1. Prefixed Word Forms in the German Mental Lexicon
Ingrid Sonnenstuhl
Meike Hadler
Helga Weyerts
Harald Clahsen
University of Düsseldorf
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

2. The Lexical Representation of Derivational Word Forms
Full form storage of all complex word forms, morphological structure plays no role. (e.g. Butterworth 1983; Rumelhart & McClelland 1986; Bybee 1995)
Full form storage of all complex word forms, morphological structure plays some role (e.g. Lukatela, Gligorijevic, Kostic, Savier & Turvey 1980; Andrews 1986; Feldman & Fowler 1987; Schriefers, Friederici & Graetz 1992)
Decomposition of complex word forms. (e.g. Taft & Forster 1975; Taft 1979, 1981)
Transparency determines the processing of complex word forms. (e.g. Henderson, Wallis & Knight 1984; Feldman 1994; Marslen-Wilson, Tyler, Waksler & Older 1994; Drews & Zwitserlood 1995)
Different processing of prefixed and suffixed words. (e.g. Marslen-Wilson, Tyler, Waksler & Older 1994)
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

3. Full-form frequency effect? Productive Derivations
Previous Results
Full-form frequency effect?
Full priming effect?
Default Forms
-t participles ge-[ kauf ]-t no
yes
-s plurals [ Brikett ]-s
Irregulars
-n participles [ gefahren ]
-er plurals [ Kinder ]
Subregulars
-n Plurals [+ fem, + e] [ Tasche ] -n ]
Productive Derivations
-ung nominalizations [[ Stift ]-ung ]
diminutives [[ Kind ]-chen ]
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

4. Two Mechanisms – Three Distinctions
Word forms inflected by a general default:
Basic stem and affix
-t participles
-s plurals
ge[ kauf ]-t
'bought'
[ Brikett ]-s
'briquets'
Irregulars:
Opaque stems
-n participles
-er plurals
[ gefahren ]
'driven'
[ Kinder ]
'children'
Subregulars and
productive derivation:
Morphologically structured stems
-n plurals
-ung nominalizations
diminutives
[[Tasche]-n]
'pockets'
[[ Stift ]-ung]
'donation'
[[ Kind ]-chen]
'small child'
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

5. Research Questions
Do the results from suffixed forms generalize to prefixed forms?
How are derivational forms with a limited productivity represented?
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

6. German Adjectives Investigated
bequem 'comfortable' unbequem 'uncomfortable'
un + bequem  [ un [ bequem ] ]
stabil 'stable' instabil 'unstable'
instabil  [ instabil ]
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

7. Unprimed Lexical Decision Access Representations
Experiment Frequency Effects
instabil
Unprimed Lexical Decision
Access Representations
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

8. Experiment 1 Frequency Effects
Condition
Mean base stem frequency
Mean derived stem frequency
un- (high)
70,0
12,6
ungerecht
'unjust'
un- (low)
69,8
0,3
unplausibel
'implausibel'
in- (high)
149,1
9,5
inoffiziell
'unofficial'
in- (low)
149,3
ineffektiv
'ineffective'
Prediction: Derived word forms are stems by themselves
frequency effects for derived stems
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

9. Experiment 1 Frequency Effects
Results
Word- form frequency effects for both derivational forms
Full-form representations
for fully productive
and less productive
prefixed adjectives
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

10. Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming Stem-Internal Lexical Structures
[ insta:bi:l ]
Cross-Modal Priming
stabil
Stem-Internal Lexical Structures
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

11. Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming
Derivational form
Auditory primes
Visual target
un- adjectives
Identity:
bequem
bequem ('comfortable')
Derivation:
unbequem
Control:
tolerant
in- adjectives
stabil
stabil ('stable')
instabil
ledig
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

12. Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming
Predictions
No decomposition: Separate entries for derivational forms
reduced priming
Decomposition: Repeated access to the same stem
full priming
Dual-Mechanism hypothesis:
full priming for un- adjectives
reduced priming for in- adjectives
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

13. Experiment 2 Cross-Modal Priming
Results
Full priming for un- forms
decomposed lexical representations
Reduced priming for in- forms
full-form lexical representations
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

14. Experiment 3 Masked Priming
stabil
XXXXXX msec
STABI L msec
XXXXXX msec
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

15. Experiment 3 Masked Priming
Derivational form
Masked primes
Target
un- adjectives
Identity:
bequem
bequem ('comfortable')
Derivation:
unbequem
Control:
tolerant
in- adjectives
stabil
stabil ('stable')
instabil
ledig
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

16. Experiment 3 Masked Priming
Results
Full priming for un- forms
decomposed lexical representations
Reduced priming for in- forms
full-form lexical representations
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

17. Summary Full-form frequency effects for all derivational forms
Full-form access representations for all derivational forms
Reduced priming for in- adjectives
Storage of derivational forms with limited productivity and transparency
Full priming for derived un- adjectives
Full priming for derived -ung nouns
Full priming for -chen diminutives
Decomposition of transparent and fully productive derivational forms
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October

18. Conclusion full-form access representations, Inflection: Irregulars
full-form lexical representations
Inflection: Irregulars
Derivation: Forms with
restricted phonological transparency and
limited productivity
full-form access representations,
morphologically structured lexical representations
Inflection: Subregulars
Derivation: Forms with
full phonological transparency and
full productivity
Third International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Banff, October