Download: pdf (5 pages, 4 slides/page; 248 Kb)

Abstract: Hebrew has a rich morphology in which most words are formed by interdigitating a three-consonant root into a vowel- and consonant-based word pattern. Morphological priming in Hebrew can occur in the absence of semantic similarity, supporting claims that explicit morphemic units mediate word recognition. From a distributed connectionist perspective, however, such priming effects can arise due to the pervasive morphological organization of the entire language (Plaut & Gonnerman, 1999, LCP). In addition, morphological priming in languages with rich morphologies may reflect learned sensitivity to the distributional characteristics among surface forms alone, irrespective of their meanings. Results from simulations trained on a 100-million-word corpus of written Hebrew suggest, however, that surface structure alone is insufficient to induce the necessary sensitivity to morphological structure. Rather, exposure to rich surface structure combined with broad distinctions in how such structure relates to meaning may be necessary for the system to learn the relevant morphological relationships among words.

Copyright Notice: The documents distributed here have been provided as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.