The Mental Lexicon

Abstract or Introduction

Linguistics is the scientific study of the nature, variation, and structure of language, including the subfields of morphology, syntax, semantics, phonology, lexicology, and pragmatics. The mental lexicon is the language user’s mental dictionary, his knowledge about words and morphemes. Therefore, the mental lexicon is an area of research within the field of lexicology, since lexicology is the study of words, their history and their meaning. Not much is proven about how words are stored and organized in the brain, or how they are accessed, neither in speech production nor in speech perception. However, after having conducted linguistic experiments and having analyzed speech errors, linguists have set up several metaphors and models which can represent the possible structures and processes in the mental lexicon. These metaphors and their genesis will be presented and explained in this essay. Furthermore, although being an area of research within the field of lexicology, it will be shown that the mental lexicon is nevertheless intertwined with all the other subcategories of linguistics.