Faculty of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University.
Department of Linguistics, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Cogn Sci. 2022 Sep;46(9):e13187. doi: 10.1111/cogs.13187.
Prior research has shown that various types of conventional multiword chunks are processed faster than matched novel strings, but it is unclear whether this processing advantage extends to variant multiword chunks that are less formulaic. To determine whether the processing advantage of multiword chunks accommodates variations in the canonical phrasal template, we examined the robustness of the processing advantage (i.e., Predictability) of binomial phrases with non-canonical conjunctions (e.g., salt and also pepper; salt as well as pepper). Results from the cloze study (Experiment 1) showed that there was a high tendency of producing the canonical conjunct (pepper), even in the binomials that contained non-formulaic conjunctions. Consistent with these findings, results from two eye tracking studies (Experiments 2a and 2b) showed that canonical conjuncts were read faster than novel conjuncts that were matched on word length (e.g., paprika), even in the binomials with variant conjunctions. This robust online processing advantage was replicated in a self-paced reading study that compared all three Conjunction Types (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings show that binomials with variant function words also receive facilitated processing relative to matched novel strings, even though both types of strings are neither conventional nor relatively frequent. Exploratory analyses revealed that this processing speed advantage was driven by the lexical-semantic association between the canonical conjuncts (salt-pepper), rather than lexical and phrasal frequency. Overall, these results highlight flexibility in the processing of multiword chunks that current models of multiword storage and processing must take into account.
先前的研究表明，各种类型的常规多词词汇比匹配的新字符串处理得更快，但不清楚这种处理优势是否扩展到不太惯用的变体多词词汇。为了确定多词词汇的处理优势是否适应规范短语模板的变化，我们检查了具有非规范连词的二项式短语（例如盐和胡椒；盐和胡椒）的处理优势（即可预测性）的稳健性。完形填空研究（实验 1）的结果表明，即使在包含非惯用连词的二项式中，产生规范连词（胡椒）的倾向也很高。与这些发现一致，两项眼动追踪研究（实验 2a 和 2b）的结果表明，即使在具有变体连词的二项式中，规范连词的阅读速度也快于在词长上匹配的新连词（例如，辣椒粉）。在自我调整阅读研究中复制了这种强大的在线处理优势，该研究比较了所有三种连词类型（实验 3）。总之，这些发现表明，变体功能词的二项式也相对于匹配的新字符串获得了便利处理，尽管这两种类型的字符串既不常规也不相对频繁。探索性分析表明，这种处理速度优势是由规范连词（盐-胡椒）之间的词汇语义关联驱动的，而不是词汇和短语频率。总体而言，这些结果强调了多词词汇处理的灵活性，当前的多词存储和处理模型必须考虑到这一点。
