Table Of ContentREADING COMPLEX WORDS
Cross-Language Studies
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION
VOLUME 22
Series Editors:
R. Malatesha Joshi, College of Eduction, Texas A&M University, U.S.A.
Elena Grigorenko, PACE Center, Yale University, U.S.A.
Advisory Board:
Todeiv H\1ien, Center for Dyslexia Research, Norway
George Hynd, University of Georgia, U.S.A.
C.K. Leong, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
John Marshall, University of Oxford, U.K.
Gabriele Miceli, Universita Cattolica del Sacra Cuore, Italy
Loraine Obler, City University of New York, U.S.A.
Pieter Reitsma, Paedologisch Instituut Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The purpose of the Neuropsychology and Cognition series is to bring out volumes that promote
understanding in topics relating brain and behavior. It is intended for use by both clinicians and
research scientists in the fields of neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics,
speech and hearing, as well as eduction. Examples of topics to be covered in this series would
relate memory, language acquisition and breakdown, reading, attention, developing and aging
brain. By addressing the theoretical, empirical, and applied aspects of brain-behavior relation
ships, this series will try to present the information in the files of neuropsychology and cognition
in a coherent manner.
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
READING COMPLEX WORDS
Cross-Language Studies
Edited by
Egbert M.H. Assink
Utrecht University
Utrecht. The Netherlands
Dominiek Sandra
University of AlltwelJJ
AntweljJ, BelgiulI/
Springer -Science+ Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reading complex words: cross-language studiesledited by Egbelt M.H. Assink,
Dominiek Sandra.
p. cm. - (Neuropsychology and cognition; 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Psycholinguistics. 2. Reading, Psychology of. 3. Grammar, Comparative and
general-Morphology. I. Assink, E., 1944- II. Sandra, Dominiek, 1960- III. Series.
P37.5.R42R43 2003
401'.9-dc21
2002043454
ISBN 978-1-4419-3397-3 ISBN 978-1-4757-3720-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-3720-2
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic 1P lenum Publishers, New York in 2003.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003
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CONTRIBUTORS
Darinka Andjelkovic, Laboratory for Experimental Psychology and
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Cika Ljubina 18-20, 11000
Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Egbert Assink, Psychology Department, Utrecht University,
Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht -The Netherlands.
Harald Baayen, Interfaculty Research Unit for Language and Speech
(IWTS), University of Nijmegen & Max Planck Institute for
Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, (mailing address: P.O.
Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen) The Netherlands.
Cristina Burani, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione CNR,
Viale Marx, 15 -00137 Roma, Italy.
Joanne Carlisle, Center for the Improvement of Early Reading
Achievement, Univer of Michigan, School of Education, 610 East University
Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259, USA.
Aydin Durgunoglu, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota
Duluth, Bohannon Hall 320, 1207 Ordean Court, Duluth, MN 55812-3010,
USA.
Laurie Beth Feldman, Department of Psychology Faculty, University of
Albany, State University of New York and Haskins Laboratories, 270 Crown
St., New Haven, CT 06511-6695, USA.
v
vi CONTRIBUTORS
Ludovic Ferrand, Laboratoire de Psychologie Experimentale, CNRS
and Universite Rene Descartes, 71, Avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92100
Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
Anne Fowler, International literacy Institute, Graduate School of
EducationlUniversity of Pennsylvania, 3910 Chestnut Street Philadelphia,
PA 19104-3111, USA.
Helene Giraudo, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Linguistique
et Psychologie Cognitive, Universite de Reims Champagne-Ardenne,
Campus Croix Rouge, 57 Rue Pierre Taittinger, 51096 Reims cedex, France.
Jonathan Grainger, Centre de Recherche en Psychologie Cognitive,
CNRS, Universite de Provence, Aix-en-Provence , France.
Paul Knuijt, Psychology Department, Utrecht University,
Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Alessandro Laudanna, Department of Communication Sciences,
"Cognitive Psychology", University of Salerno, Via Ponte don Melillo -
84084 Fisciano (Sa), Italy, and Institute of Sciences and Technologies of
Cognition, National Research Council (CNR), Viale Marx, 15 - 00137
Rome, Italy.
Gary Libben, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, 4-36
Assiniboia Hall, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E7.
Virginia Mann, Dept. Cognitive Sciences, University of California,
SSPA5119, Mail Code: 5100, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA.
Harold Nefs, Psychology Department, Utrecht University,
Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Banu Oney, International literacy Institute, Graduate School of
EducationlUniversity of Pennsylvania, 3910 Chestnut Street Philadelphia,
PA 19104-3111, USA.
John Sabatini, International Literacy Institute, Graduate School of
EducationlUniversity of Pennsylvania, 3910 Chestnut Street Philadelphia,
PA 19104-3111 USA.
CONTRIDUTORS vii
Dominiek Sandra, Centre for Psycholinguistics, University of Antwerp,
Prinsstraat 13, B2000 Antwerp, Belgium.
Schreuder Robert Schreuder, Interfaculty Research Unit for Language
and Speech (IWTS), University of Nijmegen & Max Planck Institute for
Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1,6525 XD Nijmegen, (mailing address: P.O.
Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen) The Netherlands.
Juan Segui, Laboratoire de Psychologie Experimentale, CNRS and
Universite Rene Descartes, 71, Avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92100 Boulogne
Billancourt, France.
Joseph Shimron, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mount
Carmel, Haifa 31905.
Maria Singson, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of
California, School of Social Science, 3251 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA
92697-5100, USA.
Addison C. Stone, Center for the Improvement of Early Reading
Achievement, University of Michigan, School of Education, 610 East
University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259, USA.
Marcus Taft, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales,
Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.
PREFACE
This volume on reading complex words is the spin-off of a symposium on
reading morphologically complex words in different languages submitted to
the Organizing Committee for the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association in the late nineties. Among the
participants were Joanne Carlisle, Aydin Durguloglu, Virginia Mann, John
Sabatini, and Egbert Assink, who acts as the fIrst editor of this volume. The
idea to publish the scheduled presentations and to further extend and enlarge
the scope of the work by inviting contributors from researchers around the
world was born during a discussion with Dorien Francissen, publishing
editor of Kluwer Academic. The idea to invite Dominiek Sandra as a co
editor was prompted by his own research in this field and the fact that he had
already co-edited with Marcus Taft a special issue on Morphological
structure, lexical representation and lexical access for the journal Language
and Cognitive Processes.
Most contributions to this volume present research which was designed
to shed light on the question how the mental representations of
morphologically complex words are accessed in reading. It will be obvious
that it is sheerly impossible to provide a short answer to this very general
question. Indeed, a rich variety of facets is related to the topic, all of which
deserve attention and may play a role in processing polymorphemic words.
We have made an attempt to have the chapters in this book reflect this
diversity. First of all, we tried to have the chapters cover a variety of
languages, differing both in the richness of their morphology and in their
typology. As a result, experimental studies are reported on such different
languages as English, French, Dutch, Italian, Turkish, Serbian and Hebrew.
Secondly, we liked to have studies on the role of morphology in different
ix
x PREFACE
populations: children who are learning to read or are still in their first stages
of reading acquisition and studies on the lexical processing of experienced
readers. There is one chapter which deals with adults who are learning to
read, focusing on factors that affect the reading success of participants in
literacy programmes. Thirdly, we wanted the chapters to represent a variety
of theoretically relevant issues with respect to morpheme-based lexical
processing. Several research questions are addressed: the contribution of
morphological awareness on children's reading success, the locus of
morphological representations in the hierarchy of mental representations
between form and meaning levels, the role of semantics in processing
polymorphemic words, the role of morpho syntax in processing words
consisting of more than two morphemes, the importance of the
morpheme/pseudomorpheme ratio of a letter string in morphological
decomposition, the role of morphology in reading aloud. Finally, two studies
do not deal with the involvement of polymorphemic words in reading, but
are nevertheless related to the general topic of the book. One of these studies
addresses the issue of reading polysyllabic (rather than polymorphemic)
words. The other one studies morphologically complex words in written
language production (spelling) rather than written language recognition
(reading).
The first set of chapters addresses the question of morphological
awareness and its relationship to phonological awareness and later reading
succes. In Chapter 1 "Linking Morphological Knowledge to English
Decoding Ability: Large Effects of Little Suffixes" Virginia Mann & Maria
Singson from the University of California, focus on the importance of
morphological awareness. There is a vast literature on phonological
awareness as a predictor fur success in reading. The authors show that
children between grades 3 and 6 become increasingly aware of derivational
suffixes. Central in their research is the question to what extent awareness of
derivational morphology contributes as a predictor of reading above and
beyond phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Mann and
Singson emphasize that English orthography is morpho-phonologically
encoded and their results demonstrate that even young readers are sensitive
to this fact. They conclude with the statement that from an early age children
are willing and able to map the English orthography onto the morphemes of
their language and that morphological awareness is an important component
of reading ability.
In Chapter 2, entitled "The Effects of Morphological Structure on
Children's Reading of Derived Words in English", Joanne Carlisle & C.
Addison Stone from Northwestern University address the question whether
morphological structure positively affects reading acquisition. Carlisle &
Stone are particularly interested in the question whether children benefit
