Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-4n89n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-21T22:06:04.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Word frequency modulates morpheme-based reading in poor and skilled Italian readers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

STEFANIA MARCOLINI ,
DANIELA TRAFICANTE ,
PIERLUIGI ZOCCOLOTTI  and
CRISTINA BURANI
STEFANIA MARCOLINI
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, and University of Verona
DANIELA TRAFICANTE
Affiliation:
Catholic University, Milan
PIERLUIGI ZOCCOLOTTI
Affiliation:
Sapienza University of Rome and IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome
CRISTINA BURANI*
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Cristina Burani, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR, Via S. Martino della Battaglia 44, 00185 Rome, Italy. E-mail: cristina.burani@istc.cnr.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A previous study reported that, similar to young and adult skilled readers, Italian developmental dyslexics read pseudowords made up of a root and a derivational suffix faster and more accurately than simple pseudowords. Unlike skilled readers, only dyslexic and reading-matched younger children benefited from morphological structure in reading words aloud. In this study, we show that word frequency affects the probability of morpheme-based reading, interacting with reading ability. Young skilled readers named low- but not high-frequency morphologically complex words faster than simple words. By contrast, the advantage for morphologically complex words was present in poor readers irrespective of word frequency. Adult readers showed no facilitating effect of morphological structure. These results indicate that young readers use reading units (morphemes) that are larger than the single-grapheme grain size. It is argued that morpheme-based reading is important for obtaining reading fluency (rather than accuracy) in transparent orthographies and is useful particularly in children with limited reading ability who do not fully master whole-word processing.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 513 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Alegre, M., & Gordon, P. (1999). Frequency effects and the representational status of regular inflections. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 41–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. H., Feldman, L. B., & Schreuder, R. (2006). Morphological influences on the recognition of monosyllabic monomorphemic words. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 290–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. H., Wurm, L. H., & Aycock, J. (2007). Lexical dynamics for low-frequency complex words: A regression study across tasks and modalities. Mental Lexicon Journal, 2, 419–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balota, D., Cortese, M. J., Sergent-Marshall, S. D., Spieler, D. H., & Yap, M. J. (2004). Visual word recognition of single syllable words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 283–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barca, L., Burani, C., Di Filippo, G., & Zoccolotti, P. (2006). Italian developmental dyslexic and proficient readers: Where are the differences? Brain and Language, 98, 347–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barca, L., Ellis, A. W., & Burani, C. (2007). Context-sensitive rules and word naming in Italian children. Reading and Writing, 20, 495–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertram, R., & Hyönä, J. (2003). The length of a complex word modifies the role of morphological structure: Evidence from eye movements when reading short and long Finnish compounds. Journal of Memory and Language, 48, 615–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertram, R., Laine, M., & Virkkala, M. M. (2000). The role of derivational morphology in vocabulary acquisition: Get by with a little help from my morpheme friends. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 4, 2–15.Google Scholar
Burani, C., Arduino, L. S., & Barca, L. (2007). Frequency, not age of acquisition affects Italian word naming. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 828–866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., Arduino, L. S., & Marcolini, S. (2006). Naming morphologically complex pseudowords: A headstart for the root? Mental Lexicon, 1, 299–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., Bimonte, D., Barca, L., & Vicari, S. (2006). Word morphology and lexical comprehension in Williams syndrome. Brain and Language, 99, 112–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., & Caramazza, A. (1987). Representation and processing of derived words. Language and Cognitive Processes, 2, 217–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., Dovetto, F. M., Spuntarelli, A., & Thornton, A. M. (1999). Morpho-lexical naming of new root–suffix combinations: The role of semantic interpretability. Brain and Language, 68, 333–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., & Laudanna, A. (1992). Units of representation of derived words in the lexicon. In Frost, R. & Katz, L. (Eds.), Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning (pp. 361–376). Amsterdam: North-Holland.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., Marcolini, S., De Luca, M., & Zoccolotti, P. (2008). Morpheme-based reading aloud: Evidence from dyslexic and skilled Italian readers. Cognition, 108, 243–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burani, C., Marcolini, S., & Stella, G. (2002). How early does morpho-lexical reading develop in readers of a shallow orthography? Brain and Language, 81, 568–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., & Thornton, A. M. (2003). The interplay of root, suffix and whole-word frequency in processing derived words. In Baayen, H. R. & Schreuder, R. (Eds.), Morphological structure in language processing (pp. 157–208). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlisle, J. F., & Katz, L. A. (2006). Effects of word and morpheme familiarity on reading of derived words. Reading and Writing, 19, 669–693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlisle, J. F., & Stone, C. A. (2003). The effects of morphological structure on children's reading of derived words in English. In Assink, E. & Sandra, D. (Eds.), Reading complex words: Cross-language studies (pp. 26–49). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Carlisle, J. F., & Stone, C. A. (2005). Exploring the role of morphemes in word reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 40, 428–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casalis, S., Colé, P., & Sopo, D. (2004). Morphological awareness in developmental dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 54, 114–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chialant, D., & Caramazza, A. (1995). Where is morphology and how is it processed? The case of written word recognition. In Feldman, L. B. (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 55–76). Hove: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Colombo, L., & Burani, C. (2002). The influence of age of acquisition, root frequency and context availability in processing nouns and verbs. Brain and Language, 81, 398–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cornoldi, C., & Colpo, G. (1995). Nuove prove di lettura MT per la scuola media inferiore, manuale. Firenze: O.S. Organizzazioni Speciali.Google Scholar
De Luca, M., Barca, L., Burani, C., & Zoccolotti, P. (2008). The effect of word length and other sublexical, lexical and semantic variables on developmental reading deficits. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 21, 227–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elbrö, C., & Arnbak, E. (1996). The role of morpheme recognition and morphological awareness in dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 46, 209–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faust, M. E., Balota, D. A., Spieler, H. D., & Ferraro, F. R. (1999). Individual differences in information-processing rate amount: Implications for group differences in response latency. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 777–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, P. (1989). Levels of affixation in the acquisition of English morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 519–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U., Gombert, J. E., & Fraca de Barrera, L. (1998). Children's orthographic representations and linguistic transparency: Nonsense word reading in English, French and Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19, 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U., Ziegler, J. C., Dalton, L., & Schneider, W. (2003). Nonword reading across orthographies: How flexible is the choice of reading units? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 235–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, V. M., & O'Reagan, J. K. (1992). Reading derivationally affixed French words. Language and Cognitive Processes, 7, 163–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inhoff, A. W., Briihl, D., & Schwartz, J. (1996). Compound word effects differ in reading, on-line naming, and delayed naming tasks. Memory & Cognition, 24, 466–476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Juhasz, B. J., Starr, M. S., Inhoff, A. W., & Placke, L. (2003). The effects of morphology on the processing of compound words: Evidence from naming, lexical decision and eye fixations. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 223–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laine, M., Vainio, S., & Hyönä, J. (1999). Lexical access routes to nouns in a morphologically rich language. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 109–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laxon, V., Rickard, M., & Coltheart, V. (1992). Children read affixed words and non-words. British Journal of Psychology, 83, 407–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehtonen, A., & Bryant, P. (2005). Active players or just passive bystanders? The role of morphemes in spelling development in a transparent orthography. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 137–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, V., & Singson, M. (2003). Linking morphological knowledge to English decoding ability: Large effects of little suffixes. In Assink, E. & Sandra, D. (Eds.), Reading complex words: Cross-language studies (pp. 1–25). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Marcolini, S., Burani, C., & Colombo, L. (2009). Lexical effects on children's pseudoword reading in a transparent orthography. Reading and Writing, 22, 531–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marconi, L., Ott, M., Pesenti, E., Ratti, D., & Tavella, M. (1993). Lessico elementare. Dati statistici sull'italiano letto e scritto dai bambini delle elementari. Bologna: Zanichelli.Google Scholar
Orsolini, M., Fanari, R., Tosi, V., De Nigris, B., & Carrieri, R. (2006). From phonological recoding to lexical reading: A longitudinal study on reading development in Italian. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21, 576–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paizi, D., Zoccolotti, P., & Burani, C. (2010). Lexical reading in Italian developmental dyslexic readers. In Brunswick, N., McDougall, S., & de Mornay Davies, P. (Eds.), Reading and dyslexia in different orthographies (pp. 181–198). London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Perdijk, K., Schreuder, R., & Verhoeven, L. (2005). The role of morphological family size in word recognition: A developmental perspective. Written Language and Literacy, 8, 45–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruneti, C. A. (1985). Dati normativi del test P.M. 47 Coloured su un campione di bambini italiani. Bollettino di Psicologia Applicata, 176, 27–35.Google Scholar
Rayner, K., & McConkie, G. W. (1976). What guides a reader's eye movements? Vision Research, 16, 829–837.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reichle, E. D., & Perfetti, C. A. (2003). Morphology in word identification: A word-experience model that accounts for morpheme frequency effects. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 219–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartori, G., Job, R., & Tressoldi, P. E. (1995). Batteria per la valutazione della dislessia e disortografia evolutiva. Firenze: O.S.Google Scholar
Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (1995). Modelling morphological processing. In Feldman, L. B. (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 131–154). Hove: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Seymour, P. H. K. (1997). Foundations of orthographic development. In Perfetti, C., Rieben, L., & Fayol, M. (Eds.), Learning to spell (pp. 319–337). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Seymour, P. H. K., Aro, M, & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Traficante, D., & Burani, C. (2003). Visual processing of Italian verbs and adjectives: The role of inflectional family size. In Baayen, H. R. & Schreuder, R. (Eds.), Morphological structure in language processing (pp. 45–64). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tressoldi, P. E. (2008). I brani della batteria MT si possono leggere tutti con la stessa velocità? Dislessia, 5, 339–345.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. (2003). Introduction to this special issue: The role of morphology in learning to read. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 209–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, H. (2006). Don't neglect reading fluency! Developmental Science, 9, 447–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoccolotti, P., De Luca, M., Di Pace, E., Gasperini, F., Judica, A., & Spinelli, D. (2005). Word length effect in early reading and in developmental dyslexia. Brain and Language, 93, 369–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoccolotti, P., De Luca, M., Judica, A., & Spinelli, D. (2008). Isolating global and specific factors in developmental dyslexia: a study based on the rate and amount model (RAM). Experimental Brain Research, 186, 551–560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed