Is More Always Better for Verbs? Semantic Richness Effects and Verb Meaning.
We examined how several semantic richness variables contribute to verb meaning, across a number of tasks. Because verbs can vary in tense, and the manner in which tense is coded (i.e., regularity), we also examined how these factors moderated the effects of semantic richness. In Experiment 1 we found that age of acquisition (AoA), valence, arousal and embodiment predicted faster response times in LDT. In Experiment 2 we examined a particular semantic richness variable, verb embodiment, and found that it was moderated by tense and regularity. In Experiment 3a we found that AoA predicted faster response times in verb reading. Finally, in Experiment 3b, semantic diversity predicted response times in a past tense generation task, either facilitating or inhibiting responses for regular or irregular verbs, respectively. These results demonstrate that semantic richness variables contribute to verb meaning even when verbs are presented in isolation, and that these effects depend on several factors unique to verbs.
Language Processing Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, Canada.
David M
DM
Sidhu
Language Processing Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, Canada.
Alison
A
Heard
Language Processing Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, Canada.
Penny M
PM
Pexman
lexical decision; past-tense generation; regularity; semantic richness; tense; verb meaning