The processing of morphologically complex words by developing readers of Turkish: a masked priming study

2022-11-01
The processing of morphologically complex words has been studied in many languages, leading to a variety of theoretical accounts. Prime type, individual differences, and cross-linguistic effects have emerged as potential factors in morphological processing, but the findings so far have been inconclusive, especially for young children. This study investigated the early stages of morphological processing in Turkish-speaking children using the visual masked priming paradigm. We used different prime conditions (truly suffixed, pseudo-suffixed, non-suffixed, and semantic) and measured reading proficiency skills (vocabulary, spelling, reading speed, and comprehension) to investigate whether prime types or individual differences modulate early word processing. Our sample of children showed priming effects for truly suffixed words, without sound differences between derived and inflected primes in their reaction times. The reaction times of the participants decreased with increasing reading proficiency in the experimental conditions. The results suggest a sensitivity for suffixes in the early word processing of Turkish primary school children rather than sensitivities for pseudo-suffixes, orthographic overlap, or semantic similarity.
READING AND WRITING

Suggestions

Morphological processing in developing readers: a psycholinguistic study on Turkish primary school children
Uğuz, Enis; Kırkıcı, Bilal; Department of English Literature (2018)
The processing of morphologically complex words has been studies in many languages, leading to a variety of theoretical accounts. While dual-route models advocate two distinct mechanisms for word processing, single route models suggest a single mechanism. Contrasting findings as well as the different interpretations of the same results have kept the advocators of both accounts searching for a solid and undisputable justification for their views. This thesis investigated the early stages of morphological pro...
The effects of syllable segmentation on reading on children with reading difficulty: a helpful technique for poor readers.
Küçükköy, Mehmet Eyüp; Çakır, Murat Perit; Department of Cognitive Sciences (2020)
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the idea that dyslexia exhibits itself differently in different languages. Based on how reading is taught in Turkish Language, the symptoms exhibited by students with reading difficulties may be different than the ones exhibited by English speaking students. Even though there is no support for the role of reading syllables as a reading unit in the literature, it is clear that the students in Turkey are taught how to read syllables and are actively using the str...
The interpretation of syntactically unconstrained anaphors in Turkish heritage speakers
Gracanın Yüksek, Martına; Şafak, Duygu Fatma; Demir, Orhan; Kırkıcı, Bilal (2019-01-01)
Previous work has shown that heritage grammars are often simplified compared to their monolingual counterparts, especially in domains in which the societally-dominant language makes fewer distinctions than the heritage language. We investigated whether linguistic simplification extended to the anaphoric system of Turkish heritage speakers living in Germany. Whereas the Turkish monolingual grammar features a three-way distinction between reflexives (kendi), pronouns (o), and syntactically-unconstrained anaph...
The processing of morphologically complex words in a specific speaker group A masked-priming study with Turkish heritage speakers
Jacob, Gunnar; Kırkıcı, Bilal (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2016-01-01)
The present study investigates to what extent morphological priming varies across different groups of native speakers of a language. In two masked-priming experiments, we investigate the processing of morphologically complex Turkish words in Turkish heritage speakers raised and living in Germany. Materials and experimental design were based on Kirkici and Clahsen's (2013) study on morphological processing in Turkish native speakers and L2 learners, allowing for direct comparisons between the three groups. E...
The Effects of cross-morphemic letter transpositions on morphological processing in turkish: a psycholinguistic investigation
Çağlar, Ozan Can; Kırkıcı, Bilal; Department of English Language Teaching (2019)
This study investigates whether Turkish native speakers have access to semantic information in the course of morphological decomposition at the early stages of visual word recognition. Two masked priming experiments were conducted to test the effects of semantic transparency on the recognition of target words. The main prime conditions of the study were the following: (a) semantically transparent (e.g., çizim-ÇİZ, Eng. drawing-DRAW), (b) semantically opaque (e.g., tuzak-TUZ; Eng. trap-SALT), and (c) form ov...
Citation Formats
E. Oğuz and B. Kırkıcı, “The processing of morphologically complex words by developing readers of Turkish: a masked priming study,” READING AND WRITING, pp. 0–0, 2022, Accessed: 00, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/101742.