Accessing chinese compound words: concurrent activation of morpheme and whole-word information

Compound words contain information at both the morpheme and whole-word levels. However, whether both levels are consistently activated, along with the precise timing of this activation and the nature of their interaction (i.e., whether they compete), remains an open question. This study investigates the activation of morpheme-level and whole-word information during the processing of two-character Chinese compound words, using EEG to record brain signals during a lexical decision task. Representational similarity analysis (RSA) was employed to construct separate matrices for morpheme and whole-word information, with correlations to EEG signals identifying the temporal dynamics of their activation. Further regression models incorporating semantic transparency and morpheme/word frequency were used to predict EEG activation and test for the competition between morpheme and whole-word information. The results revealed significant activation of both levels of information, particularly within the 200-600 ms window following the presentation of the compound word. Additionally, both morpheme and whole-word frequency significantly predicted EEG signals, with opposite effects. These findings support the dual-route parallel activation model of Chinese compound word processing, highlighting a competitive relationship between morpheme-level and whole-word information.