PREFIX STRIPPING RE-REVISITED

Taft and Forster (1975) enriched serial search models of lexical acces s with a prefix-stripping module, hypothesizing that prefixal morpholo gy is functional in the sense that it leads to more efficient lexical processing. A detailed investigation of the lexical statistics of pref ixation and pseudo-prefixation in English and Dutch shows, however, th at the addition of a prefix stripping module to a serial search model leads to a substantial decrease in its processing efficiency, defined as the number of search steps required for accessing words in the ment al lexicon. This reversal is attributed to the high token frequencies with which pseudo-prefixed words occur. We also briefly discuss and co mpare the lexical statistics of a similar model in which obligatory se gmentation takes place, the metrical segmentation theory proposed by C utler and Norris (1988). Methodological implications for the testing o f psychological models of language processing are discussed. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.