Keywords

Mental Lexicon, Ancient Greek, Latin, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics

Abstract

The unique pedagogical circumstances and uses of non-spoken languages (such as Ancient Greek and Latin) offer other facets to current models of L2 mental lexicon, which, up until this point in academic dialogue, have focused on bilinguals, who produce their language. While empirical evidence from an array of studies (see Cielslicka-Ratajczak, 1994) favors an integrated system of interwoven phonological, semantic, and categorical information all working together to influence production and comprehension, the elements of L2 organization within the context of non-spoken ancient languages remains underexplored, yet may offer further evidence for the organization of mental L2 lexical. My current study examines the possibility for mental-lexicon organization with subjects, who are advanced students of non-spoken languages. Through timed word association tests, this study seeks to define the dominance of phonological, semantic, or categorical elements of their mental lexicon. The specification of whether the phonology, semantics, or syntactic category more considerably influences the organization of the L2 lexicon of a non-‐spoken language student, will both contribute to the academic discussion of the organization of the L2 mental lexicon as a whole, as well as enable the pedagogues of these ancient languages in organization of their material and presentation.