Priming morphologically complex verbs by sentence contexts: Effects of semantic transparency and ambiguity

Abstract

Semantic priming of morphologically complex Dutch verbs was investigated in two cross-modal experiments. Spoken sentences served as primes to visual target words, presented for lexical decision. Targets were either simple verbs (e.g., brengen, bring) or particle verbs, consisting of a simple verb plus a separable prefix (e.g., meebrengen, bring along). Particle verbs were either semantically transparent or opaque. Transparent particle verbs are semantically related to their constituent verb (e.g., meebrengen, bring along), opaque verbs are not (e.g., ombrengen, exterminate). In Experiment 1, facilitation was consistently obtained when verb targets were semantically congruent with the content of the sentence primes. But priming was also found in incongruent conditions, when opaque verbs served as targets with sentences constructed to prime the meaning of their embedded verbs. Post-hoc analyses and data from Experiment 2, however, showed that this was due to the ambiguous nature of some opaque particle verbs. Whereas the dominant opaque and the subordinate transparent meaning of ambiguous particle verbs could both be primed, truly opaque verbs were not facilitated by the semantic field of their constituent verbs. Given abundant evidence for a close association, at a morphological level, of transparent and opaque complex words to their constituents, the data demonstrate a dissociation between connections at lexical and conceptual levels of representation.