The processing of morphologically complex words in a specific speaker group

Abstract

The present study investigates to what extent morphological priming varies across different groups of native speakers of a language. In two masked-priming experiments, we investigate the processing of morphologically complex Turkish words in Turkish heritage speakers raised and living in Germany. Materials and experimental design were based on Kırkıcı and Clahsen’s (2013) study on morphological processing in Turkish native speakers and L2 learners, allowing for direct comparisons between the three groups. Experiment 1 investigated priming effects for morphologically related prime-target pairs. Heritage speakers showed a similar pattern of results as the L1 comparison group, with significant priming effects for prime-target pairs with inflected primes (e.g. ‘sorar-sor’ asks-ask) as well as for prime-target pairs with derived primes (e.g. ‘sağlık-sağ’ health-healthy). In Experiment 2, we measured priming effects for prime-target pairs which were semantically and morphologically unrelated, but only related with regard to orthographic overlap (e.g. ‘devre-dev’ period-giant). Unlike both L1 speakers raised in Turkey and highly proficient L2 learners, heritage speakers also showed significant priming effects in this condition. Our results suggest that heritage speakers differ from both native speakers and L2 learners in that they rely more on (orthographic) surface form properties of the stimulus during early stages of word recognition, at the expense of morphological decomposition.

Preserved morphological processing in heritage speakers: A masked priming study on Turkish

“…At first glance, our results appear to be inconsistent with previous research on morphological processing in Turkish heritage speakers: While Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016) report similar significant priming effects for both derivation and inflection as in the present study, the heritage group in this previous study also showed significant priming effects for purely orthographically related word pairs. Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016) thus argue that the priming effects for derived and inflected words might not be due to morphological decomposition, but might instead be caused by the fact that heritage speakers are forced to focus more on orthographic surface form. However, note again that the L1-H sample in Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016) consisted of a particular subgroup of L1-H speakers who had acquired literacy skills exclusively for German and then used their knowledge of the German writing system to read Turkish text.…”

“…Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016) thus argue that the priming effects for derived and inflected words might not be due to morphological decomposition, but might instead be caused by the fact that heritage speakers are forced to focus more on orthographic surface form. However, note again that the L1-H sample in Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016) consisted of a particular subgroup of L1-H speakers who had acquired literacy skills exclusively for German and then used their knowledge of the German writing system to read Turkish text. For this particular subgroup, it is conceivable that the processor might be forced to devote additional processing resources and attention to orthography, possibly at the expense of morphological decomposition.…”

“…Also, the study was based on a paradigm in which primes were presented auditorily, making masking impossible and allowing the participants to have conscious awareness of the primes, and thus tapping into a later, central-lexical level of processing (see Marslen-Wilson, 2007). The only masked-priming study on L1-H speakers, Jacob and Kırkıcı (2016), investigated the processing of derived Turkish -lIk nominalizations and inflected Aorist forms in a specific sub-group of Turkish L1-H speakers. Specifically, their participants had all gone to primary school in Germany, and had acquired literacy skills specifically for German.…”

Morphological decomposition in Bantu: a masked priming study on Setswana prefixation

“…Li & Taft, 2019;M. Li, Jiang, et al, 2017) and heritage speakers (Jacob & Kırkıcı, 2016). There is evidence that such orthographic priming effects arise when speakers have relatively low proficiency in a given language, i.e.…”

Morphological priming in bilingualism research

“…Primes and targets can be presented either visually or auditorily, making the paradigm suitable for research on both written and spoken word recognition (see Gor & Cook, 2010, and Gor & Jackson, 2013, for two examples of L2 studies investigating spoken word recognition). Also, while the majority of studies have focussed on late L2 learners, the paradigm has also been employed to investigate other groups of bilinguals, such as heritage speakers (Gor & Cook, 2010; Jacob & Kırkıcı, 2016).…”