mental lexicon.docx

mental lexicon.docx

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mentallexicon

1mentallexicon

Thelate1960swasassociatedwiththebirthofthestudyofthementallexicon.Thestudyofthementallexiconisasubfieldofpsycholinguistics.Byusingboththeoriesofpsychologyandlinguistics,thepsycholinguisticstudyoflanguagedealswiththementalprocesseswhichareinvolvedinlanguageacquisition,production,andcomprehension.Mentallexicon,alsocalledmentaldictionary,internallexiconorsubjectivelexicon.Treisman（242-48）[文献tresiman,A.M.“contextualcuesinselectivelistening.”quaterlyjournalofexperimentalpsychology12（1960）:

242-48],whoisthefirsttoproposetheconceptofmentallexiconin1964,holdsthatthementallexiconisarepositoryofalltheinformationthatareaderoralistenerhasconcerningwordsofalanguage.Accordingtohim,itisineveryspeaker’smindthatexistsawellorganizedsystemoflexicalrepresentationwhichconsistsofword’sspelling,soundandmeaning.Uptillnow,amonglinguists,psychologistsandanthropologists,theissueofmentallexiconstudieshascausedgreatconcern.Differentdefinitionofthistermhasbeengivenbydifferentscholars.ThedefinitionofmentallexicongivenbyJ.C.Richardsetal.（2000）isamentalsystemthatcontainsalltheinformationapersonknowsaboutwords.AccordingtoAitchison（1994）[文献Aitchison,J.wordsinthemind:

anintroductiontothementallexicon[M].2nded.Oxford:

Blackwell,1994],mentallexicon,alsocalledmentaldictionary,referstotherepresentationofwordsandtheirmeaningstoredpermanentlyinthememory.

1.1Thedifferencesbetweenmentallexiconanddictionary

Thementallexiconisamentalphenomenonwhichisbeyondourreach.Asmentionedabove,mentallexiconiscalledmentaldictionary.Comparingmentallexiconandtraditionbookdictionarycanmakesmentallexiconunderstoodeasily.Thesedifferencesaresummarizedasthefollowing:

First，thetraditionalbookdictionaryisorganizedinthealphabeticalorder,whilethementallexiconisnot.Asexperimentresultshow,thesemanticandphonologicalfactorstendtoaffecttheaccessofthementallexicon

second，thenumberofwordsthatabookdictionarycontainsisdefiniteandfixed,whichwouldpossiblemakethemeaningfallbehindtheconstantlydevelopmentoflanguage.Thatistosay,bookdictionaryisstatic.Incontrast,thementallexiconisdynamic.Becausetheuserscanchangeitbyaddingandcreatingnewmeaningsornewpronunciationstotheoriginalwords,byabsorbingnewwordsandbydeletingsomeout-of-datewords.

Third,thementallexiconismorecomplexandcontainsmoreinformationthanabookdictionary.Bookdictionarieslistonlyonepronunciationortwoforeachword,whileineverydaylife,aspecificwordindifferentspeaker’smentallexiconislikelytohavemorethanonepronunciation.Moreover,bookdictionaryonlycontainsverbalinformation,incontrast,thementallexiconcontainsnotverbalbutalsothenon-verbalinformation.Adictionarydefinitionofawordonlyincludesdenotationinformation.Mentallexiconcontainsbothdenotationandconnotationmeaningofaword.Mentallexicalcontainsnotonlymoresyntacticinformationaboutanentrythanabookdictionarydoesbutalsotheencyclopediaknowledgeaboutthisword.

Fourth,thewordsinbookdictionaryarearrangedseparated,thusittakesthesametimetolookupafrequentlyusedwordandaninfrequentlyusedone.Thewordsinmentallexiconconstituteaninterrelatednetworkthustheretrievetimeisinfluencesbyfrequencyeffect,thatistosay,thefrequentlyusedwordsaremorerapidlyretrievedfromthementallexicon.

1.2TheInternalStructureoftheBasicUnit－theLexicalEntry

AccordingtoLevelt,alexicalentryinL1containsfourkindsofspecifications:

Forexample,theentry‘do’canbedividedintofourpartswiththesemanticinformationas“toperform,carryout”,thesyntacticinformationas“usedasantransitiveverb”,themorphologicalinformationas“doservesasarootformwithitsthird-personpresent-tenseinflectionasdoes,past-tenseinflectionasdidandpastparticipleasdoneetc.”andtheformalinformationas“amonosyllabicconstantvowelsequence,with/d/asconstantand/u:

/asvowel”.Thedifferenttypeofinformationcanberepresentedintwocomponentswhichcomposealexicalentry:

thelemmaandthelexeme.Thelemmaincludesthesemanticinformationandsyntacticinformation.Thelexemecontainsmorphologicalinformationandphonologicalinformation.

Infact,thesedifferentkindsofspecificationareintegratedwithineachlexicalentry.Thiskindofintegrationintolexicalentriesneedsanextensive,highlycontextualizedexposuretothelanguage.Oncetheentryisopened,allkindsofinformationautomaticallyaregetaccessed.Becauseofthehighly-contextualizedinput,anL1learnerisabletoextractthesemantic,syntactic,morphologicalandphonologicalinformationoftheword.

1.3Organizationofmentallexicon

Aitchisonmaintainedthatvocabularyinmentallexiconisneitherinalphabeticorderlikethatinadictionary,noradisorderedcollectionofwords.theevidenceofwordassociationtaskssupportedthatwordsareorganizednotonlyonthebasisofphoneticandspelling,butalsoonthebasisifsenserelationship.Wehavehadgottenaboutthesenserelationsmoreovertheideaofanetworkofconceptsisvaluable.Inaddition,weknowthatthebrainiscomposedofneuronsthatareconnectedatsynapsestootherneurons.Theideaofnetworkissameasthecentralnervoussystem.Thesemaketheideaofnetworkmoreattractive.

Therearemainlytwokindsofnetworkmodels:

hierarchicalnetworkmodelsandspreadingactivationmodels.

1.2.1HierarchicalNetworkModels

Thehierarchicalmodel,whichwasthemostearliestandthemostinfluentialmodelofL1mentallexicon,wasproposedbyCollinsandQuilliansin1969.Inahierarchicalnetwork,thenetworkishierarchicalwithsomeelementsstandingaboveorbelowothers.Itresemblesthesemanticfieldtheoryinwhichtherearesuperordinates,subordinatesandcoordinates.TheresearchofCollinsandQuillian（1969）isaprototypeofthisapproach.ThemodelisshowninFigure2.

Inthemodel,conceptssimilartothewordarerepresentedasdistinctnodesinanetworkofcategoryrelationsthatdealwithhyponymyandpropertyrelationsthatindicatewhatcharacteristicsmaybeattributedtotheitemsatvariouslevelsinthenetwork.CollinsandQuillianputforwardthecognitiveeconomyprinciplethatassumedthespaceavailableforthestorageofsemanticinformationwaslimited,sothatitwouldbebeneficialtostoreinformationonlyinoneplaceinthenetwork.Theyalsoassumedthattheinformationwouldbestoredonlyatthehighestpossiblenode.

However,problemsoccurredwiththemodelbecausethemodelassumedthatalltheitemsonagivenlevelofthehierarchyweremoreorlessequal.Thismadeitimpossibletoexplainthetypicalityeffect:

itemsthataremoretypicalofagivensubordinatetakelesstimetoverifythanatypicalitemsintruestatement;theoppositeistrueforfalsestatements.

1.2.2SpreadingActivationModels

Aalternativemodelwasproposebymodifyingoftherigidhierarchicalassumptionswhileretainingtheconceptofnetwork.ThiskindofmodelsisreferredtoasspreadingactivationmodelsthatfirstproposedbyCollinsandLoftus（1975）.Themodelsuggeststhatmentallexiconisnotstoredinastricthierarchicalorderinthenetwork.Incontrast,theorganizationisanetworkofinterconnectedelementsandthedistancebetweenthenodesisdeterminedbyfunctionalfactorsandstructuralproperty.Thustheretrievalofawordbecomesaspreadofactivation.Thatistosay,whenawordisretrieved,theactivationstartsatthissinglenodeandthenspreadsalongtheassociativepathwayindifferentdirectionsandeventotheentirenetwork.Thisactivationbecomesweakeroverdistance,thusmakessurethatthecloselyrelatedconceptsaremorelikelytobeactivatedthandistantconcepts.

Figureisanexemplificationofthespreadingactivationmodel.

ThespreadingactivationmodelofCollinsandLoftushaslimitations.Themodelissemanticnetworkanditneglectsthephonological,syntacticandmorphologicalaspectsofwords,whichareimportantinformationofalexicalentryinthementallexicon.

AmorereasonablespreadingactivationmodelisproposedbyBockandLevelt（1994）,whichisbasedonLevelt’spropositionofcomponentsinalexicalentry.Themodifiedspreadingactivationmodelincorporateslexicalaswellasconceptualaspects.Theconceptualsyntacticandphonologicalinformationareincorporatedatthreedifferentlevels:

conceptuallevel,lemmalevelandlexemelevel.Theconceptuallevelcontainsnodesthatrepresentconceptsandnodesthatareconnectedtooneanotherbyvariousrelations.Thesecondlevelisthelemmalevelwhichconsistsofsyntacticaspectofwordknowledge.Finally,thereisalexemelevel.Thelexemecontainsaword’sphonologicalproperties,ororthographicalproperties.

Figure4cangiveusanillustrationofthismodifiedmodel.

2.L2mentallexical

2.1representation

IWeinreich’coordinate,compoundandsubordinatemodel

Asearlyasalmostfourdecadesyearsago,Weinreich（1953）putforwardtheideaofdifferentcategoriesofwordknowledgeinthebilingual’smind.Theyarecompoundcoordinateandsubordinatemodel.

ThreeorganizationofwordknowledgeintheBilingual’smind

（adaptedfromWeinreich（1953））

Inthecoordinatepattern,thebilingualsstorethewordsintwoseparatenetworkofformmeaningconnections.Thismeansthatawordinbilingual’sfirstlanguageanditstranslationinhissecondlanguagearerepresentedintwoconceptualforms,oneforthe