Article published In:
Methodological and Analytic Frontiers in Lexical Research (Part II)Edited by Gonia Jarema, Gary Libben and Chris Westbury
[The Mental Lexicon 6:1] 2011
► pp. 171–196
Edited by Gonia Jarema, Gary Libben and Chris Westbury
[The Mental Lexicon 6:1] 2011
► pp. 171–196
Formulaic sequences
Do they exist and do they matter?
There is a new and growing interest in psycholinguistics in the mental representation of (not necessarily phrasal) multi-word sequences and in how knowledge of these sequences relates to word, phrase, and sentence knowledge. In this paper we summarize the evidence for the existence of distinct mental representations for these types of sequences. Studies of sentence processing, contextual ambiguity resolution, speech production and compound word processing provide indirect evidence for frequency effects for multi-word sequences. Recent studies of adult reading behavior have looked more directly at the effects of holistic frequency on reading performance. We end by considering the relevance of multi-word sequences to existing cognitive models of language and speculating on how they may impact on future models.
Keywords: formulaic sequences, co-occurrence, lexical context, n-grams, syntax, frequency effects, methodology
Cited by
Cited by 10 other publications
CHANDLER, STEVE
2017. The analogical modeling of linguistic categories. Language and Cognition 9:1 ► pp. 52 ff. 
Cifci, Mehmet Akif, Duygu Celik Ertugrul & Atilla Elci
2016. 2016 IEEE 40th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), ► pp. 77 ff.
Gozdawa-Gołębiowski, Romuald
2013. Basic Dichotomies in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: A Case of Formulaic Language. In Investigations in Teaching and Learning Languages [Second Language Learning and Teaching, ], ► pp. 35 ff.
Kerz, Elma & Daniel Wiechmann
2019. Effects of Statistical Learning Ability on the Second Language Processing of Multiword Sequences. In Computational and Corpus-Based Phraseology [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 11755], ► pp. 200 ff.
Rainer, Franz, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Francesco Gardani & Hans Christian Luschützky
2014. Morphology and meaning: An overview. In Morphology and Meaning [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 327], ► pp. 3 ff.
Shaoul, Cyrus, R. Harald Baayen & Chris F. Westbury
Titone, Debra, Georgie Columbus, Veronica Whitford, Julie Mercier & Maya Libben
2015. Contrasting Bilingual and Monolingual Idiom Processing. In Bilingual Figurative Language Processing, ► pp. 171 ff.
WIECHMANN, DANIEL & ELMA KERZ
2016. Formulaicity as a determinant of processing efficiency: investigating clause ordering in complex sentences. English Language and Linguistics 20:3 ► pp. 421 ff.
Zang, Chuanli
2019. New Perspectives on Serialism and Parallelism in Oculomotor Control During Reading: The Multi-Constituent Unit Hypothesis. Vision 3:4 ► pp. 50 ff.
Zang, Chuanli, Zhichao Zhang, Manman Zhang, Federica Degno & Simon P. Liversedge
2023. Examining semantic parafoveal-on-foveal effects using a Stroop boundary paradigm. Journal of Memory and Language 128 ► pp. 104387 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.