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. 2015 Feb 26:9:62.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00062. eCollection 2015.

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

Eva Smolka  1 , Matthias Gondan  2 , Frank Rösler  3
Affiliations

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

Eva Smolka et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: complex verbs; derivational morphology; event-related potentials; form priming; morphological priming; semantic priming; stem access.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Electrode montage. Nineteen pooled electrodes, corresponding to the 19 electrodes of the 10–20 system were used in the analyses of the EEG data. Each of the pooled electrodes comprised three adjacent electrodes, as follows: Fpz (Fp1, Fpz, Fp2), AFz (AF3, AFz, AF4), F5 (F3, F5, F7), Fz (F1, Fz, F2), F6 (F4, F6, F8), FC5 (FC3, FC5, FT7), FCz (FC1, FCz, FC2), FC6 (FC4, FC6, FT8), C5 (C3, C5, T7), Cz (C1, Cz, C2), C6 (C4, C6, T8), CP5 (CP3, CP5, TP7), CPz (CP1, CPz, CP2), CP6 (CP4, CP6, TP8), P5 (P3, P5, P7), Pz (P1, Pz, P2), P6 (P4, P6, P8), POz (PO3, POz, PO4), Oz (O1, Oz, O2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Grand average ERPs of verb targets preceded by unrelated (U) or semantically related (S) verbs. In this and the following figures, negativity is plotted upwards, with time in ms and potentials in μV.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Grand average ERPs of verb targets preceded by unrelated verbs (U) or morphologically related and semantically transparent (T) or morphologically related and semantically opaque (O) derivations.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Grand average ERPs of verb targets primed by unrelated (U), semantically related (S) verbs or morphologically and semantically transparent verbs (T).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Grand average ERPs of verb targets preceded by unrelated (U) or form-related (F) verbs.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The significance of t- and permutation tests from top to bottom: S vs. U, O vs. U; T vs. O; O vs. F; the difference O – F vs. the difference T – S.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Grand average ERPs of verb targets preceded by unrelated (U), form-related (F), semantically related (S), morphologically related and semantically transparent (T) or by morphologically related and semantically opaque (O) verbs.
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