The Effects of Adjacent and Nonadjacent Collocations on Processing: Eye-Tracking Evidence From “Nested” Collocations

There is now robust evidence of priming effects during sentence processing for adjacent words that form collocations (statistically associated combinations). However, there is very limited evidence regarding how nonadjacent collocationsmight facilitate processing. Furthermore, no previous research has examined how nonadjacent collocations interplay with other (non)collocational material in the surrounding context. We employed “nested” collocations for the first time, in which more than one contextual element (verb, adjective) is a potential collocate for a noun. For example, in a verb–adjective–noun (V-A-N) phrase, two collocations may be “nested” (“express concerns” + “valid concerns” = “express valid concerns”) or only the verb (nonadjacent) or adjective (adjacent) might be collocational. In an eye-tracking experiment with L1 English speakers, we manipulated the collocational status of adjectives adjacent to the noun, (V)-A-N, and verbs nonadjacent to the noun, V-(A)-N. Our results replicated the basic adjacent effect and produced evidence of facilitation for nonadjacent collocations. Additionally, we find preliminary evidence for a syntactic primacy effect, whereby collocational links involving the verb prove more impactful than adjective–noun collocations, despite nonadjacency. Importantly, the results reveal cumulative facilitation in “nested collocations,” with a boost resulting from the simultaneous effects observed in adjacent and nonadjacent collocations. Altogether, the results extend our understanding of collocational priming effects beyond single collocations.