The impact of orthographic-semantic consistency to morphemic processing for Japanese kanji compounds

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K03186
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10040:Experimental psychology-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Hino Yasushi 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 教授 (00386567)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 漢字熟語 / 形態素処理 / 関係プライミング効果 / 語の形態－意味対応の一貫性効果 / 語彙判断課題 / 関連性判断課題

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When reading compounds and polymorphemic words, they are assumed to be first decomposed into morphemes and, then, integrated to a whole-word representation. In order to examine whether the decomposition and integration processes are involved when reading Japanese kanji compounds, lexical decision tasks were conducted using kanji compounds and the data supporting these assumptions are reported. In addition, the orthographic-semantic (O-S) consistency effect was examined in order to investigate how the O-S consistency effect is related to morphological processing. The results from the lexical decision tasks suggested that the consistency effect arises only when the target and its neighbors share the same morpheme. When the neighbors do not share the same morpheme with their target, semantic activation may arise but the effect by the semantic activation appears to be limited to the decision-making processes.

Free Research Field

認知心理学、言語心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、複数の漢字で構成される漢字熟語を読む際には、形態素に関わる処理が介在することを示した。このデータは、語の形態素構造の違いが、日本語の語彙処理メカニズムを理解する上で重要な要因であることを示しており、これは、漢字語・仮名語の処理差などを考える上でも、重要な知見となるだろう。また、語彙判断課題で観察される語の形態－意味対応の一貫性効果は、形態素処理と関連が高いことを示すことができた。この結果は、今後、語の形態情報をもとに、語彙・意味情報が活性化されるプロセスを理解する上で、また形態素レベルの表象がどのように形成されていくのかという問題を理解する上で、重要な知見となるだろう。