Analogy in morphology: modeling the choice of linking morphemes in Dutch

Abstract

This study argues that a productive but not fully regular morphological phenomenon, the choice of linking morphemes in Dutch nominal compounds, is based on analogy. In Dutch, a linking -s-or -en-can appear between the constituents of a nominal compound. We present production experiments that reveal strong evidence that the choice of linking morphemes in novel compounds is analogically determined by the distribution of linking morphemes in what we call the ''constituent families.'' A ''constituent family'' is the set of existing compounds that share the first (or second) constituent with the novel compound. A further experiment shows that in the case of derived pseudo-words as first constituents, it is the family of the suffix that influences the choice of the following linking morpheme. In addition to these experiments, we present computational simulation studies in which the choices made by participants in our experiments are predicted with a high degree of accuracy using a machine-learning algorithm for analogy. These studies support the status of the constituent family as the primary basis for analogical prediction. Finally, we outline a psycholinguistic model for analogy in the mental lexicon that does not give up symbolic representations and, at the same time, captures nondeterministic variation.

Analogical effects in reading Dutch verb forms

“…In conclusion, previous studies (see, e.g., Ernestus & Baayen, 2003, 2004Krott, 2001;Krott et al, 2001;Skousen, 1989) have shown that the production of existing words and the creation of new morphologically complex forms in isolation are affected by the properties of semantic, phonological, morphological, and orthographical neighbors. Our results show that reading morphologically complex words in meaningful contexts is also affected by a word's lexical neighbors, and that these analogical effects are both intra-and interparadigmatic in nature.…”

“…Other studies (e.g., Ernestus & Baayen, 2003, 2004Krott, 2001;Krott, Baayen, & Schreuder, 2001;Skousen, 1989) have shown that these stored words and word forms may affect each other's production as well as the formation of new morphologically complex forms. For instance, Krott and colleagues (Krott, 2001;Krott et al, 2001) showed that the probability and the speed with which a speaker of Dutch chooses a given interfix for a new compound highly correlates with the frequency of the interfix among the existing compounds with the same initial constituent as the new compound. If the initial constituent is followed by a certain interfix in many existing compounds, speakers often choose this interfix, and when they do so, they react fast.…”

Multivariate Statistics

“…Krott, Baayen, and Schreuder (2001) made use of memory-based learning to predict interfixes in Dutch compounds, Plag, Kunter, and Lappe (2007) applied it to the analysis of stress patterns in English compounds, whereas Keuleers et al (2007) used it to study Dutch plural inflection. Keuleers (2008) provides a detailed comparison of memory-based learning with the rule-induction approach of Albright and Hayes (2003), focusing on regular and irregular verbs in English.…”

The role of selectional restrictions, phonotactics and parsing in constraining suffix ordering in English

“…Schreuder , Bertram et al 2000, Krott et al 2001, which means that the relative frequency of base and derivative cannot be the only factor in play. Hence, frequency-based assessments of decomposability (and stacking) would need to incorporate morphological family effects as well as effects of relative frequency and absolute frequency.…”