1. Words in the mind From the book:
Aitchison, JeaN (1987). An introduction to the mental lexicon
Publisher: Oxford, UK ; Blackwell, New York, NY, USA
**LEZIONE 1**
Inizio lezione sul lessico verbale 04/04/2014

2. Main aims How do humans manage to store so many words?
How do they find the ones they want?
What is the nature of human MENTAL LEXICON?

3. FAST and EFFICIENT word-searching ability:
KEY: ORGANIZATION
Number of words known by an educated adult: between and
In speech, around 6 syllables per sec are produced
½ sec needed to detect a non-word or find a real word
FAST and EFFICIENT word-searching ability:
The large number of words known and the speed with which they can be located point to the existence of a highly organized mental lexicon

4. Our mental dictionary Not alphabetical Fluid Flexible Ever-growing
Detailed (lots of information stored in each entry)
Interconnected

5. Clues to the mental lexicon organization
Word-finding efforts
“slip of the tongue”
“tip of the tongue”
normal speakers
people with speech disorders

6. How can we define the meanings of words? The fixed-fuzzy issue
The fixed meaning assumption
The fuzzy meaning assumption
Words meaning is:
Basic
Fixed
Firm
Fuzzy
Slippery
Ever-changing
**LEZIONE 2**
lezione del 05/04/2014
For the MENTAL LEXICON:
the answer will affect our view of HOW people represent meanings in their minds

7. The fixed meaning assumption
Words meaning can be identified by defining a set of core criteria
The ‘check-list’ theory: for each word we have an internal list of essential characteristics
IF something has these characteristics, we label it with the corresponding word
Aristotle school: words have a hard core of ESSENTIAL MEANING, surrounded by other characteristics which are not essential (can be omitted)
(ex: the ‘that’s impossible’ test, bachelor)

8. The fixed meaning assumption: problems
How can we choose the criteria?
Which attributes go on to the check list?
Not every word can be easily defined:
 Not obvious way to draw a dividing line between ESSENTIAL and NON-ESSENTIAL characteristics

9. The fuzzy meaning assumption
Word meanings are inevitably fluid, for 2 reasons:
Fuzzy edges  there is no clear edge where one word ends and another begins. Ex: vase-cup-bowl
Family resemblances  a group of words can share some characteristics, but not all of them at the same time.
Ex: GAMES: ring-a-rose/chess/tennis

10. Prototype theories How humans cope with this fuzziness?
Does everyone operate the same way with meanings?
How do we organize meanings?
Humans tend to find some INSTANCES of a word more central/basic than others
We have in mind a prototype with specific characteristics
we label things IF they have a REASONABLE amount of those characteristics (≠ check list)

11. Some examples: Eleanor Rosch’s experiments
Birds: canary – peacock – penguin
Colours: red – orange red – purple red
Experiments shown very consistent results, we use categories when we have to label a concept
Tipicality rating
Category verification

12. Conclusions
When people categorize objects, they bear in mind an IDEAL EXEMPLAR  A PROTOTYPE
MATCHING is the process used to decide whether something is a member of that category
NOT every characteristic has to match, it has to be sufficiently similar to the prototype

13. Conclusions Prototypes help us coping with:
UNTYPICAL EXAMPLES We still recognize penguins as birds
DAMAGED EXAMPLES We still recognize a three legged tiger as a quadruped
Prototype theory is a good way to interpret how humans deal with LARGE CATEGORIES

14. Some problems with prototypes
A general problem:
Interference between IDENTIFICATION CRITERIA and STORED KNOWLEDGE
They often are the same or largely overlap, but sometimes not: the second influences our judgment
Inevitable link PERCEPTION-CONCEPTION
(ex: the story of the farmer: bull vs. cow)

15. 1. The diversity of the characteristics
The properties of a prototype are heterogeneous
result: prototypes differ one another in type!
ANIMALS vs. COLOURS
A prototypical BIRD is defined by some TYPICALITY CONDITIONS:
Has feathers, wings, beak
It flies
It lays eggs
It makes a nest
A prototypical RED is defined by some CENTRALITY CONDITIONS:
It occupies a central place within a range of red shades

16. 2. The difficulty of arranging them in order of priority
In which order can we list the necessary conditions which define a prototype?
How do we choose which one is more crucial than another?
Ex: BIRD
Has feathers
Has wings  bats have wings, they are not birds!
It flies  ducks and penguins don’t fly!
It makes a nest  other animals too

17. 3. The problem of knowing where to stop
We cannot put on to the list everything we know about an object/concept/etc. (i.e. our ENCYCLOPAEDIC KNOWLEDGE)
Sometimes it’s difficult to separate out the meaning of a word from the FRAME where it occurs
Ex: define the word zebra  someone will activate a whole zoo frame, others won’t.
Fine lezione 05/04/2014
In conclusion:
words cannot be dealt with in isolation,
they are stored in relation to one another

18. WORDS INTERACTION The “cobweb” viewpoint
Words cannot be treated as separate items. They are interdependent and we understand them as interdependent items: red  orange  yellow Hot  warm  cold
Two broad viewpoints
The “atomic globule” viewpoint
The “cobweb” viewpoint
How does the mind cope with these relationships?
**LEZIONE 3**

19. How does the mind cope with these relationships? Two broad viewpoints
Words are globules, made of “meaning atoms”
Related words have atoms in common
Words are considered as related because of the links that the speakers build between them

20. 1. The “atomic globule” viewpoint
There is a universal SET of basic atoms of meaning:
SEMANTIC PRIMITIVES
Innate part of human mind
Organized differently in different languages
Biologically given notions
(different segmentation of the semantic space)

21. 1. The “atomic globule” viewpoint
How can we define the basic atoms?
Is there a definitive list?
Do they suffice to describe every meaning?
Schank (1972) on Verbs:
MOVE, INGEST, CONC, MTRANS, ATRANS…
Es:
breathe, dink, eat INGEST
Buy, give, steal  ATRANS
Miller&Johnson-Laird (1976) on Objects:
Linking primitives to perception.
PLACE, SIZE, HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, BOTTOM, TOP…
! Not everything is PERCEIVABLE !
Es: to promise, to disagree

22. 2. The “cobweb” viewpoint
Words are linked together in a gigantic multi-dimensional cobweb NETWORK THEORIES: A network is an interconnected system, made of nodes and links.
Collins&Quillian model
“Retrieval time from semantic memory» (1969)

23. HOW DO THESE INTERCONNECTIONS WORK?
Linguistic habits: pen +pencil, moon + stars. Strong ties, easily revealed by free association tests.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF ASSOCIATIONS!
Co-ordination
Collocation
Super-ordination
Synonymy

24. HOW DO THESE INTERCONNECTIONS WORK? 1. Linguistic habits
CO-ORDINATION seems to be the strongest link.
Hypothesis confirmed by:
The most common slips of the tongue: left-right/today-tomorrow
Difficulties in distinguishing co-ordinate items in aphasic subjects:
lemon-orange vs. lemon-boot experiments
Recognition tasks experiments (squeezing a ball)
Some CO-ORDINATES are so strongly linked that
brain-damaged people tend to confuse them in production/comprehension, but, at the same time, their link is recognized faster then others

25. HOW DO THESE INTERCONNECTIONS WORK? 2. Learning from children
Finding out how babies build up a store of words = Additional clues as to how interconnections are created. 3 essential steps
1st step LABELLING: Symbolization, a string of sounds is used to name something
2nd step PACKAGING: what can be packed together under the same label?
3rd step NETWORK BUILDING: how do I link words one another?

26. LABELLING Some clarifications:
To symbolize = to realize that a particular combination of sounds means od symbolize a certain object.
It emerges around the ages of 1 and 2
Before: Babbling is an muscle exercise. At this stage, infants have not attach yet the actual meaning to the word. They are still experimenting, making noises.

27. PACKAGING Children package meanings in a different way Under-extension
They do not necessarily focus on the same characteristics/priorities
Under-extension
They assume a word refers to a NARROWER range of things
Ex: white page/ white snow
(Leopold)
Over-extension
They assume a word refers to a LARGER range of things
Ex: quack=duck, cup of milk, eagle on a coin
(Vygotsky)

28. NETWORK BUILDING
A six year old child has a passive vocabulary of about words  they need to be put together into a semantic network
Network building is a slow process: children tend to link a word only with the specific context where they learned it
Children use COLLOCATION principles more than CO-ORDINATION principles in free association:
***Fine LEZIONE 3***
Children associations
Adults associations
TABLE - eat
TABLE - chair
DARK - night
DARK - light
SEND - letter
SEND - receive

29. Word production & Word recognition
From the meaning to the sounds
Recognition
From the sounds to the meaning
Language information processing:
Semantic  syntactic  phonological info
Production & Recognition = mirror images of one another
***lezione 4***

30. Words production: Hypothesis & Theories
1st process: DECISION MAKING! Underneath process, even when we are not conscious.  blends: an evidence that alternative words are often considered during speech
Blends examples
Buggage  baggage + luggage
Tummach tummy + stomach
Evious evident + obvious
Aphasic speech:
“I forget (don’t remember) seeing you, sir. I remember the other document (doctor + gentlemen) and was plazed (pleased + glad) to see the other document.”
(Butterworth, 1979)

31. Words production: Hypothesis & Theories
Blends suggestion: we activate a number of words in the area of the required word and then suppress the words we don’t want.
Spreading/Interactive activation principle:
The initial input activates words spreading along the connections
Relevant links get more and more activated
Unwanted links tend to fade away
connectionist models of language perception/
production

32. So, how do we understand these sounds?
Words recognition
Basic problems in normal speech:
Sounds are altered by their neighbours
Sound segments cannot be separated, they tend to merge
Noises cover the sounds.
So, how do we understand these sounds?
Guessing
Matching the portion heard with their mental lexicon
Choosing the best fit
Filling in gaps

33. Words recognition The role of context in detecting sounds:
Paint the fence and the ?ate  GATE
Check the calendar and the ?ate  DATE
Ho freddo, chiudi la ?orta.
L’ho fatta ieri, assaggia la ?orta.

34. Words recognition Summing up the process:
To split up the stream of sounds into words
To identify the words
SOUNDS  PHONEMES
PHONEMES  MORPHEMES
 Then fitted to words
Words frequency: common words are recognized faster. Why?  Network theory preferential attachment.
The role of context: same as guessing for phonemes

35. An example of connectionist model. TRACE (McClelland & Elman, 1986)
Connectionist model of spoken word recognition/production
INTERACTIVE ACTIVATION
among processing units
unit = GUESSING about the input
Three levels organization:
Feature/input
Phoneme
Words
Three types of connectivity:
Bottom-up
Lateral (i.e., within-layer)
Top-down