Lemma (psycholinguistics)
Encyclopedia
In psycholinguistics
, a lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata) is an abstract conceptual form of a word that has been mentally selected for utterance in the early stages of speech production. A lemma represents a specific meaning
but does not have any specific sounds are attached to it.
When we produce a word, we are essentially turning our thoughts into sounds, a process known as lexicalisation
. In many psycholinguistic models this is considered to be at least a two-stage process. The first stage deals with semantics
and syntactics
; the result of the first stage is an abstract notion of a word that represents a meaning and contains information about how the word can be used in a sentence. It does not, however, contain information about how the word is pronounced. The second stage deals with the phonology
of the word; it attaches information about the sounds that will have to be uttered. The result of the first stage is the lemma in this model; the result of the second stage is referred to as the lexeme.
This two-staged model is the most widely supported theory of speech production in psycholinguistics, although it has been recently challenged. For example, there is some evidence to indicate that the grammatical gender
of a noun is retrieved from the word's phonological form (the lexeme) rather than from the lemma. This is easily explained by Caramazza's Independent Network model, which does not assume a distinct level between the semantic and the phonological stages (so there is no lemma representation); in this model, syntactic information about the word in this model is activated in the semantic or phonological level (so gender would be activated in the latter).
The concept of lemma is similar to the Sanskrit
sphota (6th c.), an invariant mental word, of which the sound is a feature.
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
, a lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata) is an abstract conceptual form of a word that has been mentally selected for utterance in the early stages of speech production. A lemma represents a specific meaning
Meaning (linguistics)
In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same...
but does not have any specific sounds are attached to it.
When we produce a word, we are essentially turning our thoughts into sounds, a process known as lexicalisation
Lexicalisation
In psycholinguistics lexicalisation is the process of going from meaning to sound in speech production.The most widely accepted model, speech production, in which an underlying concept is converted into a word, is at least a two-stage process...
. In many psycholinguistic models this is considered to be at least a two-stage process. The first stage deals with semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
and syntactics
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
; the result of the first stage is an abstract notion of a word that represents a meaning and contains information about how the word can be used in a sentence. It does not, however, contain information about how the word is pronounced. The second stage deals with the phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of the word; it attaches information about the sounds that will have to be uttered. The result of the first stage is the lemma in this model; the result of the second stage is referred to as the lexeme.
This two-staged model is the most widely supported theory of speech production in psycholinguistics, although it has been recently challenged. For example, there is some evidence to indicate that the grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
of a noun is retrieved from the word's phonological form (the lexeme) rather than from the lemma. This is easily explained by Caramazza's Independent Network model, which does not assume a distinct level between the semantic and the phonological stages (so there is no lemma representation); in this model, syntactic information about the word in this model is activated in the semantic or phonological level (so gender would be activated in the latter).
The concept of lemma is similar to the Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
sphota (6th c.), an invariant mental word, of which the sound is a feature.