Brain responses to morphologically complex verbs: An electrophysiological study of Swedish regular and irregular past tense forms. (August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schremm, Andrea; Novén, Mikael; Horne, Merle; Roll, Mikael
• Is Part Of: Journal of neurolinguistics. Volume 51(2019)
• Page Start: 76
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2019-08
• Subjects: Morphology -- Inflection -- Event-related potentials -- Left anterior negativity -- LAN -- P600; Neurolinguistics -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Brain -- physiology -- Periodicals; Language -- physiology -- Periodicals; Neurolinguistique -- Périodiques; Langage et langues -- Aspect physiologique -- Périodiques; Psycholinguistique -- Périodiques; Language and languages -- Physiological aspects; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.855
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2019.01.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0911-6044

Abstract

Abstract: The present electrophysiological study investigated irregular versus regular verb form processing in Swedish during reading. In line with previous results from other languages, overregularized verbs, i.e. incorrect irregular stem + regular past tense suffix combinations (e.g. * stjäl + de 'steal + past tense'), elicited a left-lateralized negativity (LAN) relative to correct irregulars ( stal 'stole'), suggesting rule-based decomposition of regularly inflected words. Lack of a similar effect for misapplication of the irregular stem formation pattern on regular verbs (e.g. * löft 'lifted' instead of lyfte ) suggests the involvement of different processing mechanisms, possibly whole word access, for irregular items, at least to some degree. A P600 showing reprocessing was seen for all incorrect forms. The results add cross-linguistic support for morphological decomposition in the verbal inflection of a language where results from previous neurolinguistic studies of nominal inflection have only suggested the use of full-form access to words. Highlights: ERPs of both overregularized and irregularized verbs in Swedish were recorded. LAN obtained for overregularized verbs suggests rule-based decomposition. Irregularized verbs elicited only a P600 relative to the correct variant.