Buch, Englisch, Band 54, 289 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 700 g
Novel, context-free naming units
Buch, Englisch, Band 54, 289 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 700 g
Reihe: Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics
ISBN: 978-90-272-1563-5
Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company
This book aims to contribute to a growing interest amongst psycholinguists and morphologists in the mechanisms of meaning predictability. It presents a brand-new model of the meaning-prediction of novel, context-free naming units, relating the wordformation and wordinterpretation processes. Unlike previous studies, mostly focussed on N+N compounds, the scope of this book is much wider. It not only covers all types of complex words, but also discusses a whole range of predictability-boosting and -reducing conditions. Two measures are introduced, the Predictability Rate and the Objectified Predictability Rate, in order to compare the strength of predictable readings both within a word and relative to the most predictable readings of other coinages. Four extensive experiments indicate inter alia the equal predicting capacity of native and non-native speakers, the close interconnection between linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, the important role of prototypical semes, and the usual dominance of a single central reading.
