2009 The Development of Lexical Organization in Ch

57ArizonaWorkingPapersinSLA&Teaching,16,57-73(2009)(1994),“ourmentalstoreofwordsandbasicinformationaboutthemiscalledthementallexicon”(p.950).Asanimportantdimensionoflexicalcompetence(e.g.,Jiang,2004;Meara,1996;Qian,2004),L2lexicalorganizationreferstothestorage,connection,andrepresentationofwordsinthelearner’sbrain.MostpreviousstudiesofL2vocabularyacquisitionhavefocusedonthedevelopmentofvocabularysizeordepthofvocabularyknowledge(e.g.,Laufer,1991,1998;Laufer&Paribakht,1998;Read,1993,2000;Schmitt&Meara,1997;Wesche&Paribakht,1996),andlittleresearcheffortshavebeenmadetoinvestigatethedevelopmentofL2lexicalorganization(butseeFinkbeiner,2002;Wang,2007).Asanattempttobridgethegap,thepresentstudyinvestigatesthedevelopmentalfeaturesoflexicalorganizationonthepartofEnglishmajorsinChina.Oneoftheresearchparadigmsthatexploreslexicalorganizationmostdirectlyinvolvestheuseofwordassociations.Freewordassociationexperiments,inwhichsubjectsarerequiredtogivethewordsthatcometomindwhenpresentedwithastimulusword,havebeenusedinbothpsychologicalandlinguisticstudies(Schmitt,1998).Theunderlyingassumptionisthatautomaticresponseswillconsistofwordsthathavethestrongestconnectionswiththestimuluswordinthementallexicon.Byanalyzingassociations,wecangaincluesaboutthementalrelationshipsbetweenwordsandthusthelexicalorganization.Associationscanbeanalyzedaccordingtowhatcategorytheybelongto.Threeofthemostimportantcategoriesareclangassociations,syntagmaticassociations,andparadigmaticassociations.Inclangassociations,theresponseissimilarinformorsoundtothestimulusword,butisnotrelatedsemantically(e.g.STOVE-solvei).DevelopmentofLexicalOrganization...ArizonaWorkingPapersinSLAT-Vol.1658Responsesthathaveasequentialrelationshiptothestimuluswordarecalledsyntagmatic,andusually,butnotalways,havedifferentwordclasses(e.g.BABY-lovely).Responsesofthesamewordclassasthestimuluswordarelabeledasparadigmatic(e.g.FOOT-hand).ThewordassociationstudiesonL1adultsshowthattheirassociationsmainlyfallintotheparadigmaticandsyntagmaticcategorieswhileclangassociationsarerare.AstothedifferenceinresponsetypesbetweenL1adultsandchildren,thefindingsarethatchildrentendtogivemoreclangassociationsthanadults(e.g.,Carter,1998;Namei,2004;Schmitt,2000).Asclangassociationsdecrease,syntagmaticresponsesincrease.Thiscanbecomparedtoadults’associations,whicharemoreparadigmatic.Studiesalsoindicatethatthesyntagmatic–paradigmaticshiftoccursbetweentheagesoffiveandtenasalearner’slanguagematures,andchildrenproduceproportionallyfewersyntagmaticresponsesandproportionallymoreparadigmaticones(Namei,2004).EarlyL2wordassociationstudiesfocusoncomparingthestructureofL2mentallexiconswiththoseofL1.ThebodyoffrequentlyquoteddatainsupportofthephonologicalviewofL2lexicalorganizationwastheresultofwordassociationtestsintheBirkbeckVocabularyProject,directedbyMeara(Carter,1998;Channell,1988;Gass&Selinker,1994;Harley,1995).MearadetectedseveraltraitsofL2associations.First,L2learners’associationsareunstableandmuchlessregular.Second,L2learnerstendtoproducemoreclangorsyntagmaticresponses,whereasL1adultstendtowardparadigmaticresponses.Third,L2subjectsfrequentlymisperceivethestimuluswords,leadingtototallyunclassifiableassociations.MearaconsideredthattheabovetraitsrevealedthattheL2lexicalorganizationisquitedifferentfromthatofthenativespeaker.Meara’sinterpretationofhisdataandconclusionofthephonologicalnatureofL2lexicalorganizationhavebeenchallengedbySingletonandhisTrinityCollegeDublinModernLanguagesResearchProject.AccordingtoSingleton(1999),Meara’sresultswerenotwhollyfoundedontheuseofverycommonwordsasstimuli,andsomeoftheitemsarelowfrequencyones.GiventhatMeara’ssubjectshadrelativelymodestknowledgeoftheL2,itseemslikelythatthesubjects’responsestothestimulireflectasimplestateofignoranceratherthananL2lexicalorganizationqualitativelydifferentfromthatoftheL1.Anotherpossibilityisthatinsomeinstancestheitemspresentedmightsimplyhavebeenmisidentifiedasotherwords,whichwasacknowledgedbyMearahimself.AstudybyO’Gorman(1996)shedfurtherlightonthisissue.HerdatawerecollectedfromL2wordassociationtestof22CantonesespeakerswhoseEnglishwasjudgedtobeattheintermediateproficiencylevel.Theresultsshowthatmostresponseshaveclearse