ABSTRACT
In this chapter we describe some evidence for morphological processing in visual word recognition . Much of the original work examining the role of morphology focused on units for lexical access (Taft, 1985, 1991; but see Taft & Zhu, this volume) and has been reviewed elsewhere (Henderson , 1985). Other work (e .g., Lukatela, Carello, & Turvey, 1987) has explored issues of representation of regular and irregular morphologically complex words presented in isolation . Regular and irregular morphologically complex words differ with respect to the transparency of their bases, and this has implications for processing. Morphological formations whose base morphemes retain their pronunciations (and spelling) under affixation are phonologically (and orthographically) transparent. Morphological formations whose base morphemes change their pronunciations (and spelling) under affixation are phonologically (and orthographically) opaque . Only morphological processing of transparent bases can be easily described in terms of rules that append (or remove) affixes to (from) bases. Consequently, comparisons of transparent and opaque forms speak to how morphological structure is represented in the lexicon. Some researchers (e .g., Chialant & Caramazza, this volume) have posited different mechanisms for regular and irregular formations . Others (e .g., Fowler et a\., 1985; MarslenWilson, Tyler, Waksler, & Older, 1994) have posited a single mechanism. The present study examines this issue by including both transparent and opaque base morphemes.
