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Activation of shape and semantic information during ambiguous homophone processing: eye tracking evidence from Hindi

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Abstract

In two visual world eye tracking studies, we examined the activation of subordinate meanings of ambiguous homophones in Hindi and particularly when the sentence context is biased towards the dominant meaning. Participants listened to sentences that were either neutral or biased towards the dominant meaning of the homophone and saw a display containing four pictures. In experiment 1, the display had a shape competitor of the subordinate meaning of the homophone in both neutral and biased conditions along with three unrelated distractors. Experiment 2 had semantic competitors of the subordinate meaning of the homophones along with three distractors. Proportion of fixations to different objects overtime suggested that participants activated the subordinate meanings and oriented their attention to the shape and semantic competitors even when the prior context was biased towards the dominant meaning. Overall, these data from Hindi provide further support to those models of lexical access that assume exhaustive access of both the meanings of an ambiguous homophone. These data suggest even a dominant bias does not eliminate the activation of perceptual and conceptual features of the subordinate meaning.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS), University of Allahabad, Allahabad, 211002, UP, India

    Ramesh Kumar Mishra & Siddharth Singh

  2. Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

    Ramesh Kumar Mishra

Authors
  1. Ramesh Kumar Mishra
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  2. Siddharth Singh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramesh Kumar Mishra.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Neutral sentences

Biased sentences

1. Usne patrika me bali ka chitra dekha

1. Usne kaan me bali pehan rakhi thi

[He/she magazine in bali of photo saw]

[She ear in bali wearing was]

He/she saw the photo of bali(grain stalk/ear-ring) in the magazine

She was wearing bali(ear-ring) in her ears

2. Usne kai baar apni kunji ke bare me poocha

2. Chor ne nakli kunji se taala khola

[He/she several times his/her kunji about asked.]

[Thief duplicate key by lock opened]

He/she asked about his/her kunji(key/guide book) several times

Thief opened the lock using duplicate kunji(key/guide book)

3. kuch der baad lava thanda ho gaya

3. jwalamukhi se nikla lava patthar ban jata hai

[Sometime after lava cooled]

[Volcano from coming out lava stone becomes]

After sometime lava (volcanic eruption/fried grain) cooled down

Lava (eruptions) that comes out from volcano takes form of stones

4. We sab patri ke bare me baat kar rahe the

4. Sarkaar ne railway patri ke navinikaran ki yojana banai

[They all patri about talking were]

[Government railway patri to renovate planned]

They all were talking about patri(scale/railway track)

Government planned to renovate the patri (railway tracks)

5. Use aangan me patra pada mila

5. Use kai mahino purana patra aaj mila

[He/she courtyard at patra lying found]

He/she several months old patra today received]

He/she found patra(letter/leaf) lying at the courtyard

He/she received several months old patra(letter) today

6. Andhere me wah kundli nahi dekh paya

6. Jyotishi ne kundli dekhkar uska bhavishya bataya

[Dark in he/she kundli not see could]

[Astrologer kundli looking his/her future told]

He could not see kundli (horoscope/snake’s posture) in the dark

The astrologer looked to his/her kundli and told about his/her future.

7. Bacche ki kitaab me bel ka chitra bana tha

7. Doctor ne use bel ka ras peene ki salah di

[Chlld’s book in bel of picture drawn was]

[Doctor his/her bel of juice drink to advised]

There was a picture of bel (fruit/creeper) in child’s book

The doctor advised him/her to drink bel (a fruit) juice

8. Bato bato me choti ki charcha hone lagi

8. Himalaya ki choti 8000 meter unchi hai

[Talks in choti about discussion began]

[Himalaya’s choti 8000 metre high is]

While talking discussion on choti (mountain peak/hair lock) began

The choti (peak) of Himalaya is 8000 metres high

9. Usne haath me panna le rakha tha

9. Bacche ne kitaab se panna faad dia

[He/she hand in panna holding was]

[Child book from panna tore]

He/she was holding panna (paper/emerald) in hand

The child tore a panna(page) from the book

10. Taak ke upar batua rakha tha

10. Usne pant ki jeb me batua rakha tha

[Shelf on batua kept was]

[he/she pant’s pocket wallet kept]

Batua(wallet/cooking utensil) was kept on the shelf

he/she kept batua(wallet) in his pant’s pocket

11. jab tak wah pakadtaa stri gir padi

11. Us natak me stri ki gambhir bhoomika thi

[Until he held stri fell]

[That play in stri of serious role was]

Until he/ she held stri (lady/iron) fell down

In that play the stri(lady) was in serious role

12. Use daraaj me golian milin

12. Use din me dawa ki kai golian khani hai

[He/she drawer in golian found]

[He/she day in medical of several pills eat has to]

He/she found golian (pills/bullets)in drawer

He/ she has to take several medical golian(pills) in a day

13. kaafi dhoondhne par use mohar mil gai

13. Usne daftar jakar mohar lagwa li

[Lot searching after he/she mohar got]

[He/ she office went mohar received]

After searching a lot he/she got mohar (stamp/gold coin)

He/she went to office and got a mohar (stamp)stamped

14. Wah sham ko taar le aaya.

14. Aandhi se bijli ka taar toot gaya

[He/she evening in taar (telegram/wire) brought]

[Strong wind of because electric taar(wire) broke]

He/she brought taar(wire/telegram) in the evening

The electric taar(wire) broke down because of strong wind

Appendix 2

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Mishra, R.K., Singh, S. Activation of shape and semantic information during ambiguous homophone processing: eye tracking evidence from Hindi. Cogn Process 15, 451–465 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-014-0622-4

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