Meaningfulness Beats Frequency in Multiword Chunk Processing
Meaningfulness Beats Frequency in Multiword Chunk Processing
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DOI：
10.1111/cogs.12885
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发表时间：
2020-10-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Christiansen, Morten H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jolsvai, Hajnal;McCauley, Stewart M.;Christiansen, Morten H.
尽管越来越多的研究表明，成人和儿童都对频繁出现的单词序列很敏感，但人们对意义在处理这种多词组块中的潜在作用知之甚少。在这里，我们采取的第一步评估的贡献意义的多词序列的处理，使用不同的块意义的项目。在一个短语决策研究中，我们比较了三个词序列的三元组的反应时间，对应于成语表达，组成短语，和短语片段，同时控制短语和子串频率。通过一项单独的主观评级研究评估，发现组块的意义可以加快所有三种类型的字符串的决策时间：多词序列被判断为越有意义，它的处理速度就越快，无论它是成语，本质上是组成的，还是短语片段。这些结果突出了考虑意义的重要性时，考虑到多词块的处理，与预测的基于构造的方法来语言。
Whereas a growing bulk of work has demonstrated that both adults and children are sensitive to frequently occurring word sequences, little is known about the potential role of meaning in the processing of such multiword chunks. Here, we take a first step toward assessing the contribution of meaningfulness in the processing of multiword sequences, using items that varied in chunk meaningfulness. In a phrasal-decision study, we compared reaction times for triads of three-word sequences, corresponding to idiomatic expressions, compositional phrases, and phrasal fragments, while controlling for phrase and substring frequencies. Chunk meaningfulness, as assessed by a separate subjective rating study, was found to speed up decision times for all three types of strings: The more meaningful a multiword sequence was judged to be, the faster it was processed, independently of whether it was idiomatic, compositional in nature, or a phrasal fragment. These results highlight the importance of taking meaning into account when considering the processing of multiword chunks, consistent with predictions of construction-based approaches to language.