Abstract
The processing of morphologically complex verbs was investigated in native and German non-native speakers of Dutch. Both semantically transparent derivations (in which the meaning of the whole can be derived from the meaning of the parts; e.g., opschrijven ‘write down’ with stem schrijven ‘write’) and semantically opaque derivations (e.g., toegeven ‘admit’ with stem geven ‘give’) were presented. These derivations had either a motor-related stem (i.e., referring to an action requiring the use of certain muscles, e.g., schrijven ‘write’) or a non-motor stem (e.g., kiezen ‘pick’, as in uitkiezen ‘pick out’). Two studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging showed activation of the same brain areas for both groups when they read these words: morphologically primed transparent derivations led to repetition suppression effects in the left inferior frontal gyrus, suggesting they were decomposed; opaque derivations with a motor stem did not lead to increased activation in the motor cortex, suggesting they were processed holistically. These results indicate that German non-native speakers process Dutch derivations similarly to native speakers. The stems of these derivations, when presented separately, were also processed in a similar way: in both groups, reading motor verbs like schrijven (‘write’) led to increased activation in the motor cortex. Further research using behavioral priming in native speakers of Dutch showed that transparent derivations containing a motor verb as their stem (e.g., opschrijven) elicited priming effects, in contrast with other types of derivations (e.g., uitkiezen or toegeven), possibly due to stronger activation of the meaning of motor words. However, this was only the case in a priming context emphasizing semantic relations. Thus, the processing of derivations seems to be flexible: it does not only depend on the verbs themselves, but also on the context in which they appear. Results were interpreted in the context of embodied cognition and models of derivation processing.
