What can we learn from the morphology of Hebrew? A masked-priming investigation of morphological representation.

Number 1045
Year 1997
Drawer 19
Entry Date 06/29/1998
Authors Frost, Ram, Forster, Kenneth I., and Deutsch, Avital.
Contact
Publication Journal of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1997, 829-856.
url http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1045.pdf
Abstract All Hebrew words are composed of 2 interwoven morphemes: a triconsonantal root and a phonological word pattern. The lexical representations of these morphemic units were examined using masked priming. When primes and targets shared an identical word pattern, neither lexical decision nor naming of targets was facilitated. In contrast, root primes facilitated both lexical decision and naming of target words that were derived from these roots. This priming effect proved to be independent of meaning similarity because no priming effects were found when primes and targets were semantically but not morphologically related. These results suggest that Hebrew roots are lexical units whereas word pattern are not. A working model of lexical organization in Hebrew is offered on the basis of these results.
Notes

Search Publications