An eye-tracking study of reading long and short novel and lexicalized compound words.

Jukka Hyönä,Minna Koski,Alexander Pollatsek,Henri Olkoniemi

doi:10.16910/jemr.13.4.3

Abstract

An eye-tracking experiment examined the recognition of novel and lexicalized compound words during sentence reading. The frequency of the head noun in modifier-head compound words was manipulated to tap into the degree of compositional processing. This was done separately for long (12–16 letter) and short (7-9 letters) compound words. Based on the dual-route race model [Pollatsek et al., 4] and the visual acuity principle [Bertram & Hyönä, 2], long lexicalized and novel compound words were predicted to be processed via the decomposition route and short lexicalized compound words via the holistic route. Gaze duration and selective regression-path duration demonstrated a constituent frequency effect of similar size for long lexicalized and novel compound words. For short compound words the constituent frequency effect was negligible for lexicalized words but robust for novel words. The results are consistent with the visual acuity principle that assumes long novel compound words to be recognized via the decomposition route and short lexicalized compound words via the holistic route.

Highlights

Novel words can be created from existing ones by combining two existing words to form a new compound word
Based on the dualroute race model (Pollatsek et al, 2000) and the visual acuity principle (Bertram & Hyönä, 2003; Hyönä, 2012), we predicted novel compounds and long lexicalized compounds to be recognized via thecomposition route, while the short lexicalized compounds would be recognized via the holistic route as single entities
This pattern of results is generally consistent with the visual acuity principle, which posits that short lexicalized compound words are processed via the holistic route, whereas with long compounds recognition is initiated using the decomposition route

Summary

Introduction

Novel words can be created from existing ones by combining two existing words to form a new compound word. In many languages word compounding is very productive; novel compound words can be formed. For example in Finnish, the language used in the present study, Received April 29, 2020; Published August 4, 2020. An eye-tracking study of reading long and short novel and lexicalized compound words.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion