Perception of typicality in the lexicon: wordlikeness, lexical density and morphonotactic constraints

A symbolic time-series is a typical word of a language (wordlikeness) and has effects in speech perception, production, reading proficiency, lexical development and access, short- and long-term verbal memory. Two measures account for them: serial phonotactic probabilities (the likelihood for a given symbolic sequence to appear in the lexicon) and lexical density. The measures are highly correlated and easy to be confounded. We propose a computational model of lexical organisation, based on Self-Organising Maps with Hebbian connections, providing a principled algorithmic account of effects of lexical acquisition, processing and access. (morpho)phonotactic probabilities and lexical density, though correlated in lexical organisation, can be taken to focus on different aspects of speakers’ word processing behaviour and provide independent cognitive contributions to our understanding of the principles of perception of typicality that govern lexical organisation.