Ch. 5 The Internal Lexicon

Presented by J. W. Ha

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Contents

Main Points

Introduction

Dimension of Word Knowledge

Organization of the Internal Lexicon

Lexical Access

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Main Points

Know a word Know its phonological, morphological, syntactic, and

semantic attribute

A word’s meaningSense : relationships with other wordsReference : relationships between a word and an object or

an event

Internal LexiconThe organization of word knowledge in permanent memoryRepresentation with semantic networks

Lexical AccessWord knowledge activation Influenced by the frequency, attributes, ambiguity, and so

on

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Introduction

Word guessing gameHow is the game performed?

Word informationRetrieving processStore process

Internal LexiconThe representation of words in permanent memory

Lexical AccessThe process by which we activate words’ meanings

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Dimension of Word Knowledge

• Phonological Knowledge• Syntactic Knowledge• Morphological Knowledge• Semantic Knowledge

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Phonological / Syntactic Knowledge

Phonological KnowledgePhonological attributesPronunciationHomophones : bear / bareTip-of-the-Tongue(TOT) phenomenon

Not successful at retrieving a particular word But remember something about how it sounds

Syntactic KnowledgeCategoryA part of speechThe aging pianist stunned the audienceGrammatical rulesOpen-class(Content) words / Close-class(Functional)

words

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Morphological Knowledge

How many words do we know? Distinction

React / Reaction / Reactive / Reacting

Morphemes Inflectional morphemes

Express grammatical contrasts -s(pl), -ed(past)

Derivational morphemes Create new words -ion(noun)

Order Derivational > Inflectional Neighborhoods

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Semantic Knowledge [1/4]

Meaning of WordsSense and referenceDenotation and connotation

ReferenceThe relationship between words and things in the worldReferent : a thingDetermine the truth condition of a sentence“There is a brown cow grazing in the field”Abstract, Not existentMental Model

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Semantic Knowledge [2/4]

SenseWord’s place in a system of relationship which it

contracts with other words in the vocabularyRelation : Synonymy, Coordination, Hypernymy,

MeronymySynonymy : same meaning (fear / panic)Coordination : same level in a hierarchy (cat, dog /

animal)Hypernymy

The relationship of superordination within a hierarchy Bird : hypernym / Sparrow : hyponym

Meronymy A part of an object Back, legs / chair

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Semantic Knowledge [3/4]

SenseWord association test

Kent and Rosanoff (1910) Read aloud a list of words to a person who gave “the first

word that occurs to him/her other than stimulus word itself Chair result

– Table > seat > sit > furniture > sitting > wood > rest > …. Semantic Relations

– Taxonomic relations : furniture, table– Attribute relations : seat, cushion, legs– Functional relations : comfortable, wooden, hard

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Semantic Knowledge [4/4]

Denotation and ConnotationDenotation

The objective and dictionary meaning Phonological information (pronunciation) Orthographic information (spelling) Semantic information (various meanings)

Connotation Certain aspects of meaning beyond explicit descrpitions Bachelor and spinster

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Organization of the internal Lexicon

• The Concept of a Semantic Network• Hierarchical Network Models• Spreading Activation Models

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Concept of a Semantic Network

Semantic NetworkMain idea regarding the organization of the lexiconThe network based on relations makes a good deal of

senseNeuro and brain scientific perspectives

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Hierarchical Network Models[1/4]

Collins and Quillian(1969, 1970, 1972) Taxonomic and Attributive relation

Taxonomy : hyponymy, hypernymy, coordinationAttributes

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Canary

Can sing

Is yellow

Bird

Animal

Ostrich Shark

Fish

Salmon

Has wingsCan flyHas feathers

Has skinCan move aroundEatsBreaths

Has finsCan swimHas gills

Hierarchical Network Models[2/4]

How attributes and properties are stored in the lexicon Inference

Aristotle was not blinded by the incident The rock was not blinded by the incident Inferred information from what information we do have

stored in mental lexiconCognitive Economy

The space available for the storage if semantic information was limited, so that it would be beneficial to store information only in one place in the network

Only at the highest possible node

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Hierarchical Network Models[3/4]

Semantic verification taskDetermine that “A is a B” is true / falseMeasure a decision time distance Intersection search

A bird is an animal We continue to search for relevant information until the two

items in the sentence intersectCategory-size Effect

Verification time In “A is a B”, the higher B, the longer the reaction times A canary is a bird < A canary is a animal

Typicality Effect Similarity reduces verification times for true and increases

for false A robin is a bird < An ostrich is a bird A whale is a fish > A horse is a fish

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Hierarchical Network Models[4/4]

Limitation of strict cognitive economy modelCollie, dog, mammal, animalRepose time of mammalian feature > one of animal

feature

Basic-level TermsAttributes are more likely to be stored at more familiar

locations in the network

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Spreading Activation Models [1/2]

Collins and Loftus(1975)An alterative of cognitive

economy modelModify the hierarchical assumptionOrganization is not strictly

hierarchical (web)Node distance

Structural (taxonomic) Consideration (typicalty)

Difference of accessbilityRetrieval occurs by a process

of spreading activationLimitation

No phonological, syntactic, and morphological aspects Model of concept rather than word

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StreetVehicl

e

Car

Truck

Bus

Ambulance

Fire Engin

e

House

Fire

Red

Orange

Yellow

GreenApple

Cherry

Spreading Activation Models [2/2]

Bock and Levelt (1994)Three levels

Conceptual level Lemma level

– Syntactic aspect Lexeme level

– Phonological aspect

LimitationNo referential aspect

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Sheep Goat

Wool MilkAnim

al

Growth GivesIs an

Gives Is an

Sheep(mouton)

Goat(chevr

e)

Noun

Sense Sense

Male

Gender

Sip gout

ConceptualLevel

LemmaLevel

LexemeLevel

SoundForm

SoundForm

Lexical Access

• Models of Lexical Access• Variables that Influence Lexical Access• Appraising Models of Lexical Access

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Models of Lexical Access [1/2]

Search Model Foster’s autonomous search model Components

Orthographic properties Phonetic properties

Descending order of frequency Assume that lexicon is autonomous and independent

Not directly influenced by syntactic or semantic factors Revision : parallel components

Logogen Model Morton Logogen : specifies the word’s various attributes Activation (parallel)

Sensory input : orthographic or phonological stimuli Contextual information : syntactic and semantic structure

– Her closest relatives was appointed as her legal guardian Thresholds

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Models of Lexical Access [2/2]

Cohort ModelMarslen-WilsonTo account for auditory word recognitionThree stages of spoken word recognition

A set of lexical candidates is activated (word initial cohort) A member of the cohort is selected for further analysis Selected lexical item is integrated into the ongoing

semantic and syntactic contextAngela misplaced ba…. (bag, bath, bat, …)

Multiple source analysisThe activation levels of different items in the cohort vary

as a function of their similarity to the incoming signal Initial candidate elimination

More phonological information or sentence narrow, discard

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Variables that Influence Lexical Access [1/3] Word Frequency

Major factorPhoneme monitoring

Foss task Lexical visual task

– word and non-word guessing in high / low frequency word– High frequency < low frequency

Phonological VariablesStress, intonation pattern

Syntactic CategoryOpen-class : difference in high / low-frequency wordsClose-class : No differnece

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Variables that Influence Lexical Access [2/3] Morphological Complexity

Distinguish between affixes of a word and the base Independent storage of base word and morpheme

Response Time : -ment < -ence < -ion

Semantic PrimingTwo phases

Priming stimulus Target is presented

Bread < nurse in Butter

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Variables that Influence Lexical Access [3/3] Lexical Ambiquity

More than one meaningSignificant property of languageExamples

Rapid righting with his uninjured had saved from loss the contents of the capsized canoe. (sound)

The man started to drill before the truck arrivedContextual bias vs. meaning frequency

The jealous husband read the letter The antique typewriter was missing a letter

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Appraising Models of Lexical Models

Word frequencyAll model considerLogogen : thresholdSearch Model : descending order

Priming All model consider

Cohort ModelBe better positioned to explain the full range of factorSpoken word recognition

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