Paraphrasing and remembering compound words

doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(72)80097-5

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior

Volume 11, Issue 3, June 1972, Pages 348-355

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The present study replicated a finding of Gleitman and Gleitman (1970) who found large differences in the successful paraphrasing of three-term compound words between groups of Ss of different educational levels. These differences were shown not to be attributable to differential memorial capacity. They were also shown not to be a result of a difference in the ability to apply compounding rules recursively, for they were still obtained when the compounds consisted of only two terms. A further group difference pertained to the confidence Ss expressed in the correctness of their own paraphrases: In the highly educated group this was related to actual paraphrasing accuracy, while in the less-educated group it was not. The results are interpreted to indicate a genuine group difference in linguistic competence.

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ChomskyN.
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FillenbaumS.
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(1971)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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¹: This research was supported by Public Health Research Grant MH-20041. We are indebted to Elizabeth F. Shipley for many invaluable comments. We also wish to express appreciation to Rebecca Bernheim for her help in constructing the stimulus tapes and in scoring the responses.

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Paraphrasing and remembering compound words1

Aspects of the theory of syntax

Psycholinguistics

Annual Review of Psychology