Specific-word frequency is not all that counts in speech production: comments on Caramazza, Costa, et al. (2001) and new experimental data.
A. Caramazza, A. Costa, M. Miozzo, and Y. Bi (2001) reported a series of experiments demonstrating that the ease of producing a word depends only on the frequency of that specific word but not on the frequency of a homophone twin. A. Caramazza, A. Costa, et al. concluded that homophones have separate word form presentations and that the absence of frequency-inheritance effects for homophones undermines an important argument in support of 2-stage models of lexical access, which assume that syntactic (lemma) representations mediate between conceptual and phonological representations. The authors of this article evaluate the empirical basis of this conclusion, report 2 experiments demonstrating a frequency-inheritance effect, and discuss other recent evidence. It is concluded that homophones share a common word form and that the distinction between lemmas and word forms should be upheld.
Jescheniak
Jörg D
JD
Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Leipzig, Germany. jeschen@cns.mpg.de
Meyer
Antje S
AS
Levelt
Willem J M
WJ
D006801:Humans; D010507:Periodicity; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013060:Speech; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014825:Vocabulary