Inflectional Regularity: Probing the Nature of Lexical Representation in a Cross-Modal Priming Task

Abstract

Two cross-modal priming experiments address issues concerning the representation and processing of regular and irregular morphology in English as well as methodological issues concerning the use of the cross-modal technique in lexical processing studies. Cross-modal inflectional priming facilitates regular verbs (e.g., walked priming walk) but not irregular verbs (e.g., gave priming give). We found that similar but morphologically unrelated words (e.g., slam priming slim) inhibit each other when presented cross-modally. Based on this effect for form-based inhibition, we interpret the regular/irregular verb priming asymmetry as a reflection of competition between orthographically similar verb forms (e.g., gave-give) which results in target inhibition. In support of this proposal, we found that orthographically dissimilar irregular verbs (e.g., taught-teach) show strong priming facilitation. We account for this result in terms of a two-level lexicon in which irregular verb alternates have distinct form-level entries, but engage a common entry at an abstract morphological level of representation. In addition to serving as evidence concerning the representation of English verbal inflection, the findings from these experiments also set important limits on the claim that the cross-modal priming paradigm automatically circumvents form-related processing effects that are not morphological in character.