independently of the EGG, there is a talk by Maša Bešlin (Georgetown University) tomorrow at 2 pm in room B2.51. Title and abstract are below.

Title: Beyond form and meaning: Investigating abstract morphology in language processing

Abstract: A prominent position in contemporary linguistic theory is that speakers’ knowledge of words extends beyond form and meaning to include abstract morphological representations. Whether such abstract representations are engaged during real-time language processing remains a central question in psycholinguistics. In this talk, I present a prospective MSCA project that addresses this question by exploiting a distinctive property of Slavic verbs: genuinely complex and only apparently complex words can be compared while closely matching semantic and phonological similarity. This makes it possible to disentangle the contribution of abstract morphology from that of form and meaning, overcoming methodological limitations that have constrained previous work on English and related languages. The project combines auditory priming experiments with pupillometry to examine both behavioral and physiological signatures of morphological processing. More broadly, it aims to foster a two-way exchange between theoretical morphology and psycholinguistics, drawing on linguistic theory to guide experimental research while using experimental findings to inform theories of morphological representation and processing. By presenting the project’s questions and methods, I also hope to introduce these approaches to the MU community and explore opportunities for collaboration on questions at the interface of morphological theory and language processing.