SEMANTIC SUBSTITUTIONS IN NORMAL SPEECH: A PROBABILISTIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ERRORS

SEMANTIC SUBSTITUTIONS IN NORMAL SPEECH: A PROBABILISTIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ERRORS

Author:  S.I. Gorokhova

Affiliation:  Saint Petersburg State University

Abstract:  The author analyzes semantic substitution errors (slips of the tongue) for word frequency, age of acquisition, word length, target-error co-occurrence strength, and word association norms. 
For non-antonym substitutions, target word frequencies appear to be significantly lower than error word frequencies and the age of acquisition of target words is older than that of error words; besides, there is a very significant positive correlation between target and error frequency values. 
Contrary to the view that the frequency effect is located at the stage of morphophonological encoding, the results suggest that frequency is also coded at the semantic lemma level. Word length is another significant variable that determines the outcome of the error for non-cohyponym and non-antonym target-error pairs. At the same time, cohyponym and antonym target-error pairs are characterized by much higher co-occurrence measures and stronger associative links compared to other substitution types. 
The author discusses theoretical implications of these findings.

Keywords:  speech errors, semantic relatedness, word frequency, age of acquisition, word length, cohyponyms, antonyms

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Pages:  110-121