On the role of graphemes, syllables and morphemes in reading: evidence from different tasks and languages

De Simone, Elisabetta (2024): On the role of graphemes, syllables and morphemes in reading: evidence from different tasks and languages. Dissertation, LMU München: Medizinische Fakultät

Abstract

One key issue in reading is to determine how printed words are recognised. For decades researchers have tried to understand which sub-lexical units are more useful in reading. Specifically, evidence accumulated around graphemes (letters or letter clusters associated with a phoneme), syllables (a unit of pronunciation including one or more phonemes), and morphemes (the minimal unit carrying meaning). However, it is not clear how reliance on sublexical units changes according to specific languages. I investigate this topic by using a variety of experimental procedures, which reveal that that three main aspects contribute to cross-linguistic differences in sublexical processing: orthographic depth, morphological compleity, and syllabic complexity. In the first study, published in PlosOne (De Simone et al., 2021), I explore how orthographic depth and the knowledge of letters to sounds mapping influence the reading of nonsense words by introducing a relatively new mean to calculate pronunciation variability. The study investigates four European languages (English, German, French, Italian) and examines different age groups (adults, children in grades 2, 3, and 4) as well as linguistic backgrounds (monolingual and bilingual children). Results indicated that pronunciation variability was greater in the language with the most opaque orthography, i.e., English. In the second study, published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (De Simone, Moll, Feldmann, et al., 2023), I investigated the reliance on syllables and morphemes when reading words embedded in sentences. In this case, I measured participants’ eye movements and restricted my focus on one language, German. The study’s results suggested that syllables are the preferred units of analysis of native German speakers when silently reading for comprehension purposes. In the third study, currently under review, I explored how morphological processing is affected by morphological complexity and orthographic depth. I did so by contrasting two languages that differ on both aspects: English, which has a scarce morphology but has an opaque orthography, and Italian, which has a rich morphology but a transparent orthography. The findings of the study indicated that orthographic depth has a more profound impact on morphological processing than morphological complexity. The findings of these three experimental chapters show that orthographic depth, and consequently, phonological processing, are the main cause of cross-linguistic differences in reading behaviour. Reliance on units larger than letters in reading aloud and silent reading is mostly driven by the specific orthography demands thus providing further evidence for the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (Katz & Frost, 1992) and the Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Results are also discussed in terms of the Flexible-unit-size Hypothesis of Brown and Deavers (1999), and implications for theoretical and computational modelling are considered.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften ; 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Fakultäten: Medizinische Fakultät
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 11. November 2024
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Schulte-Körne, Gerd