Exploring the adaptive structure of the mental lexicon
The mental lexicon is a complex structure organised in terms of phonology, semantics and syntax, among other levels. In this thesis I propose that this structure can be explained in terms of the pressures acting on it: every aspects of the organisational of the lexicon is an adaptation ultimately related to the function of language as a tool for human communication, or to the fact that language has to be learned by subsequent generations of people. A collection of methods, most of which are applied to a Spanish speech corpus, reveal structure at different levels of the lexicon. The patterns of intra-word distribution of phonological information may be a consequence of pressure for optimal representation of the lexicon in the brain, and of the pressure to facilitate speech segmentation. An analysis of perceived phonological similarity between words shows that the sharing of different aspects of phonological similarity is related to different functions. Phonological similarity perception sometimes relates to morphology (the stressed final vowel determines verb tense and person) and at other times shows processing biases (similarity in the word initial and final segments is more readily perceived than in word-internal
Tamariz-Martel MireÌlis, MoÌnica
Exploring the adaptive structure of the mental lexicon. The mental lexicon is a complex structure organised in terms of phonology, semantics and syntax, among other levels. In this thesis I propose that this structure can be explained in terms of the pressures acting on it: every aspects of the organisational of the lexicon is an adaptation ultimately related to the function of language as a tool for human communication, or to the fact that language has to be learned by subsequent generations of people. A collection of methods, most of which are applied to a Spanish speech corpus, reveal structure at different levels of the lexicon. The patterns of intra-word distribution of phonological information may be a consequence of pressure for optimal representation of the lexicon in the brain, and of the pressure to facilitate speech segmentation. An analysis of perceived phonological similarity between words shows that the sharing of different aspects of phonological similarity is related to different functions. Phonological similarity perception sometimes relates to morphology (the stressed final vowel determines verb tense and person) and at other times shows processing biases (similarity in the word initial and final segments is more readily perceived than in word-internal
exploring adaptive structure mental_lexicon mental_lexicon complex structure organise term phonology semantics_syntax among level propose structure explain_term pressure act every_aspect organisational lexicon adaptation ultimately related function_language tool human_communication fact language_learn subsequent generation people collection method_apply spanish speech corpus reveal structure different_level lexicon pattern intra word distribution phonological information may consequence pressure optimal representation lexicon brain pressure facilitate speech segmentation analysis perceive phonological_similarity word show share different_aspect phonological_similarity relate_different function phonological_similarity perception sometimes relate morphology stressed final vowel determines verb tense person time show processing bias similarity word_initial final segment readily perceive word internal