The contribution of prefixes to morphological processing of Spanish words

Three series of priming experiments were conducted to probe the morphological and phonological contributions to visual word recognition in Spanish. Prefixed, e.g., INCAPAZ (incapable), and pseudoprefixed, e.g., INDUSTRIA (industry) target words were presented for recognition following a prefixed, e.g., infeliz (unhappy), or pseudoprefixed, e.g., insulto (insult), prime starting with the same syllable as the target, at masked short or long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). At long SOAs the recognition of prefixed targets was facilitated by prefixed primes and inhibited by pseudoprefixed ones, whereas both prefixed and pseudoprefixed primes facilitated the recognition at short SOAs. In contrast, the recognition of pseudoprefixed targets was unaffected by the kind of prime presented, even when we used pairs of words overlapping in syllables that cannot be prefixes in Spanish. These results support a special status for morphological elements in access to meaning in reading.     

Perceiving others is so simple: Implicit simplicity of personality perceptions in a dyadic design

People judge others on simplified trait structures when evaluating the Big Five, which is referred to as implicit simplicity (IS: Beer & Watson, 2008). The present study investigated IS in minimally acquainted informal dyads. Hundred and eighty-six participants interacted for a short time on a task, and then provided self- and peer-ratings on the IASR-B5 (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990). IS manifested in a global evaluative “halo-factor” with some accuracy and was related to perceivers’ interpersonal attraction ratings and personality traits. The driving forces behind IS are discussed.     

汉语普通话儿童复合词法意识的发展研究

研究旨在考察5、6、7、8岁的汉语儿童在偏正、述宾和主谓三种复合词法意识上的发展状况。词法判断任务的结果发现:5岁组三种词法意识之间无显著差异;6岁和7岁组的偏正意识和述宾意识无显著差异,但均优于主谓意识;8岁组偏正意识优于述宾意识,且二者依然均优于主谓意识。以上结果表明汉语儿童的复合词法意识发展具有不平衡性,由强到弱呈现出偏正述宾主谓意识的词法结构效应,这种强弱趋势可能与词法独立性和句法独立性之间的冲突以及复合词的中心性差异有关。     

Transfert de la conscience morphologique de l’arabe langue première au français langue seconde au cours des trois premières années d’apprentissage

There is a great deal of evidence to support the role of morphological awareness in reading development. However, towards second language acquisition, transfer of morphological awareness from first to second language (L1 to L2) is still discussed. The underlying question concerns the extent to which morphological awareness is a specific or universal process, and its dependence of linguistic features. The aim of this study is to examine cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from Arabic L1 to French L2 (morphological awareness and word reading) at different level of learning French L2 (F_L2). 106 Tunisian children, whose first language is Arabic, in 1st (n = 29; mean age; 8; 10 years), 2nd (n = 33; mean age; 9; 9 years) or 3rd year (n = 44; mean age; 10; 10 years) of learning F_L2 participated to this study. Their morphological awareness (inflectional or derivational oddity detection tasks) and their performance in word reading (one minute test) were assessed in standard Arabic and French, as well as their vocabulary knowledge in French. A series of fixed-order hierarchical regression analysis was performed on derivational awareness performances, inflectional awareness performances and word reading performances in F_L2, controlling for effects of other important variables (e.g. French vocabulary, French morphological awareness with word reading scores as outcome variable and French inflectional or derivational awareness with French inflectional or derivational awareness scores as outcome variable respectively, Arabic word reading, etc.). Results show significant contributions of L1 morpho-derivational awareness on F_L2 morpho-derivational awareness in 2nd year (12%), and of L1 morphological awareness on reading words F_L2 in 3^rd year (5%). These results confirm the cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness, particularly derivational, from L1 to L2 among alphabetic — but orthographically and morphologically distances — languages. They also suggest that such a transfer could be relatively limited. It could appear during learning process after achieving a threshold in F_L2 and before specific L2 skills take place. Thus, beyond the morphological opacity of Arabic (nonlinear morphology) and linguistic distance between Arabic and French, the morphological transfer could appear on rich and important morphological dimension in L1 and suggest dealing with the nature of cross-linguistic abilities in depth.     

What do graded effects of semantic transparency reveal about morphological processing?

We examined the influence of semantic transparency on morphological facilitation in English in three lexical decision experiments. Decision latencies to visual targets (e.g., CASUALNESS) were faster after semantically transparent (e.g., CASUALLY) than semantically opaque (e.g., CASUALTY) primes whether primes were auditory and presented immediately before onset of the target (Experiment 1a) or visual with an stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 250 ms (Experiment 1b). Latencies did not differ at an SOA of 48 ms (Experiment 2) or with a forward mask at an SOA of 83 ms (Experiment 3). Generally, effects of semantic transparency among morphological relatives were evident at long but not at short SOAs with visual targets, regardless of prime modality. Moreover, the difference in facilitation after opaque and transparent primes was graded and increased with family size of the base morpheme.     

Contributions des aspects idiomatiques et morphologiques du langage à la lecture aux CE1 et CM1

Background and objective

To our knowledge, no research has so far associated idiomatic (or figurative) and morphological aspects of language in children reading and in examining the various skills involved. This study aims to: (1) specify, at two levels of reading ability, the implication of these two dimensions of language in decoding-word identification and comprehension and their possible correlation: idiom comprehension and morphemic skills have in common the need to pay attention to the meaning and play with the different levels of language analysis (literal vs figurative and sublexical vs lexical representations); (2) examine individual performance profiles of children with reading difficulties, in the light of these idiomatic and morphological skills.

Divine simplicity

According to a doctrine widely held by most medieval philosophers and theologians, whether in the Muslim or Christian world, there are no metaphysical distinctions in God whatsoever. As a result of the compendious theorizing that has been done on this issue, the doctrine, usually called the doctrine of divine simplicity, has been bestowed a prominent status in both Islamic and Christian philosophical theology. In Islamic philosophy some well-known philosophers, such as Ibn Sina (980–1037) and Mulla Sadra (1571–1640), developed this doctrine through a metaphysical approach. In this paper, considering the historical order, I shall first concentrate on Ibn Sina’s view. Then I shall turn to the theory of divine simplicity of Thomas Aquinas (1225?–1274), as the most developed and comprehensive version of the medieval theories in Christian world. Finally, I will return to Islamic philosophy and explore the more complicated and mature account of the doctrine as it was introduced by Mulla Sadra according to his own philosophical principles.     

Building Blocks for Older Adult Ministry

SUMMARY

The final building block is deciding what program fits ministry goals, congregational resources and skills, and the needs of the older adults who will benefit from this ministry. A final form is used to choose, from the many options gathered in the previous steps, which ministries to begin, at this time, for this group of people, with these specific resources, be they congregational resources or those from community collaboration. Choosing target dates for specific tasks and assigning those tasks to specific committee member is crucial for success. The place of attendance in declaring success or failure is discussed. Using the OAM mission statement as a basis for continuing evaluation is suggested.     

Is Milkman a superhero like Batman? Constituent morphological priming in compound words

In the present study, we examined morphological decomposition of Basque compound words in a series of masked priming lexical decision experiments. In Experiment 1, Basque compound words could be briefly preceded by other compounds that shared either the first or second constituent, or by unrelated noncompound words. Results showed a significant priming effect for words that shared a constituent, independently of its position. In Experiment 2, compound words were preceded by other compound words that shared one of their constituents, but in a different lexeme position (e.g., the first constituent of the compound that acted as a prime was the second constituent of the compound that acted as a target). Results again showed a constituent priming effect (i.e., location in the string is not necessary for priming to occur). In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that these priming effects were not due to mere form overlap: pairs of noncompound words that shared either the beginning or the ending chunk did not produce a priming effect. Taken together, the present results converge with previous data on orthographic/morphological priming and provide evidence favouring early morphological decomposition.     

语素意识对学前儿童言语技能发展的预测作用：追踪研究的证据

为探讨词素意识、同形语素意识和形旁意识等不同层面语素意识对汉语儿童口语词汇、汉字识别和阅读理解能力发展的预测作用,本研究对75名学前儿童进行了一年半的追踪,结果发现:(1)学前儿童的语素意识和言语技能随时间均有显著增长。(2)在控制了因变量的自回归效应后,同形语素意识对一年半后的口语词汇成绩仍有显著的预测作用;词素意识能显著预测一年半后的汉字识别成绩;词素意识和形旁意识是儿童一年半后阅读理解成绩变异的重要解释变量。这表明语素意识对于学前儿童语言技能的发展具有重要的预测作用。