WORD-FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN SPEECH PRODUCTION - RETRIEVAL OF SYNTACTIC INFORMATION AND OF PHONOLOGICAL FORM

In 7 experiments the authors investigated the locus of word frequency effects in speech production. Experiment 1 demonstrated a frequency ef fect in picture naming that was robust over repetitions. Experiments 2 , 3, and 7 excluded contributions from object identification and initi ation of articulation. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated whether the ef fect arises in accessing the syntactic word (lemma) by using a grammat ical gender decision task. Although a frequency effect was found, it d issipated under repeated access to a word's gender. Experiment 6 teste d whether the robust frequency effect arises in accessing the phonolog ical form (lexeme) by having Ss translate words that produced homophon es. Low-frequent homophones behaved like high-frequent controls, inher iting the accessing speed of their high-frequent homophone twins. Beca use homophones share the lexeme, not the lemma, this suggests a lexeme -level origin of the robust effect.