Sylabus
Session
Topic 1
Introduction: How do you define a “word”? History of the study of the mental lexicon 2
Words in the brain 3
Speech recognition 4
Speech production 5
Experimental approaches 6
Similarity neighborhoods 7
The bilingual lexicon 8
Integrating multiple languages 9
Growing the lexicon in L1 and LX 10
Shrinking the lexicon 11
Exemplars vs. generative rules 12
Frequency effects 13
Priming
Anotace
The mental lexicon (or mental dictionary) is a language user’s mental storage of internalized knowledge of the properties of words. Lexical access refers to the retrieval of words from the mental lexicon, and this includes both word recognition as well as production processes.
This course provides an introduction to how lexical memory works, how words are organized and how their semantic and formal knowledge is represented. The main focus will be on orthographic, phonological, and semantic aspects of words.
In addition, we will discuss challenges posed by multiple languages memorized by a language user (the “bilingual/ multilingual mental lexicon”). Students will learn about various empirical techniques, which are used to investigate the organizational structure of the mental lexicon, ranging from experimental psychology to functional imaging and computer modeling.
Models of speech recognition and production will be discussed. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with current issues and experimental approaches to the organization and function of the mental lexicon in first and second/foreign language users.