Inflectional complexity and experience affect plural processing in younger and older readers of Dutch and German. Issue 4 (21st April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reifegerste, Jana; Meyer, Antje S.; Zwitserlood, Pienie
• Is Part Of: Language, cognition and neuroscience. Volume 32:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 471
• Page End: 487
• Publication Date: 2017-04-21
• Subjects: Morphological processing -- morphological complexity -- ageing -- lexical decision -- plural processing; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Neurosciences -- Periodicals; Psycholinguïstiek; Cognitieve processen; Linguistics; Neurosciences; Psycholinguistics; Periodicals; 401.9
• DOI: 10.1080/23273798.2016.1247213
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2327-3798

Abstract

ABSTRACT: According to dual-route models of morphological processing, regular inflections can be retrieved as whole-word forms or decomposed into morphemes. Baayen, Dijkstra, and Schreuder [(1997). Singulars and plurals in Dutch: Evidence for a parallel dual-route model. Journal of Memory and Language, 37, 94–117. doi:10.1006/jmla.1997.2509] proposed a dual-route model in which singular-dominant plurals ("brides") are decomposed, while plural-dominant plurals ("peas") are accessed as whole-word units. We report two lexical-decision experiments investigating how plural processing is influenced by participants' age and morphological complexity of the language (German/Dutch). For all Dutch participants and older German participants, we replicated the interaction between number and dominance reported by Baayen and colleagues. Younger German participants showed a main effect of number, indicating decomposition of all plurals. Access to stored forms seems to depend on morphological richness and experience with word forms. The data pattern fits neither full-decomposition nor full-storage models, but is compatible with dual-route models.