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The time course of lexical access in morphologically complex words

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 15:25 authored by Henning Holle, Thomas C Gunter, Dirk Koester
Compounding, the concatenation of words (e.g. dishwasher), is an important mechanism across many languages. This study investigated whether access of initial compound constituents occurs immediately or, alternatively, whether it is delayed until the last constituent (i.e. the head). Electroencephalogram was measured as participants listened to German two-constituent compounds. Both the initial as well as the following head constituent could consist of either a word or nonword, resulting in four experimental conditions. Results showed a larger N400 for initial nonword constituents, suggesting that lexical access was attempted before the head. Thus, this study provides direct evidence that lexical access of transparent compound constituents in German occurs immediately, and is not delayed until the compound head is encountered.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Neuroreport

ISSN

0959-4965

Publisher

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

Issue

5

Volume

21

Page range

319-323

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2010-06-28

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-01-22

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-01-22

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