An examination of the comprehension of invariable and variable Dutch plurals by native Dutch readers
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2023-08-08
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en
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This thesis investigated the difference in the comprehension of invariable and variable Dutch noun plurals by native Dutch readers. This was done using a self-paced reading task in which native Dutch readers clicked through sentences containing either variable or invariable plurals. The analysis suggests that significant differences were present between the invariable and variable plural reaction times at the target word, lag1 (the first word after the plural), and lag2 (the second word after the plural). RTs of the variable plurals were longer than RTs of the correct invariables. There are two potential explanations for these results: some participants may view a morphologically abundant form as incorrect while others view it as correctly, or the morphologically abundant form is considered acceptable, but the processing is impacted by the interference of the alternate form. Overall, this study offers further insights into the processing mechanisms of morphologically complex words.
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