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Word class influence on word association test results 1
Author(s) -
Nissen Henriette Bagger,
Henriksen Birgit
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/j.1473-4192.2006.00124.x
Subject(s) - syntagmatic analysis , noun , word association , test (biology) , word (group theory) , part of speech , linguistics , class (philosophy) , psychology , association (psychology) , computer science , artificial intelligence , paleontology , philosophy , psychotherapist , biology
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.