=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1347/paper20
|storemode=property
|title=Identifying existing and novel compound words in reading Finnish: an eye movement study
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1347/paper20.pdf
|volume=Vol-1347
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/networds/HyonaKP15
}}
==Identifying existing and novel compound words in reading Finnish: an eye movement study==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1347/paper20.pdf
Identifying Existing and Novel Compound Words in Reading Finnish:
An Eye Movement Study
Jukka Hyönä Minna Koski Alexander Pollatsek
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
University of Turku University of Turku University of Massachusetts
Turku, Finland Turku, Finland Amherst, MA, USA
hyona@utu.fi mmjkos@utu.fi pollatsek@psych.umass.edu
latest stages of processing during the first-pass
1 Introduction reading, indexed by fixation time spent on the
target word after fixating away from the first
According to the dual-route race model of com-
constituent but before exiting the word, only a
pound word identification (Pollatsek, Hyönä, &
main effect of novelty was observed. As regards
Bertram, 2000), the holistic route and the mor-
to the processing of long novel compound words,
phological decomposition route operate in tan-
the pattern of results was taken to suggest a two-
dem. Bertram and Hyönä (2003) posited that
stage process. During the first stage, lexical ac-
word length modulates the interplay between the
cess is achieved for the compound word constit-
two access routes. When a compound word is
uents. During the second stage, the meaning of
sufficiently short so that all or most of its letters
the novel compound word is composed out of the
fall on the foveal region when fixating it during
constituent meanings. The second stage is as-
reading, the holistic route gets a head start and
sumed to take longer when the frequency of the
completes faster than the morphological route
first constituent is low, because the prototypical
and thus the word is more likely to be identified
relationships that the low-frequency first constit-
as a whole. On the other hand, when a compound
uent would be engaged in compounding are not
word is so long that a subset of letters is beyond
firmly established.
foveal reach, the identification is initiated by first
In the present study, we further investigated
recognizing the initial constituent followed by
the processing of novel and lexicalized Finnish
the recognition of the second constituent and that
two-noun compound words. This time we ma-
of the whole word.
nipulated the frequency of the second constituent
In their study examining the processing of
(the compound head). It was done separately for
novel compound words, Pollatsek et al. (2011)
existing and novel compound words. Moreover,
demonstrated that the decomposition route
we also manipulated the length of the compound
played even a more prominent role in processing
words. If indeed word length strongly determines
novel than lexicalized compound words. Pol-
the interplay between the holistic and decompo-
latsek et al. (2011) compared the processing of
sition route in compound word identification, as
novel and existing Finnish compound words by
argued by Bertram and Hyönä (2003), the ma-
manipulating the frequency of first constituent as
nipulation of the second-constituent frequency
an independent word, separately for long (aver-
tapping into the decomposition process should
age length of 13 letters) existing and novel com-
result in different types of processing especially
pound words. The length of the first constituent
for short existing versus novel compound words.
as well as the frequency of the second constituent
Short existing compound words are more likely
was matched across conditions. For first fixation
be identified by the holistic route, whereas short
duration, which indexes early effects in word
novel compound words have to be processed via
processing, an effect of first-constituent frequen-
the morphological decomposition route. For long
cy was observed that was similar in size for ex-
compound words, on the other hand, the manipu-
isting and novel compound words. For gaze du-
lation of the second-constituent frequency should
ration (i.e. the summed duration of fixations
lead to less dramatic differences between exist-
made on the word before exiting to the right or
ing and novel compounds, as the decomposition
left) first-constituent frequency was greater for
novel than existing compound words. For the
Copyright © by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes.
In Vito Pirrelli, Claudia Marzi, Marcello Ferro (eds.): Word Structure and Word Usage. Proceedings of the NetWordS Final
Conference, Pisa, March 30-April 1, 2015, published at http://ceur-ws.org
95
route is assumed to be in operation for both word constituent frequency effect was only observed
types. for short novel compounds.
Adult readers read sentences silently for com- Gaze duration: In gaze duration, summing up
prehension while their eye movements were reg- all fixations made during the first-pass reading,
istered. The target compound words were em- the main effect of word type, word length and
bedded somewhere in the middle of the sentenc- second-constituent frequency were all signifi-
es. The frequency of the second constituent as a cant. Gaze duration was significantly longer for
separate word was manipulated for short (7-9 novel than existing words, longer for long than
letters) lexicalized (e.g., savukala = smoked fish) short words, and longer for compounds contain-
and novel (e.g. hymykisa = smile contest) com- ing a low-frequency than high-frequency second
pounds as well as for long (12-16 letters) lexical- constituent. Similarly to second fixation dura-
ized (e.g., hiekkapaperi = sand paper) and novel tion, gaze duration also revealed a reliable three-
(e.g., skandaalivaali = scandal election) com- way interaction between the manipulated factors.
pound words. Thus, the experimental design was In order to examine in more detail the interac-
a 2 (low vs. high frequency second constituent) x tion, it was broken down into two separate 2x2
2 word type (existing vs. novel) x 2 word length ANOVAs, one for the short and another for the
(short vs. long) within-participants design. Com- long compound words.
prehensibility of the novel compound words was For the long compound words, there was a
secured by a rating test conducted prior to the main effect of word type and second constituent
experiment proper. Only novel compound words frequency, but no reliable interaction between
whose meaning could be computed without them, suggesting that the second-constituent fre-
providing any linguistic context were chosen for quency effect was of similar magnitude for exist-
the study. The frequency of the first constituent ing (an effect size of 91 ms) and novel (an effect
was matched across the conditions, as was the size of 111 ms) compound words. However, for
frequency of the short and long existing com- short words, the Word Type x Second-
pound words. Constituent Frequency proved significant. This
interaction reflected the fact that the second-
2 Results constituent frequency effect was considerably
greater for novel (an effect size of 155 ms) than
Several eye fixation measures were used to tap
for existing (an effect size of 42 ms) compound
into the time course of compound word pro-
words.
cessing. The earliest effects were measured by
Total fixation time: We also analyzed the
first fixation duration. Early, but less immediate
total fixation time spent reading the target words.
effects were measured by second fixation dura-
This measure indexes late effects; it sums up the
tion and gaze duration. Still later effects were
duration of all fixations made on the word during
measured by total fixation time, which is the sum
the first-pass and second-pass reading. In this
of all fixations, both first-pass and second-pass,
measure, the three-way interaction obtained for
made on the target word.
second fixation duration and gaze duration was
First fixation duration: In the earliest stages
no longer significant. However, the interaction
of foveal word processing, indexed by first fixa-
between word type and second-constituent fre-
tion duration, no effects of novelty or second-
quency was almost significant. This interaction
constituent frequency were observed.
reflects the fact that in total fixation time the ef-
Second fixation duration: A bit later in the
fect of second constituent frequency was greater
processing timeline, main effects of novelty and
for novel than existing compound words, regard-
second-constituent frequency were obtained.
less of word length. The size of the second-
These effects were modified by interactions in-
constituent frequency effect was 51 ms for the
volving word length, including the three-way
existing compounds and 151 ms for the novel
interaction. This interaction was broken down by
compounds.
computing a separate 2x2 ANOVA for short and
Summary of results: The following picture
long compounds, respectively. These analyses
emerges from the pattern of results presented
revealed no effect of novelty or second-
above. In the earliest stages of word processing,
constituent frequency for long compounds,
no signs of either novelty or second-constituent
whereas for short compounds both main effects
frequency were seen, which suggests that these
and their interaction proved significant. The in-
effects took some time to develop during com-
teraction reflected the fact that the second-
pound word identification. For long compounds,
96
these effects were still absent in second fixation also becomes active when identifying short lexi-
duration but emerged in gaze duration. For short calized compounds.
compounds, the effects were already visible in A possible theoretical framework that can ac-
second fixation duration. Finally, the measure count for the obtained pattern of results is a dual
indexing second-pass reading demonstrated a route cascade model assuming that identification
greater second-constituent effect for novel than always starts out with the decomposition route
existing compounds. All in all, the pattern of re- with the process quickly cascading into the holis-
sults suggests that meaning composition takes tic access in the case of short compounds and
place with more delay for long than short com- with some delay in the case of long compounds.
pound words. When a compound word is short, its constituents
are also short and may be accessed rapidly. On
the other hand, when the word is long, not only
3 Conclusions the constituents are likely to be longer and may
thus lengthen their access, but the morphological
The present study provided further evidence for
segmentation process may also need additional
the view (Bertram and Hyönä, 2003, 2013), ac-
time. Hence, the holistic route is activated with
cording to which word length modifies the rela-
some delay after the decomposition route is acti-
tive role of the holistic versus the morphological
vated. The suggested model may be further test-
decomposition route in compound word identifi-
ed by replicating the present study by manipulat-
cation. The decomposition route is an integral
ing the frequency of first constituent separately
part in identifying long compound words, be-
for long and short, novel and lexicalized com-
cause holistic processing is not viable due to vis-
pound words.
ual acuity constraints. This became apparent in
the effect of the second constituent frequency
indexing access via morphological constituents
being similar in magnitude for the novel and lex-
icalized compound words. On the other hand,
References
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eyes when the word is fixated, the novelty effect reading short and long Finnish compounds. Jour-
nal of Memory and Language, 48, 615-634.
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and the second-constituent frequency effect was Bertram, R., & Hyönä, J. (2013). The role of hyphen
considerably smaller for existing than novel at the constituent boundary in compound word
compound words during first-pass reading. Final- identification: Facilitative for long, detrimental for
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frequency constituents are engaged in com- Pollatsek, A., Hyönä, J., & Bertram (2000). The role
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97