency ◽

Lexical Structure ◽

The Neural Networks ◽

Distinct Aspect ◽

The Brain

Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine-tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among orthographic and semantic properties of words? Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to examine morphological processing in the brain because of its rich morphological system. In an fMRI masked priming experiment, we investigated the neural networks involved in implicit morphological processing in Hebrew. In the lMFG and lIFG, activation was found to be significantly reduced when the primes were morphologically related to the targets. This effect was not influenced by the semantic transparency of the morphological prime, and was not found in the semantic or orthographic condition. Additional morphologically related decrease in activation was found in the lIPL, where activation was significantly modulated by semantic transparency. Our findings regarding implicit morphological processing suggest that morphology is an automatic and distinct aspect of visually processing words. These results also coincide with the behavioral data previously obtained demonstrating the central role of morphological processing in reading Hebrew.

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Semantic transparency effects in German compounds: A large dataset and multiple-task investigation

10.31234/osf.io/dwxb6 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Fritz Guenther ◽

Marco Marelli ◽

Jens Bölte

Keyword(s):

Comprehensive Analysis ◽

Distributional Semantics ◽

Semantic Model ◽

Semantic Transparency ◽

Dimensional Approach ◽

Compound Words ◽

Behavioral Experiments ◽

Large Dataset ◽

Using Data ◽

Multiple Task

In the present study, we provide a comprehensive analysis and a multi-dimensional dataset of semantic transparency measures for 1,810 German compound words. Compound words are considered semantically transparent when the contribution of the constituents’ meaning to the compound meaning is clear (as in airport), but the degree of semantic transparency varies between compounds (compare strawberry or sandman). Our dataset includes both compositional and relatedness-based semantic transparency measures, also differentiated by constituents. The measures are obtained from a computational and fully implemented semantic model based on distributional semantics. We validate the measures using data from four behavioral experiments: Explicit transparency ratings, two different lexical decision tasks using different nonwords, and an eye-tracking study. We demonstrate that different semantic effects emerge in different behavioral tasks, which can only be capturedusing a multi-dimensional approach to semantic transparency. We further provide the semantic transparency measures derived from the model for a dataset of 40,475 additional German compounds, as well as for 2,061 novel German compounds.

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The role of semantic transparency in processing compound nouns: evidence from people with Broca’s Aphasia

Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics ◽

10.1080/02699206.2019.1656780 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 493-515

Author(s):

Mousa Ghonchepour ◽

Mahdiye Pakzad Moghaddam

Keyword(s):

Semantic Transparency ◽

Broca's Aphasia ◽

Compound Nouns ◽

Broca’S Aphasia

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The semantics of Lermontov's poetic myth of the Demon N. S. Leskov’s “The Islanders”

Litera ◽

10.25136/2409-8698.2021.3.35024 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Vurgun Georgievich Mekhtiev

Keyword(s):

Russian Literature ◽

Point Of View ◽

The Novel ◽

Semantic Transparency ◽

Special Contribution ◽

Romantic Poetry ◽

The Subject ◽

Literary Myth ◽

The Demonic

The subject of this research is the negative-axiological, satirical layers of the novel “The Islanders”, associated with the image of the demonic character, which M. Y. Lermontov turned into the archetype and poetic myth in the Russian literature. The object of this research is the stylistic techniques and ideological motifs of N. S. Leskov underlying “desacralization” of the romantic myth. The author meticulously examines the following aspects: 1) role of Lermontov's poem “The Demon” and romantic poetry of the 1840s in creation of the myth of the demonic character; 2) semantic deformations that led Leskov to wander from the conventional meanings of the myth ; 3) satirical modus used as the key technique in creation of the the image of Istomin. Particular attention is given to Leskov’s satire in its function of “recoding” of the myth. The conclusion is made that the image of the painter Istomin is appointed with the task to dispel the romantic myth. Therefore, the axiological-emotional lexis, as well as elements of satire that reflect the point of view of the “subjective” narrative are arrayed around him. All of that imparts semantic transparency to the character, which contradicts the “mysterious code” of the myth of romanticism. The author’s special contribution consists in the establishment of correlation between the myth of about the demon and the myth of Prometheus, which is important for assessing the complexity and multifacetedness of the semantic core of the phenomenon under review. The novelty of this research lies in revelation of underlying motif of the satirical style of N. S. Leskov. Its point is not to create a “myth about the myth” or an “anti-myth”; the novel forms the “non-myth” to achieve complete elimination of the literary myth of the demonic character. The writer uses satire for typification, rather than individualization of the character.

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