Processing of compound constituents

Abstract In this paper, we explore whether the cognitive system is sensitive to distributional information when reading novel compounds. In two lexical decision experiments, we investigate the role of positional constituent frequency and interpretability in processing novel noun-noun compounds in Italian. Experiment 1 presents a classical factorial design, manipulating position-specificity and position of occurrence of constituent morphemes. Experiment 2 is a more exploratory regression approach investigating a greater range of positional frequency values at two different presentation durations. Results suggest a weak effect of position-specific frequency and a strong effect of compound interpretability. Post-hoc analyses reveal an effect of constituent position on interpretability ratings, suggesting that position-specific frequency enters compound processing through the backdoor of interpretability. The findings underscore the dynamic nature and the role of distributional properties in compound processing.