The specific-word frequency effect: Implications for the representation ofhomophones in speech production

In a series. of experiments, the authors investigated whether naming latenc ies for homophones (e.g., /n Lambdan/) are a function of specific-word freq uency (i.e., the frequency of nun) or a function of cumulative-homophone fr equency (i.e., the sum of the frequencies of nun and none). Specific-word b ut not cumulative-homophone frequency affected picture-naming latencies. Th is result was obtained in 2 languages (English and Chinese). An analogous f inding was obtained in a translation task, where bilingual speakers produce d the English names of visually presented Spanish words. Control experiment s ruled out that these results are an artifact of orthographic or articulat ory factors, or of visual recognition. The results argue against the hypoth esis that homophones share a common word-form representation, and support i nstead a model in which homophones have fully independent representations.