Turnip Soup: Head Noun Influence on the Comprehension of Noun-Noun Combinations

Although previous studies of noun-noun compounding have shown that past experience of a modifier influences the comprehension of combinations involving that modifier (Gagné & Shoben, 1997; Storms & Wisniewski, in press), no similar head noun influence has been found. In this paper we describe an experiment that investigates the influence exerted independently by head nouns that are particularly suggestive of the instantiated relation. Our results indicate that when suitable head nouns are examined, they exert a similar influence on comprehension difficulty to that exerted by modifiers. Combinations with biased heads were interpreted reliably faster than those with neutral heads and the head’s strength ratio contributed significantly in predicting sensicality judgment times in a regression analysis. However, while a facilitating effect was observed for compounds using a relation highly typical of the head, no inhibiting effect was evident for relations that contradicted the head’s bias. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest some refinements to Gagné and Shoben’s (1997) CARIN model.