Are the Words in the Lexicon arranged in a pattern?

Abstract

Words are arranged in a specific pattern in the lexicon. The lexical arrangement is studied by employing a word association task. Each stimulus is known to elicit different kind of responses including taxonomic responses (which includes a response belonging to the same category), thematic (which includes a response common to the same theme as the target word). The lexical semantic organization would vary as a function of stimulus type, The study carried with the aim of exploring word association abilities for nouns and verbs in grade I, grade II and grade III children. Noun and verb pictures were used as stimulus and the task of the participant was to produce 5 responses to every target. The responses were categorized as taxonomic, thematic, opinion based and unrelated response types. The responses were also analyzed in terms of nouns and verbs. Grade III children produced more verbs as responses compared to grade II and grade I children. For verbs, children produced more of thematic responses compared to taxonomic responses. Unrelated and opinion based responses decreased with age for nouns as well as verbs. Taxonomic to thematic shift was seen for nouns