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SPOKEN WORD ACCESS PROCESSES (SWAP)
May 29-31, 2000
Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
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Organising principles in lexical access and representation? A view across
languages
William D. Marslen-Wilson
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
The notion "word" is investigated cross-linguistically in a series of studies
systematically comparing lexical representation and processing in English,
Polish, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese, using a variety of priming techniques.
The studies so far reveal considerable diversity, with languages differing
widely in types of lexical organisation. Mandarin appears to rely primarily
on non-combinatorial representations, while English and Polish employ in
addition a decompositional, morphemically based system. The non-concatenative
morphology of Arabic is also highly combinatorial, and plays an obligatory
morpho-phonological structural role. We find little evidence for specific
cross-linguistic constraints on lexical structure and content.
Full Paper
Bibliographic reference.
Marslen-Wilson, William D. (2000):
"Organising principles in lexical access and representation? A view across
languages",
In SWAP-2000, 19-22.