Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms
The suffixing bias (the tendency to exploit suffixes more often than prefixes to express grammatical meanings) in languages was identified a century ago, yet we still lack a clear account for why it emerged, namely, whether the bias emerged because general cognitive mechanisms shape languages to be...
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X25000064/type/journal_article |
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| author | Mikhail Ordin |
| author_facet | Mikhail Ordin |
| author_sort | Mikhail Ordin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The suffixing bias (the tendency to exploit suffixes more often than prefixes to express grammatical meanings) in languages was identified a century ago, yet we still lack a clear account for why it emerged, namely, whether the bias emerged because general cognitive mechanisms shape languages to be more easily processed by available cognitive machinery, or if the bias is speech-specific and is determined by domain-specific mechanisms. We used statistical learning (SL) experiments to compare processing of suffixed and prefixed sequences on linguistic and non-linguistic material. SL is not speech-specific, and we observed the suffixing preference only on linguistic material, suggesting its language-specific origin. Moreover, morphological properties of native languages (existence of grammatical prefixes) modulate suffixing preferences in SL experiments only on linguistic material, suggesting limited cross-domain transfer. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-83e2cb040a6f41949b849bd433837cbc |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2513-843X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-83e2cb040a6f41949b849bd433837cbc2025-08-20T02:56:24ZengCambridge University PressEvolutionary Human Sciences2513-843X2025-01-01710.1017/ehs.2025.6Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanismsMikhail Ordin0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9464-512XLaboratory of Language, Metacognition and Decision-Making, Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, PortugalThe suffixing bias (the tendency to exploit suffixes more often than prefixes to express grammatical meanings) in languages was identified a century ago, yet we still lack a clear account for why it emerged, namely, whether the bias emerged because general cognitive mechanisms shape languages to be more easily processed by available cognitive machinery, or if the bias is speech-specific and is determined by domain-specific mechanisms. We used statistical learning (SL) experiments to compare processing of suffixed and prefixed sequences on linguistic and non-linguistic material. SL is not speech-specific, and we observed the suffixing preference only on linguistic material, suggesting its language-specific origin. Moreover, morphological properties of native languages (existence of grammatical prefixes) modulate suffixing preferences in SL experiments only on linguistic material, suggesting limited cross-domain transfer.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X25000064/type/journal_articlesuffixing biasstatistical learningmorphological typologysuffix effectserial recall |
| spellingShingle | Mikhail Ordin Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms Evolutionary Human Sciences suffixing bias statistical learning morphological typology suffix effect serial recall |
| title | Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| title_full | Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| title_fullStr | Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| title_short | Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| title_sort | affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms |
| topic | suffixing bias statistical learning morphological typology suffix effect serial recall |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X25000064/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mikhailordin affixationpatternsinnativelanguageandsequenceprocessingbystatisticallearningmechanisms |