ABSTRACT
This article investigates the semantic polyfunctionality of affixes, i.e. their ability to serve a variety of distinct semantic functions. Based on the analysis of a sample of 3,091 deverbal nouns ending with 46 different suffixes in French, the study examines the diversity of semantic functions realized by deverbal suffixes, the distribution of these functions across suffixes and the relationships that may exist between different functions. It appears that polyfunctionality is widespread among French deverbal suffixes and involves a large number of semantic functions, with highly variable realization frequency. Several fundamental aspects of affix polyfunctionality are further highlighted. A probabilistic analysis shows that polyfunctionality can be driven by non-arbitrary semantic associations between functions. A hierarchy of functions can also be postulated depending on whether they can be instantiated by monosemous or only polysemous derivatives. In addition, polyfunctionality appears to be inseparable from rivalry relationships and to determine the degree of rivalry between affixes. Overall, the study illustrates that affix polyfunctionality is governed by systematic organizing principles whose ramifications touch on lexical ambiguity and morphological competition.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The paper examines the discrimination of lexical stress contrasts in a foreign language from a neural perspective. The aim of the study was to identify the areas associated with word stress processing (in comparison with vowel processing), when listeners of a fixed-stress language have to process stress in a foreign free-stress language. METHODS: We asked French-speaking participants to process stress and vowel contrasts in Spanish, a foreign language that the participants did not know. Participants performed a discrimination task on Spanish word pairs differing either with respect to word stress (penultimate or final stressed word) or with respect to the final vowel while functional magnetic resonance imaging data was acquired. RESULTS: Behavioral results showed lower accuracy and longer reaction times for discriminating stress contrasts than vowel contrasts. The contrast Stress > Vowel revealed an increased bilateral activation of regions shown to be associated with stress processing (i.e., supplementary motor area, insula, middle/superior temporal gyrus), as well as a stronger involvement of areas related to more domain-general cognitive control functions (i.e., bilateral inferior frontal gyrus). The contrast Vowel > Stress showed an increased activation in regions typically associated with the default mode network (known for decreasing its activity during attentionally more demanding tasks). CONCLUSION: When processing Spanish stress contrasts as compared to processing vowel contrasts, native listeners of French activated to a higher degree anterior networks including regions related to cognitive control. They also show a decrease in regions related to the default mode network. These findings, together with the behavioral results, reflect the higher cognitive demand, and therefore, the larger difficulties, for French-speaking listeners during stress processing as compared to vowel processing.
