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Article published In: The Mental Lexicon
Vol. 20:1 (2025) ► pp.1–36

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Recognition advantage of proper names

A case of categorial semantics

ORCiD logo with link | University of Salamanca
ORCiD logo with link | University of California, DavisDavis
ORCiD logo with link | University of Salamanca
Published online: 6 May 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.24036.her
Abstract
This study investigates whether the recognition advantage of proper names (PN) over common nouns (CN) — reported in several languages — is also observed in Spanish, and whether different types of PN (e.g., personal vs. geographical) are affected to the same extent. Drawing on semantic theories that assign different presuppositional meanings to subcategories of PN, we designed four experiments to examine PN processing patterns: a lexical decision task, two categorization tasks, and a semantic priming task. To explore which semantic factors account for variability within each subcategory, we also conducted a series of regression analyses. The results confirm a cross-linguistic recognition advantage for PN in categorization tasks; however, this effect is limited to personal PN — even after controlling for affective factors and familiarity — while the advantage for geographical PN appears to be language-specific. Participants’ behavioral responses to geographical PN resembled those elicited by CN. These findings suggest that PN is a semantically heterogeneous category, and that their recognition lies on a continuum with that of CN.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Processing of proper names
    • 2.1Proper names and common nouns
    • 2.2Subcategories of proper names
  • 3.The present study
  • 4.Experiment 1: Lexical decision task
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Stimuli
    • 4.3Procedure
    • 4.4Results
  • 5.Experiment 2: Categorization task
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Stimuli
    • 5.3Procedure
    • 5.4Results
  • 6.Experiment 3: Categorization task with valence and familiarity
    • 6.1Participants
    • 6.2Stimuli
    • 6.3Procedure
    • 6.4Results
  • 7.Experiment 4: Semantic Priming
    • 7.1Participants
    • 7.2Stimuli
    • 7.3Procedure
    • 7.4Results
  • 8.Regression analysis
    • 8.1Results
  • 9.Discussion
    • The processing advantage of PN
    • Geographical PN and CN
  • 10.Conclusion
  • References
References (74)
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