Regular Plurals in Dutch Compounds: Linking Graphemes or Morphemes?

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Abstract
In this paper, we address the functional role of the orthographic realisation of the linking schwa in Dutch nominal compounds. From a diachronic perspective, the linking schwa is a historical relic of the now obsolete morphological system of medieval Dutch. Synchronically, however, it appears in two orthographic forms, -e and -en, both of which are homographs of high-frequency inflectional affixes. The suffix -e primarily functions as an agreement marker without intrinsic meaning. The suffix -en primarily realises plural number on nouns and verbs. Are plural semantics activated in the mental lexicon when the linking schwa is written as the plural suffix? This question has become relevant for Dutch in the light of a recent change in the spelling rules which now prescribe the -en spelling for compounds with no meaning of plurality. We addressed this question by means of four experiments, which revealed that writing the linking schwa in the orthographic form of the plural suffix does indeed lead to the activation of the plural semantics, even when plural semantics are not intended. We interpret our results within the framework of a parallel dual-route model of morphological processing.