Journal
PSYCHONOMIC BULLETIN & REVIEW
Volume 17, Issue 6, Pages 875-881Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.3758/PBR.17.6.875
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In the present study, we examined how morphemic ambiguity is resolved using the visual-world paradigm. Participants were presented with Chinese bimorphemic words containing an ambiguous morpheme (analogous to the suffix -ER in TEACHER and TALLER) and performed a visual search task. Their eye-movement patterns during target detection showed that (1) without a prior context, the dominant meaning of an ambiguous morpheme was more available than the subordinate one; (2) with a dominant-biased prior context, the subordinate meaning was still activated; and (3) a subordinate-biased prior context could inhibit the dominant interpretation. Therefore, both the frequency of the intended meaning and the prior contextual biases play a role in morphemic ambiguity resolution. The results are discussed with reference to models of ambiguity resolution and recent proposals of the graded nature of morphological effects.
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