Are Light Verb Constructions processed in a combinatorial or lexicalized manner? A multivariate erfMRI study

Background and Aim: Researches in several other languages have shown that the semantic relation between the compound and its constituents can play a role in combinatorial processing. Methods This study consists of two phases. In the behavioral phase, ۴۲ Persian speaking monolingual speakers were recruited to do a masked priming task in three SOAs. In the neuroimaging phase ۲۹ Persian native speakers were recruited to do a passive listening fMRI experiment. We used a variety of stimuli in this study such as light verb constructions, verb-noun compounds, sentences, short phrases, inflectional morphology and musical rain. For the behavioral data analysis we used Mixed Effects Modeling. For the fMRI data we used both univariate and multivariate techniques for data analysis. Results: This study was intended to see whether compounds are processed holistically or combinatorially in language comprehension; and whether semantic transparency has an effect on the processing of different kinds of compounds. Conclusion: The results of the univariate analysis showed effects in the left temporal gyrus which were caused mainly by semantic variables. We didn't observe any effects in LIFG where we expected to see differences in processing. On the other hand, in the multivariate analysis we observed effects in LIFG. The multivariate results revealed that semantic transparency could be an influential factor solely; rather it needed to be complemented with productivity to show effects. We showed that light verb constructions were processed more combinatorially in comparison with other types of compounds because of their higher productivity rate. The findings of this study speak to the importance of cross-linguistic studies. Neuro/Psycho-linguistic theories need to take into account the effects of productivity in language processing.

کلیدواژه ها:

fMRI ، Light verb constructions ، Persian ، Semantic Transparency ، Verb-noun compounds