Abstract: Previous studies of morphological processing have given rise to two opposing views. On one hand, the form-then-meaning account contends that during morphological processing, morpho-orthographic information is firstly decomposed, followed by morpho-semantic activation. On the other hand, the form-with-meaning account argues that morpho-orthographic decomposition and morpho-semantic activation occur simultaneously. The focus of debate is thus on the locus of morpho-semantic activation. The form-then-meaning activation allows two possibilities: (1) that both morpho-orthographic decomposition and morpho-semantic activation occur prelexically, but with the former occurring much earlier; or (2) morpho-orthographic decomposition is prelexical and morpho-semantic activation is supralexical. In contrast, the form-with-meaning activation only allows the co-occurrence of morpho-orthographic decomposition and morpho-semantic activation at a prelexical level. Both sides, evidenced by congregating data from empirical and theoretical (prelexical/supralexical models) studies, are examined here. It is suggested that future studies are expected to address issues from the perspective of research paradigms and theoretical development.

Key words: visual word recognition, morpheme, compound words, morpho-semantic activation