The advanced foreign learner's mental lexicon

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This study is the first psycholinguistic examination focusing on word combinations rather than single lexemes. The author develops a theoretical concept of collocation that appeals to both theoretical linguists and foreign language teachers. By analyzing verb-noun collocations commonly found in newspapers, such as "to launder money" and "to plant a bomb," the author investigates the mental lexicon of advanced English learners. Over two years, experiments were conducted to explore how these collocations are stored, networked, and retrieved from students' mental lexicons. Various mnemonic strategies were developed and tested, revealing which strategies enhance efficient collocation storage and retrieval. The findings contribute to a language production model grounded in connectionism. The study culminates in a blueprint for a collocation dictionary on DVD, informed by psycholinguistic data. This interdisciplinary approach will interest applied linguists, psycholinguists, foreign language teachers, lexicographers, and lexicologists. Ultimately, it offers valuable insights into the mental processes involved in producing linguistic utterances.