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The relation between morphology and spelling is an important source of evidence for theories of linguistic processing. In particular, spelling errors can help us assess the role of morphological structure in language users' mental representations of words in authentic texts. Previous research suggests that some morphological units are more prone to spelling errors than others, partly depending on the degree to which they are perceived as separate units. In this paper, we want to test this hypothesis by exploring graphemic variation in a collection of 1,667 German school-exit exams. Specifically, we code the spelling errors for their morphological structure. We can show that inflectional suffixes show a much higher probability of final letter omissions compared to final stems or derivational suffixes. We also find tentative evidence that case markers are more often affected by omissions than number markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the early stages in the development of children’s speech system. Its main features (specific ways of gender identification, simplified inflectional rules, and free derivation) constitute the backbone of Russian grammar, which in turn defines the functioning of the entire mechanism of the Russian language. These are the underlying linguistic patterns and the most general rules. Children learn them at the earliest stage of language acquisition and then modify them using more intricate and complex patterns as they continue to develop their language system. Based on the results obtained, the structure of the Russian grammar framework, an artificial model that summarizes the tendencies inherent in children’s speech at different stages of language acquisition and brings them to a logical conclusion, is outlined. When young children follow the rules of this framework, they sometimes create unique speech products that deviate substantially from the norm. However, they rely on the fixed, albeit simplified, rules and thus master the tricky issues of the grammatical system of the Russian language. Therefore, the framework of Russian grammar, or the core of the Russian language system, should be taken into account in diagnosing the level of speech development, learning Russian as a foreign language, and working with bilingual children.

Language as the primary means of communication has been developing for centuries. Each unit within a language, starting from sounds, words, phrases, and sentences, has been changed and harmonized with norms, reforms, and modern linguistic theories. Linguistic theories, which have been adopted and proposed, are part of the framework of language science. As the science of language dates back to ancient times, different terms were used for the mentioned field. Today, the science that delves into the research, influence, and shaping of a language is linguistics. This research aims to display the part of linguistics that deals with the study of word formation and its processes. The paper is based on a theoretical and practical presentation of the basic morphological processes of the English language, derivation and inflection. Special attention is paid to conversion and back-formation. Furthermore, the paper sheds light on the role of the morphological notions of root, stem, and base. Not only does the paper examine the morphological notions, but it also compares and contrasts the above-stated processes within English and Serbian languages relying on contrastive analysis. The main goal is to establish the degree of equivalence of word-formation processes between the two languages. The obtained results indicate that certain morphological processes of the two languages posess direct equivalents, but some do not share complete or direct equivalence.

In this paper, we investigate the value of derivational information in predicting the inflectional behavior of lexemes. We focus on Latin, for which large-scale data on both inflection and derivation are easily available. We train boosting tree classifiers to predict the inflection class of verbs and nouns with and without different pieces of derivational information. For verbs, we also model inflectional behavior in a word-based fashion, training the same type of classifier to predict wordforms given knowledge of other wordforms of the same lexemes. We find that derivational information is indeed helpful, and document an asymmetry between the beginning and the end of words, in that the final element in a word is highly predictive, while prefixes prove to be uninformative. The results obtained with the word-based methodology also allow for a finer-grained description of the behavior of different pairs of cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years a rapid emergence of lexical resources has evolved in the Semantic Web. Whereas most of the linguistic information is already machine-readable, we found that morphological information is mostly absent or only contained in semi-structured strings. An integration of morphemic data has not yet been undertaken due to the lack of existing domain-specific ontologies and explicit morphemic data. In this paper, we present the Multilingual Morpheme Ontology called MMoOn Core which can be regarded as the first comprehensive ontology for the linguistic domain of morphological language data. It will be described how crucial concepts like morphs, morphemes, word forms and meanings are represented and interrelated and how language-specific morpheme inventories can be created as a new possibility of morphological datasets. The aim of the MMoOn Core ontology is to serve as a shared semantic model for linguists and NLP researchers alike to enable the creation, conversion, exchange, reuse and enrichment of morphological language data across different data-dependent language sciences. Therefore, various use cases are illustrated to draw attention to the cross-disciplinary potential which can be realized with the MMoOn Core ontology in the context of the existing Linguistic Linked Data research landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The title of this research is Derivation and Inflection in Taylor Swift’s Album 1989: A Morphology Study. The purpose of this research is to describe types of use of derivation and inflection in the album. This research uses descriptive qualitative method. The paper lies on a theory proposed by O’Grady and Dobrovolsky. Based on the results, the data of derivation divide into six, i.e. noun changes to verbs (2 data), noun changes to adjective (1 data), noun changes to noun (1 data), adjective changes to noun (2 data), adjective changes to adjective (2 data) and derivation of compounding (8 data). In addition, there are 71 data that use the inflection of noun {-s/es}, 28 data inflection of verbs {-s}, 44 data use the {-ing} suffix, 30 data use the {-ed} suffix, 4 data uses the {-er} suffix, 1 data use the {-est} suffix or most and 4 data zero affixations.

In all human languages, there are some linguistic units which are in the midway between words and dependent morphemes. They have some properties of full words as well as some characteristics and properties of dependent morphemes. We call them clitics. The aim of this study is to investigate the properties of clitics in the Maraghe dialect of Azerbaijani Turkish to describe and investigate its clitic units. The method used in this study is a descriptive-analytic one. The data of the study were culled from the type of Turkish which is spoken in Maraghe, West Azarbayjan from different Turkish sources as well as the intuition of the writers as the native speakers of this type of Turkish. This article tries to introduce clitics in Turkish in possessive pronouns, linking verbs, accusative marker and so on. The analysis of clitics was conducted within the Zwicky and Pullum (1983) method and also used in Shaqaqi's (1374) framework. As the results of this study show, the most important finding of this study is that t in Azerbaijani Turkish, there are both proclitic and enclitic units including possessive pronouns, linking verbs, accusative marker, and some other units. Also, this study indicates that the mentioned framework can be used in recognizing and studying Turkish clitics as a scientific instrument.

The currently popular model of decasuative derivation has been criticized on various grounds, both typological and comparative. This paper assesses both the critique and the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research with younger adults has revealed differences between native (L1) and non-native late-bilingual (L2) speakers with respect to how morphologically complex words are processed. This study examines whether these L1/L2 differences persist into old age. We tested masked-priming effects for derived and inflected word forms in older L1 and L2 speakers of German and compared them to results from younger L1 and L2 speakers on the same experiment (mean ages: 62 vs. 24). We found longer overall response times paired with better accuracy scores for older (L1 and L2) participants than for younger participants. The priming patterns, however, were not affected by chronological age. While both L1 and L2 speakers showed derivational priming, only the L1 speakers demonstrated inflectional priming. We argue that general performance in both L1 and L2 is affected by aging, but that the more profound differences between native and non-native processing persist into old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is concerned with linguistic data suggesting that one and the same lexical source of grammaticalization can give rise to different morphological processes, leading not only to compounding and lexicalization but also to derivation, and even to inflection. Based on data from African languages for which little or no earlier written documents are available, the paper argues that even in the absence of historical records it is possible to reconstruct some features of earlier processes of word formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an English-speaking, aphasic individual (RB) with a spelling deficit more severely affecting orthographically irregular words for which phonologically plausible errors (PPEs) were produced. PPEs were observed for all word forms, with the exception of inflectional suffixes, despite the irregular sound-print mappings of many inflectional suffixes (e.g., walked → /wɔkt/). RB's pattern replicates that reported in Badecker, Rapp, and Caramazza (Badecker, W., Rapp, B., & Caramazza, A. (1996). Lexical Morphology and the Two Orthographic Routes. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 161-176). We extended their investigation by examining RB's spelling of derived words and found a selective deficit for derived words compared to inflected words in writing. This selective deficit did not appear to reflect differences in morphological transparency or suffix frequencies that exist between inflection and derivation. This is the first evidence that distinct neural mechanisms support inflection and derivation in spelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing has long been considered to be dependent on speaking. However, modality-specific dissociations between written and spoken word production imply that word production is supported by distinct neural mechanisms in writing, which can be impaired or spared regardless of the intactness of spoken word production. Rapp et al. (2015). Modality and morphology: What we write may not be what we say. Psychological Science, 26, 892-902 documented a double dissociation where problems with regular inflections were selectively restricted to writing or speaking. We report on two English-speaking aphasic individuals who exhibit this same modality-specific dissociation of inflectional processing, replicating the original findings. We expand on Rapp et al.’s study by examining whether the dissociations observed with regular inflections extend to other morphological forms, such as derivation and irregular inflection. Results showed that the dissociation holds for derivation; however, both participants were impaired with irregular inflections in both output modalities. Implications of these findings for morphological processing and the independence of the orthographic system are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present case study deals with the functions of the Czech verbal prefix po-. Three functions of the prefix are analysed by contrasting the existing theoretical descriptions with corpus data. In its primary, word-formational function, po- modifies the meaning of the base verb (expressing one of the semantic features described as Aktionsart or other meanings; e.g. kreslit 'to draw' > pokreslit 'to cover with drawings'). In its second function, po- derives perfective counterparts from the imperfective verb; here, the prefix is considered to be a grammatical means used for the formation of aspectual pairs of verbs (cf. kárat 'to admonish.impf' > pokárat 'to admonish.pf'). The third function of po- is manifested in the class of determinate verbs; it is a part of the morphological form of these verbs in their (imperfective) future meaning (e.g. běžet 'to run' - poběží '(he) will run'). A group of verbs suspected of exhibiting similar behaviour as the pure determinate verbs is analysed and attested using the corpus data. Finally, the competition between the prefix po- and several tens of prefixes in Czech verbs is commented upon and the position of the prefixed verbs within word-formation nests is sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current paper we discuss the mechanisms that underlie the processing of inflectional and derivational complexity in English. We address this issue from a neurocognitive perspective and present evidence from a new fMRI study that the two types of morphological complexity engage the language processing network in different ways. The processing of inflectional complexity selectively activates a left-lateralised frontotemporal system, specialised for combinatorial grammatical computations, while derivational complexity primarily engages a distributed bilateral system, argued to support whole-word, stem based lexical access. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of the processing and representation of morphologically complex words.

The aim of this article is to explain the lexical and high-level syntactic operations comprising the Old English suffixes -a, -e, -o and -u. Previous research has dealt with these suffixes, which constitute an area of overlapping between inflection and derivation, in terms of inflection, zero derivation or continuity between inflection and derivation. The position adopted in this article is that these affixes are fully derivational, although interesting points of convergence with inflection arise that deserve discussion. In this respect, a fundamental difference is made between explicit and implicit morphological relations. Such relations are considered in the derivational and the inflectional dimensions. Regarding lexical operations, the analysis concentrates on the subjective and objective functions realized by these suffixes, while, as far as high-level syntactic operations are concerned, a distinction is drawn between motivated and unmotivated inflective relations. The fact that most of the suffixes under scrutiny perform the subjective and the objective function is in keeping with the Separation Hypothesis, in terms of which grammatical morphemes are the output of phonological operations independent of the semantic operations that they realize. The results are also in accordance with the Universal Grammatical Function Theory, which predicts that the functions of inflectional and lexical derivation are the same.

This study examined whether and how the morphological structure of written words affects reading in word-based neglect dyslexia (neglexia), and what can be learned about morphological decomposition in reading from the effect of morphology on neglexia. The oral reading of 7 Hebrew-speaking participants with acquired neglexia at the word level – 6 with left neglexia and 1 with right neglexia - was evaluated. The main finding was that the morphological role of the letters on the neglected side of the word affected neglect errors: When an affix appeared on the neglected side, it was neglected significantly more often than when the neglected side was part of the root; root letters on the neglected side were never omitted, whereas affixes were. Perceptual effects of length and final letter form were found for words with an affix on the neglected side, but not for words in which a root letter appeared in the neglected side. Semantic and lexical factors did not affect the participants' reading and error pattern, and neglect errors did not preserve the morpho-lexical characteristics of the target words. These findings indicate that an early morphological decomposition of words to their root and affixes occurs before access to the lexicon and to semantics, at the orthographic-visual analysis stage, and that the effects did not result from lexical feedback. The same effects of morphological structure on reading were manifested by the participants with left- and right-sided neglexia. Since neglexia is a deficit at the orthographic-visual analysis level, the effect of morphology on reading patterns in neglexia further supports that morphological decomposition occurs in the orthographic-visual analysis stage, prelexically, and that the search for the three letters of the root in Hebrew is a trigger for attention shift in neglexia.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether frequency of occurrence and the level of morphological form variation (i.e., none, inflectional, and derivational) exhibited by target words might interact to affect incidental acquisition through reading. An intact class of English as a foreign language learners ( n=32) was given a copy of an unmodified 37,611-token English novel containing 49 target nonce words to read within two weeks. After reading, they were given two unexpected forms of assessment (meaning recall translation and meaning recognition multiple-choice). Meaning recall results indicate an average of 10 words having been acquired and meaning recognition results indicate an average of 25 words having been acquired. For the meaning recall data, a significant interaction effect between word form variation and frequency was found. Results point towards the conclusion that an increase in frequency may have a beneficial effect on acquisition for words whose tokens vary inflectionally, a marginal effect for words that do not vary in form, and little to no effect on words that vary derivationally. Examination of the meaning recognition acquisition results for a subset of 29 target words occurring 2-4 times to control for frequency of exposure found a significant effect for word form variation. Post hoc comparisons indicated that participants acquired significantly more target words that did not vary in form. There was no significant difference in acquisition between those that varied inflectionally and derivationally. Taken as a whole, the results of the current study indicate that word form variation does affect incidental acquisition and it can indeed present second language learners with difficulties, especially when less frequent input is received of words that vary in form. Implications for future incidental vocabulary acquisition research and classroom pedagogy incorporating reading and vocabulary instruction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the spelling of derivational and inflectional suffixes by 10-13-year-old Greek children. Twenty children with dyslexia (DYS), 20 spelling-level-matched (SA) and 20 age-matched (CA) children spelled adjectives, nouns, and verbs in dictated word pairs and sentences. Children spelled nouns and verbs more accurately than adjectives and inflections more accurately than derivational suffixes. DYS children performed worse than CA in all cases and worse than SA in verb inflections, but similar to SA in all the remaining cases, consistent with a delayed rather than deviant performance pattern. Qualitative analysis showed that uncommon vowel graphemes were often replaced by more common patterns. Children with dyslexia may have weaknesses in grasping morphological information and/or in applying this knowledge to spell word suffixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid and automatic processing of grammatical complexity is argued to take place during speech comprehension, engaging a left-lateralized fronto-temporal language network. Here we address how neural activity in these regions is modulated by the grammatical properties of spoken words. We used combined magneto- and electroencephalography to delineate the spatiotemporal patterns of activity that support the recognition of morphologically complex words in English with inflectional (-s) and derivational (-er ) affixes (e.g., bakes, baker ). The mismatch negativity, an index of linguistic memory traces elicited in a passive listening paradigm, was used to examine the neural dynamics elicited by morphologically complex words. Results revealed an initial peak 130-180 ms after the deviation point with a major source in left superior temporal cortex. The localization of this early activation showed a sensitivity to two grammatical properties of the stimuli: (1) the presence of morphological complexity, with affixed words showing increased left-laterality compared to non-affixed words; and (2) the grammatical category, with affixed verbs showing greater left-lateralization in inferior frontal gyrus compared to affixed nouns (bakes vs. beaks). This automatic brain response was additionally sensitive to semantic coherence (the meaning of the stem vs. the meaning of the whole form) in left middle temporal cortex. These results demonstrate that the spatiotemporal pattern of neural activity in spoken word processing is modulated by the presence of morphological structure, predominantly engaging the left hemisphere's fronto-temporal language network, and does not require focused attention on the linguistic input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adds to the evidence that the Split Morphology Hypothesis (SMH) (Anderson 1982; Scalise 1984; Perlmutter 1988) is incorrect. Scalise (1984) and Anderson (1992) claim that inflectional morphology must always be ‘peripheral with respect to derivation’. Booij (1994) challenges the SMH with evidence from a range of languages, and concludes that while this may hold for contextual inflection (e.g. agreement and case marking), it does not hold true for inherent inflection (e.g. noun number or verb tense). The isiZulu language contains some clear counter-examples to the SMH, namely quantifiers based on adjectives, presentatives and demonstratives. Each of these word-types is analysed to show that they contradict the SMH. Furthermore, they contradict Booij's prediction that the SMH is more likely to be violated when new words are derived from inherently inflected forms than from contextually inflected ones. The unsustainability of the SMH suggests that lexicalist and non-derivational models of grammar are likely to be correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with semantic dementia (SD) show progressive worsening of lexical-conceptual single word knowledge alongside preservation of nonsemantic aspects of language. The current study exam-ines morphological processing in SD. S.H.S., a Hebrew-speaking person with SD, completed eight tasks that tested inflection, linear derivation, and nonlinear derivation at three time points over six and a half years. S.H.S. correctly produced plural nouns and judged the grammaticality of noun-verb and noun-adjective inflectional agreement. A steeper decline was seen in the ability to judge irre-gularly versus regularly inflected forms. S.H.S. judged nationality suffixes accurately and produced diminutive and agentive suffixes successfully. He also relied on morphological decomposition when performing lexical decision. Judgement of sentences consisting of derived verbal participles was intact with regard to morphological considerations alone, but impaired when semantic considerations determined grammaticality. S.H.S.'s performance suggests that structural aspects of word knowledge might be functional in the face of a severe semantic impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to study possible differences between the processing of inflectional vs. derivational morphology in Spanish word recognition using electrophysiological measures. A lexical decision task to target words preceded by morphological-related (or unrelated) primes was used. The orthographic and phonological overlap and the grammatical class for the two experimental conditions were exactly the same. Examples of the related conditions were, for inflection, NIÑO-NIÑA (“girl”-“boy”), and for derivation, RAMO-RAMA (“bunch”-“branch”). These conditions were compared with unrelated pairs without orthographic, phonological or semantic relationships. An attenuation of the N-400 component was found for both related conditions from 300ms until 450ms (until 500ms for inflections only). In addition, different locations were suggested by the source analysis. These findings are consistent with accounts that argue for differences between the processing of inflections and derivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to explain the lexical and high-level syntactic operations comprising the Old English suffixes -a, -e, -o and -u. Previous research has dealt with these suffixes, which constitute an area of overlapping between inflection and derivation, in terms of inflection, zero derivation or continuity between inflection and derivation. The position adopted in this article is that these affixes are fully derivational, although interesting points of convergence with inflection arise that deserve discussion. In this respect, a fundamental difference is made between explicit and implicit morphological relations. Such relations are considered in the derivational and the inflectional dimensions. Regarding lexical operations, the analysis concentrates on the subjective and objective functions realized by these suffixes, while, as far as high-level syntactic operations are concerned, a distinction is drawn between motivated and unmotivated inflective relations. The fact that most of the suffixes under scrutiny perform the subjective and the objective function is in keeping with the Separation Hypothesis, in terms of which grammatical morphemes are the output of phonological operations independent of the semantic operations that they realize. The results are also in accordance with the Universal Grammatical Function Theory, which predicts that the functions of inflectional and lexical derivation are the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to provide a parsimonious generative account of the relationship between Zulu nouns and their prefixes, and between the singular and plural forms of nouns. It has been suggested that in the Bantu languages the latter relationship can best be described by assuming that nouns are marked for a feature gender, and that the feature class can be derived from the combination of the features gender and number. These claims lead to considerable redundancy if applied to a language like Zulu. A more parsimonious grammar can be achieved by assuming that Zulu nouns are lexically marked for class, and that plurals of count nouns, rather than being inflections, are regularly and productively derived from the singular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses reports within the issue on topics related to neuroscience including the importance of morphological information in language processing.

Abstract: Event-related potentials (ERP) were used to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of inflectional and derivational morphology. The participants were presented with visual sentences containing critical words in which either inflectional, derivational or both rules (combined violation) of Finnish were violated. Inflectional anomalies violated a number agreement of a noun with a previous auxiliary word. Derivational violations included a word-internal selectional restriction violation, i.e., a root and suffix category violation. Combined violations contained both a number and a category violation. The phonemic length of the critical words was controlled. Inflectional violations elicited a bilateral negative effect in the 450–550 ms time window, which was interpreted as an anterior negativity (AN) effect. Inflectional violations also elicited a late positivity (P600) effect. Derivational violations elicited an N400-like negativity effect, followed by the P600 effect. The P600 effects in the derivational and inflectional violation conditions summated linearly in the combined violation condition. The results are discussed with respect to the hypothesis that inflectional and derivational processes are independent and elicited in parallel in the online language comprehension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Arguments concerning the relative role of semantic and grammatical factors in word formation have proven to be a wedge issue in current debates over the nature of linguistic representation and processing. In the present paper, we re-examine claims by Ramscar [Ramscar, M. (2002). The role of meaning in inflection: Why the past tense does not require a rule. Cognitive Psychology, 45, 45–94.] that it is semantic rather than grammatical factors that influence the choice of regular or irregular past tense forms for English verbs. In Experiment 1, we first replicated Ramscar’s (2002) experiment, which showed semantic influences on choice of past tense inflection. A novel verb, splink, was introduced in a semantic context that was reminiscent of an existing regular or irregular rhyme verb: blink or drink. Participants favored the past tense form (splinked or splank) that matched that of the semantically similar verb. In Experiment 2, we introduced novel verbs in a context suggesting that they were grammatically derived from nouns (i.e., denominals). Some current symbolic processing models propose that regular past tense forms should be preferred for such forms. When Ramscar’s (2002) original contexts for derivational verbs were re-tested in this condition, we replicated his failure to find a preference for regular past tense forms. However, when the contexts were modified to make the grammatical process more salient, we did find a preference for regular past tense forms, suggesting that the derivational status might have been ambiguous in the original materials. In Experiment 3, we tested whether acceptability ratings for regular or irregular past tense forms of grammatically derived verbs could be explained by semantic distance metrics or by ratings of noun-to-verb derivational status. Ratings of semantic distance and grammatical derivation were orthogonal factors in Experiment 3. Only derivational status predicted acceptability ratings for regular past tense forms. Taken together, the present results suggest that semantic factors do not explain the regularization of irregular verbs in derivational contexts, although semantic factors can affect the choice of past tense forms in certain circumstances. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study we introduce an information-theoretical formulation of the emergence of type- and token-based effects in morphological processing. We describe a probabilistic measure of the informational complexity of a word, its information residual, which encompasses the combined influences of the amount of information contained by the target word and the amount of information carried by its nested morphological paradigms. By means of re-analyses of previously published data on Dutch words we show that the information residual outperforms the combination of traditional token- and type-based counts in predicting response latencies in visual lexical decision, and at the same time provides a parsimonious account of inflectional, derivational, and compounding processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dissociations in the recognition of specific classes of words have been documented in brain-injured populations. These include deficits in the recognition and production of morphologically complex words as well as impairments specific to particular syntactic classes such as verbs. However, functional imaging evidence for distinctions among the neural systems underlying these dissociations has been inconclusive. We explored the neural systems involved in processing different word classes in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, contrasting four groups of words co-varying morphological complexity (simple, monomorphemic words vs complex derived or inflected words) and syntactic class (verbs vs nouns/adjectives). Subtraction of word from letter string processing showed activation in left frontal and temporal lobe regions consistent with prior studies of visual word processing. No differences were observed for morphologically complex and simple words, despite adequate power to detect stimulus specific effects. A region of posterior left middle temporal gyrus showed significantly increased activation for verbs. Post hoc analyses showed that this elevated activation could also be related to semantic properties of the stimulus items (verbs have stronger action associations than nouns, and action association is correlated with activation). Results suggest that semantic as well as syntactic factors should be considered when assessing the neural systems involved in single word comprehension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]