Multiple routes for processing semi-lexical words: A study of the German pseudo-partitive constructions

The distinction between the processing mechanisms of content and function words has a long tradition in psycholinguistic research. However, a special word type that challenges this dichotomy, termed semilexical words, has gathered comparatively less attention. In German, the first noun in pseudopartitive constructions (e.g., “Flasche bottle” in “eine Flasche Wasser a bottle of water”) is classified as a semilexical noun. Previous studies indicated that pseudopartitive constructions undergo grammaticalization, wherein the first nouns transition from a lexical to a functional status. The extent to which this special word type resembles the processing routes of regular content and function words remains unclear. Moreover, prior studies demonstrated that regular nouns automatically activate lexicosyntactic features during lexical access. In pseudopartitive constructions containing two nouns, the selection of determiners is restricted by the semilexical noun but not the second noun (the actual entity being measured). This raises the question of whether the processing of lexicosyntactic information for semilexical nouns differs from that of regular nouns. This study investigated this issue by comparing semilexical words and regular nouns. Sixty native German speakers participated in a picture naming task using the picture-word interference paradigm. Grammatical gender congruency between target pictures and distractor words, as well as the noun category of the distractors, were manipulated. Participants were instructed to overtly name each target using a noun phrase. A significant gender congruency effect was observed, with longer naming latencies in incongruent conditions than congruent ones. Furthermore, the gender congruency effect was stronger in the semilexical noun condition than in the regular noun condition. These findings indicated that while semilexical nouns retain a processing route of spreading activation to associated gender nodes similar to content words, their processing mechanisms differ from those of regular nouns. Semilexical nouns may activate gender nodes through multiple routes during lexical access.