Lexical properties influencing visual word recognition in Hangul

Abstract

This study examined how lexical properties, such as word frequency, word length, and morphological features, affect the word recognition of Korean Hangul among adult readers. Ninety-four native Korean students performed a lexical decision task on disyllabic and trisyllabic words and nonwords. Results of cross-classified and hierarchical linear modeling showed a significant frequency effect but null effects of word length and their interactions on word recognition. The null syllable effect might be contributable to the block structure of syllables, which does not require syllabic decomposition in recognition. Given that Chinese-derived Sino-Korean words account for about 70% of the Korean lexicon, morphological features embedded in the word were examined in order to further understand the morphological undercurrent of multisyllabic word recognition. Word type (bound-morphemic words vs. compound words), word origin (native or semi-native words vs. Chinese-derived words), and morphemic transparency (opaque morpheme vs. transparent morpheme) were significant predictors of the speed of visual word recognition. An analysis of frequency split showed that compound words and morpheme transparency facilitated word recognition for high frequency words, while the number of morphemes within the word, Korean native and semi-native words, and morphemic transparency facilitated word recognition for low frequency words. These results suggest that high and low frequency words function differently according to morphological information available within the multisyllabic word in visual word recognition in Hangul.