Neurocognitive Contexts for Morphological Complexity: Dissociating Inflection and Derivation

We review experimental findings about the processing of morphologically complex words, and provide a neuro‐cognitive account of the mechanisms that underlie this processing. Within the framework of the brain network that supports language comprehension, we argue that complex words created by regular and rule‐based combinations, such as regular inflections in English (e.g. played , jumps ), engage a left‐lateralized frontotemporal subsystem, specialized for grammatical computations. In contrast, processing of lexicalized and unpredictable complexity, present in derived words (e.g. bravely , warmth ), engages a bilateral subsystem, which underpins whole‐word, stem‐based lexical access. We suggest a potential neurobiological framework for this proposed organization.