Affixation patterns in native language and sequence processing by statistical learning mechanisms
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6145966 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mikhail Ordin (0000-0002-9464-512X, University of Coimbra, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Evolutionary Human Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2513-843X • E-ISSN: 2513-843X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/ehs.2025.6 |
| PMID | 40027139 |
| OpenAlex | W4407569120 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
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
Cognition · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Prefix · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Language Development and Disorders · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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| Highly cited | No |
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