Center for Cognitive Science
Colloquium
CHRISTINA GAGNE
Deparment of Psychology
University of Western Ontario
clgagne@julian.uwo.ca
"The Influence of Relational Information on Interpreting Noun-noun
Phrases"
Wednesday, October 13, 1999
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
280 Park Hall
North Campus
In many languages, nouns can be combined to create a noun phrase that refers
to a single concept. For example, "mountain bird" is a phrase that refers
to a particular type of bird. Research addressing how combinations are
interpreted have implications for theories of knowledge representation and
language comprehension because it provides insight into how noun phrases are
interpreted, how new concepts are built up from existing concepts, and how
individual concepts are represented in memory. The focus of this talk is to
describe research that examines the relative influence of the modifier (the
first noun of the phrase) and the head noun (the second noun) during
conceptual combination. I begin by presenting evidence that suggests that
conceptual combination involves the selection of a relation (e.g., noun
LOCATED modifier) that links the modifier (e.g., mountain) and head noun
(e.g., bird). In particular, I show that the modifier is highly involved in
the relation selection process and that the head noun exerts little
influence.
Next, I present further evidence to suggest that relational information is
associated with the modifier and not with the head noun by discussing
research that investigates the influence of recently encountered
combinations (e.g., "oil moisturizer" or "surgery treatment") on the
interpretation of a similar combination (e.g. oil treatment). The data
demonstrate that recent exposure to a similar combination influences
conceptual combination in two ways. First, it increases the availability of
lexical entries for the modifier and head noun. Second, a recent combination
with the same modifier as the target combination increases the availability
of the relation used to link the modifier and the head noun. For example,
the relation "noun USES modifier" is used to link oil and treatment during
the interpretation of oil treatment. This relation is more readily selected
when oil treatment has been preceded by a combination (e.g., oil
moisturizer) using the same relation than when preceded by a combination
(e.g., oil accident) using a different relation. However, when the head
noun is in common between the prime and target combination, only lexical
priming is observed.
Refreshments will be served.
All interested faculty, graduate and undergrads are invited to attend.