Summary
Deciding on the lexical status of a word can be facilitated by a preceding, semantically related word. Three experiments are reported demonstrating a different kind of facilitation due to the grammatical relation between function words and content words in Serbo-Croatian. A pronoun facilitated or inhibited the lexical decision on a following verb depending on whether the person of the verb, as represented by its inflected ending, agreed with the person of the pronoun. Also, verbs primed subsequent pronouns but the pattern of results for the verbal priming of pronouns was markedly different from that for the pronominal priming of verbs. The results suggest that the organization of the internal lexicon is sensitive to grammatical relations as well as semantical relations between words.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson J (1976) Language, memory and thought. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ
Bradley D (1978) Computational distinction of vocabulary type. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Collins AM, Loftus EF (1975) A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychol Rev 82:407–428
Fischler I (1977) Semantic facilitation without association in a lexical decision task. Mem Cognit 5:335–339
Friederici AD, Schoenle PW (1980) Computational dissociation of two vocabulary types: Evidence from aphasia. Neuropsychol 18:11–20
Garrett MF, (1978) Word and sentence perception. In: Held R, Liebowitz HW, Teuber HL (eds.) Handbook of sensory physiology vol 8: Perception. Springer, Berlin
Huttenlocher J, Lui F (1979) The semantic organization of some simple nouns and verbs. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 18:141–162
Kintsch W (1972) Notes on the structure of semantic memory. In: Tulving E, Donalson W (eds.) Organisation of memory. Academic Press, New York
Lukatela G, Gligorijević B, Kostić A, Turvey MT (1980) Representation of inflected nouns in the internal lexicon. Mem Cognit 8:415–423
Lukatela G, Kostić A, Feldman L, Turvey MT (in press) Grammatical priming of inflected nouns. Mem Cognit
Meyer DE, Schvaneveldt RW, Ruddy MG (1975) Loci of contextual effects on visual word-recognition. In: Rabitt PMA, Dornic S (eds) Attention and performance V. Academic Press New York
Miller GA, Johnson-Laird PN (1976) Language and perception. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Neely JH (1977) Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. J Exp Psychol Gen 106:226–254
Posner MI, Snyder CR (1975) Facilitation and inhibition in the processing of signals. In: Rabitt PMA, Dornic S (eds) Attention and performance V. Academic Press New York
Quillian MR (1969) The teachable language comprehender. Commun ACM 12:459–476
Rubin GS, Becker CA, Freeman RH (1979) Morphological structure and its effect on visual word recognition. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 18:757–767
Stanners RF, Neiser JJ, Hernon WP, Hall R (1979a) Memory representation for morphologically related words. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 18:399–412
Stanners RF, Neiser JJ, Painton S (1979b) Memory representation for prefixed words. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 18:733–743
Stanovich KE, West RF (1981) The effect of sentence context on ongoing word recognition: Tests of a two-process theory. J Exp Psychol: Human Percept Perform 3:658–672
Taft M, Forster KI Lexical storage and retrieval of prefixed words. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 14:638–647
Zurif EB (1980) Language mechanisms: A neuropsycholinguistic perspective. Am Scient 68:305–311
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lukatela, G., Moraca, J., Stojnov, D. et al. Grammatical priming effects between pronouns and inflected verb forms. Psychol. Res 44, 297–311 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00309326
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00309326