The processing of compounds in adult second language learners of English and Turkish

The purpose of this study is to investigate the processing of compound words in English and Turkish with monolingual and sequential bilingual adults with intermediate and advanced level proficiency. The present study includes two different but parallel experiments on compound word recognition, one in English and one in Turkish. By using a masked priming experiment, the processing of English and Turkish compounds by monolingual and sequential bilinguals is examined. The stimuli involve transparent-transparent compounds (e.g., headache; kuzeydoğu 'northeast', kuzey 'north', doğu 'east'), partially-opaque compounds (e.g., grapefruit; büyükelçi 'ambassador', büyük 'big', elçi 'delegate'), pseudocompounds (e.g., mandate; fesleğen 'basil', fes 'fez', leğen 'bowl/pelvis'), and monomorphemic words (e.g., crocodile; kaplumbağa 'turtle'). The results of the English study demonstrate that English monolinguals decomposed compound words. When semantic transparency of the compound is examined, the findings suggest that both constituents are activated in transparent-transparent compounds whereas only the second constituent is accessed in partially-opaque compounds, indicating the influence of semantic transparency on compound processing. No priming is observed for intermediate level sequential bilinguals, suggesting that they do not employ decomposition. Advanced level sequential bilinguals also employ decomposition for compounds, but semantic transparency plays a crucial role because constituent 1 is accessed in transparent-transparent compounds, yet no priming effect is obtained for partially-opaque compounds, implying dual-route access for English compounds. The Turkish study shows that monolingual Turkish participants recognize compound words on the basis of their constituents (i.e. via decomposition); however, the effect of semantic transparency is also observed in the group. Transparent-transparent compounds are accessed by recognizing the second constituent (i.e. the head of the compound) while both constituents are activated for partially-opaque compounds. In contrast, neither the advanced nor the intermediate-level sequential bilingual groups show native-like processing revealing whole-word access.