Mental Lexicon/Learning Exercise A/Answers

A1
A1. Lexical entries in a printed dictionary are organized alphabetically (by orthography/form), and contain within them a word’s part of speech (syntax and morphology), its synonyms and different contexts in which it is used (semantics), its orthography and its phonology (form).

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A2
A2. Here, only a word’s orthography creates a separate node or lexical entry. Also, the idea that the rest of the words’ properties are stored within a lexical entry seems similar to Forster’s Autonomous Search Model (see Lexical Access for more information).

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A3
A3. Here are some example answers: -	Alphabetical order does not determine how long it takes to produce (or respond) to a word. -	Humans often mispronounce and misspell words and even use words incorrectly. -	Studies have shown faster recognition for words that share semantic and morphological properties (within dictionary entries) than for words that simply have similar orthographies (between dictionary entries).

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A4
A4. Thesaurus. Thesauruses focus solely on the similarities in the meanings of words. In what ways do you think this analogy breaks down?

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A5
A5. Lexicon. A lexicon differs from a dictionary in that is elaborates more on the etymological roots of words, focusing more on their morphology.

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A6
A6. No. While these analogies may help with conceptualizing the lexical access patterns predicted by these models, the link to lexical organization is weak.

-Back to the Mental Lexicon

A7
A7. There is no “right” answer to this question per se. Rather, we are going to create a mock trial run of your model to test its hypotheses/predictions in Part B of the learning exercise. (For example answers, refer back to the models discussed).

-Back to the Mental Lexicon