Word class influence on word association test results¹

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the influence of word class on word association test results in both the L1 and L2. The data clearly suggest that word class type affects test results: nouns elicit a higher proportion of paradigmatic responses than verbs and adjectives. The influence of word class on test results is discussed in terms of the acquisition and semantic organisation of nouns, verbs and adjectives. However, results also show a surprising majority of syntagmatic responses in the L1 test. These results lead to a critical discussion of the concept of the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, which in the light of the test results in this study is seriously challenged. Theoretical and pedagogical implications for lexical network structure are discussed.Keywords: mental lexicon, word association test, word class influence, syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, EFL teaching Målet med denne artikel er at undersøge ordklassers betydning for testresultater i ordassociationstests på L1 og L2. Data viser tydeligt, at ordklasse i høj grad påvirker testresultaterne: substantiver resulterer i en større andel paradigmatiske respons end verber og adjektiver. Ordklassernes påvirkning af testresultater diskuteres i forhold til ordtilegnelse, samt måden substantiver, verber og adjektiver er organiseret semantisk i det mentale leksikon. Resultaterne viser en uventet overvaegt af syntagmatiske respons i L1-testen. Dette leder til en kritisk diskussion af begrebet det syntagmatiskparadigmatiske skift, som bliver afgørende udfordret af testresultaterne i denne undersøgelse. Teoretiske og paedagogiske konsekvenser af det leksikalske netvaerks struktur diskuteres.Nøgleord: det mentale leksikon, ordassociationstests, ordklassepåvirkning, det syntagmatisk-paradigmatiske skift, fremmedsprogsundervisning Word association studies and the mental lexiconThe syntagmatic-paradigmatic shiftIn research on L2 vocabulary, the word association test has been explored as an elicitation tool in the belief that word associations reflect fundamental characteristics of the relations between words in the mental lexicon. L2 test 390 w Henriette Bagger Nissen and Birgit Henriksen The influence of word classAs well as the degree of knowledge of the individual word, the word class of the prompt word in association tests appears to be of major importance in terms of associative behaviour. In his study of word associations by English Word class influence on word association test results w 391

Word Association in L1 and L2

“…The results found in the present study contradict this assumption because more associated responses that co-occur in the natural language were found in the L1 than in the L2. A recent study by Nissen and Henriksen ( 2006 ) also found "a surprising majority of syntagmatic responses in the L1 test" (p. 389). When looking at those words that not only co-occur in the language but also have a meaning relation (meaning and collocation), the difference between the L1 and L2 was not signifi cant.…”

“…For example, cognates, or words similar in meaning and form across languages, are processed more effi ciently by bilingual speakers (Jared & Kroll, 2001 ). Findings from a number of word association studies have indicated that word class can affect response behavior (e.g., Deese, 1962 ;Nissen & Henriksen, 2006 ;Sökmen, 1993 ). Other factors that affect lexical processing include the frequency of the words, the age at which they are acquired, their degree of concreteness, their length, and their syntactic category (Morrison & Ellis, 2000 ;Zevin & Seidenberg, 2002, 2004.…”

Assessing L2 vocabulary depth with word associates format tests: issues, findings, and suggestions

“…* Nienhus (2001) andVerhallen (2008), while both including words of different form classes as mentioned earlier, did not attempt to separately analyze them and make any comparison, either. Using a free association task (as opposed to a WAF test), Nissen and Henriksen (2006) found word class tended to moderate the distribution of associates belonging to different types of association relationships among Danish-speaking learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The authors suggested that words of different form classes may be organized differently in learners' mental lexicon.…”

“…The free association paradigm has also been commonly used in the L2 literature to probe into the mental organization of words and the development of that organization in L2 learners (e.g., Fitzpatrick 2013; *Henriksen 2008;Jiang 2002;Nissen and Henriksen 2006;Wolter 2001;Zareva 2007). From the perspective of assessing vocabulary depth, however, the free association paradigm has some notable limitations.…”

Lexical Chunks Formulaic Sequences and Yukuai: Study of Terms and Definitions of English Multiword Units

“…On the other hand, it emphasizes the spreading and activation of concepts, claiming that the spreading and activation of the nodes depend on how close lexical semantics are associated with each other. To unfold the organization of mental lexicon, researchers, based on this model, used trichotomy to classify the ways lexical semantics are connected.There are three typical patterns, namely phonetics-syntagmatic-paradigmatic (Wolter, 2001;Namei, 2004;Nissen & Henriksen, 2006);phonetic-semantic-syntax (McNeil, 1966;Zareva, 2005); form-based reaction-meaning-based reaction-location-based reaction (Fitzpatrick, 2006).…”