Morpholexical access and naming: The semantic interpretability of new root-suffix combinations

In two experiments, pseudowords made up of Italian roots and derivational suffixes were investigated. In visual lexical decision, the licensing of a new root-suffix combination was affected by its semantic interpretability, but not by its grammatical appropriateness. By contrast, the degree of interpretability of new root-suffix combinations did not affect naming. However, and irrespective of differences in interpretability, pseudowords made up of two morphemes were named more efficiently than pseudowords with no morphological constituency. These results, while showing the involvement of the semantic component in the licensing process, also show its dissociability in lexical naming, thus suggesting morpholexical nonsemantic naming. (C) 1999 Academic Press.