English derived word recognition by Chinese‐English bilinguals: Testing the nature and time course of the component processes

ABSTRACTResearch utilizing morphological priming has found that L2 speakers show facilitation from derived L2 primes, which could suggest morphological processing during derived L2 word recognition. However, the process of L2 derived word recognition is still poorly understood, with some arguing that the observed priming effects may not be morphological in nature. The present study is a partial replication of Rastle et al. and its extension to L2 English processing. Its purpose is to contribute to our understanding of the nature and time course of L2 derived word recognition. Following Rastle et al., I employed visual priming methodology to explore the activation of morphological, pseudomorphological, orthographic, and semantic processes during a later, central-lexical stage of L2 English derived word recognition by Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals. The results replicated Rastle et al.’s findings with L1 English speakers. The L2 speakers exhibited morphological effects distinguishable from effects of form overlap, suggesting that surface form overlap cannot explain L2 facilitation from derived primes. These same L2 speakers further showed pseudomorphological facilitation distinguishable from surface form effects, indicative of the operation of a purely morpho-orthographic process at the later stage of L2 English word recognition and further suggesting L2 sensitivity to morphemic structure that cannot be explained by semantic effects. Results further showed a similar graded pattern of activation of morphological, pseudomorphological, and form mechanisms in L2 and L1 speakers of English that appears to be temporally shifted between the two speaker populations. Implications for L2 word recognition theory are discussed. AcknowledgementsI am grateful to the editors and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to my QRP2 committee members, Charlene Polio and Patti Spinner.Competing interests declarationThe author declares no competing interests.Supplementary InformationSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2023.2260792Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Data availability statementThe data are available at https://osf.io/w8x72/?view_only=4c020c4469bf4f7dbcccd47cf0069291.Additional informationFundingThis study was partially supported by the SLS Doctoral Program at Michigan State University.