ENGL 386
Fall 2015/2016
KAU/ Rabigh
Girls section
2.1 Introduction
OAD= Oxford American Dictionary
2.2 Why not check the dictionary? Pages 13-15
2.2.1 Which dictionary?
a- Can we find all the spoken words in dictionaries? Why?
b- Who determine the size and the audience of any dictionary?
c- Who is called [lexicographer]?
2.2.2 Nonces, mistakes and mountweazels.
a- Nonce: They've been found just once in the dictionary. E.g."agreemony" in OED.
b- Mistake: e.g. "ambassady" should be "ambassade" OED
c- Mountweazel: A phony word. Why? To identify lexicographer piracy.
2.2.3 The problem of complex words.
a- Do dictionaries include every single spoken word in a language? Why?
b- Can we rely on dictionaries to know if the word is a word? Why?
2.3 The mental lexicon. Pages 15-21
a- What is mental lexicon? A sort of internalized dictionary that contains an enormous
number of words that we can produce, or at least understand when we hear them.
In another word: The sum total of everything an individual speaker knows about the words
of her language.
b- How our mental lexicons work?
c- Do we have the same mental lexicon?
2.3.1 How many words do we speak?
a- The average of 6 years old is 10,000 words
b- The average of high school graduate is 60,000 words
c- So how many words do we learn every day?
d- exc. Write in your note pad 20 verbs in English with their meanings.
2.3.2 The acquisition of lexical knowledge.
Ms. Rasha Ali
Chapter two
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ENGL 386
Fall 2015/2016
KAU/ Rabigh
Girls section
a- exc. How do you learn new words?
b- Words' learning strategies:
Fast Mapping
Lexical Contrast Principle
Whole Object Principle
Mutual Exclusivity Principle
2.3.3. Storage vs. Rules
a- Is our mental lexicon organized like dictionaries? Prove it.
b- What is "words and rules" theory?
c- How do English speakers know the pronunciation of irregular past?
2.3.4. Evidence from aphasia.
a- What's an aphasia? People whose language faculty has been impaired due to stroke or
other brain trauma.
b- What does aphasics study show?
c- Agrammatism: To have difficulties in producing or processing function words in sentences,
but can still produce and understand content words.
d- Jargon aphasia: the opposite of agrammatism.
e- The differences between them:
Agrammatism
Morphological rules
Regular forms
Irregular forms
Jargon
Irregular
Stored forms
Regular, still intact
2.3.5. Evidence from imaging studies. Read from book
2.3.6. Evidence from genetic disorders
Two different genetic disorders follow similar conclusion as the previous cases.
Specific language impairment [SLI]
Regular 
Irregular 
Williams Syndrome
Regular 
Irregular 
2.3.7. Reprise: is it really a word? Read from book.
Ms. Rasha Ali
Chapter two
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ENGL 386
Fall 2015/2016
KAU/ Rabigh
Girls section
2.4. More about dictionaries. Pages 22-29, read from book.
exc. Let's say that your teacher asked you to create a" dictionary" what are the steps that
you'll follow? Do you think you may face some difficulties during this process? Explain.
2.4.1. Early dictionaries
a- 16th century
explaining hard words
b- 18th century
everyday words
2.4.2. Johnson's dictionary.
a- When it was published?
b- How many entries there, and how many years to publish it?
c- What did he include, and what did he left out?
2.4.3. Webster's dictionary.
a- The 1st American dictionary. When it was published?
b- What is the agenda in this dictionary?
c- Spelling differences.
2.4.4. The Oxford English Dictionary.
a- How OED was published? Who publish it? Who edit it?
b- What is it included?
c- 1st edition / 2nd edition
Ms. Rasha Ali
Chapter two
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