Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal

Diego Alves; Sergei Bagdasarov; Elke Teich

Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal

Diego Alves, Sergei Bagdasarov, Elke Teich

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Abstract

This study investigates whether eye-tracking measures predict if a word is the final token of a multi-word expression (MWE), focusing on two understudied MWE types: fixed expressions (e.g., due to) and phrasal verbs (e.g., turn out). Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we compared tokens in MWE contexts with the same tokens in non-MWE contexts. Results reveal a clear difference in processing. For fixed expressions, reading-time measures significantly predict MWEhood. In contrast, phrasal verbs show no consistent predictive effects. Additionally, we compared the reading-time models to models that included GPT-2 surprisal as a predictor. While surprisal does predict MWEhood, it fails to capture the distinction between types. These findings highlight the need to consider MWE typology in models of formulaic language processing.

Anthology ID:: 2026.mwe-1.5
Volume:: Proceedings of the 22nd Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MWE 2026)
Month:: March
Year:: 2026
Address:: Rabat, Marocco
Editors:: Atul Kr. Ojha, Verginica Barbu Mititelu, Mathieu Constant, Ivelina Stoyanova, A. Seza Doğruöz, Alexandre Rademaker
Venues:: MWE | WS
SIG:
Publisher:: Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:: 48–53
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.mwe-1.5/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Diego Alves, Sergei Bagdasarov, and Elke Teich. 2026. Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal. In Proceedings of the 22nd Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MWE 2026), pages 48–53, Rabat, Marocco. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):: Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal (Alves et al., MWE 2026)
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PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.mwe-1.5.pdf

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@inproceedings{alves-etal-2026-cognitive,
    title = "Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal",
    author = "Alves, Diego  and
      Bagdasarov, Sergei  and
      Teich, Elke",
    editor = {Ojha, Atul Kr.  and
      Mititelu, Verginica Barbu  and
      Constant, Mathieu  and
      Stoyanova, Ivelina  and
      Do{\u{g}}ru{\"o}z, A. Seza  and
      Rademaker, Alexandre},
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 22nd Workshop on Multiword Expressions ({MWE} 2026)",
    month = mar,
    year = "2026",
    address = "Rabat, Marocco",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.mwe-1.5/",
    pages = "48--53",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-363-0",
    abstract = "This study investigates whether eye-tracking measures predict if a word is the final token of a multi-word expression (MWE), focusing on two understudied MWE types: fixed expressions (e.g., \textit{due to}) and phrasal verbs (e.g., \textit{turn out}). Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we compared tokens in MWE contexts with the same tokens in non-MWE contexts. Results reveal a clear difference in processing. For fixed expressions, reading-time measures significantly predict MWEhood. In contrast, phrasal verbs show no consistent predictive effects. Additionally, we compared the reading-time models to models that included GPT-2 surprisal as a predictor. While surprisal does predict MWEhood, it fails to capture the distinction between types. These findings highlight the need to consider MWE typology in models of formulaic language processing."
}

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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal
%A Alves, Diego
%A Bagdasarov, Sergei
%A Teich, Elke
%Y Ojha, Atul Kr.
%Y Mititelu, Verginica Barbu
%Y Constant, Mathieu
%Y Stoyanova, Ivelina
%Y Doğruöz, A. Seza
%Y Rademaker, Alexandre
%S Proceedings of the 22nd Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MWE 2026)
%D 2026
%8 March
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Rabat, Marocco
%@ 979-8-89176-363-0
%F alves-etal-2026-cognitive
%X This study investigates whether eye-tracking measures predict if a word is the final token of a multi-word expression (MWE), focusing on two understudied MWE types: fixed expressions (e.g., due to) and phrasal verbs (e.g., turn out). Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we compared tokens in MWE contexts with the same tokens in non-MWE contexts. Results reveal a clear difference in processing. For fixed expressions, reading-time measures significantly predict MWEhood. In contrast, phrasal verbs show no consistent predictive effects. Additionally, we compared the reading-time models to models that included GPT-2 surprisal as a predictor. While surprisal does predict MWEhood, it fails to capture the distinction between types. These findings highlight the need to consider MWE typology in models of formulaic language processing.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.mwe-1.5/
%P 48-53

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Markdown (Informal)

[Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal](https://aclanthology.org/2026.mwe-1.5/) (Alves et al., MWE 2026)

Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal (Alves et al., MWE 2026)

ACL

Diego Alves, Sergei Bagdasarov, and Elke Teich. 2026. Cognitive Signatures of Multi-Word Expressions: Reading-Time and Surprisal. In Proceedings of the 22nd Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MWE 2026), pages 48–53, Rabat, Marocco. Association for Computational Linguistics.